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    The Wind in the Willows
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    The Wind in the Willows
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    The Wind in the Willows
    Audiobook7 hours

    The Wind in the Willows

    Written by Kenneth Grahame

    Narrated by Andrew Wincott

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    For more than a century, The Wind in the Willows and its endearing protagonists have enchanted children of all ages. Whether the four friends are setting forth on an exciting adventure, engaging in a comic caper, or simply relaxing by the River Thames, their stories are among the most charming in all English literature. Alternately slow-moving and fast-paced, the novel is notable for its mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie and is celebrated for its evocation of the pastoral nature of the Thames valley.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateApr 25, 2017
    ISBN9781520068602
    Author

    Kenneth Grahame

    Kenneth Grahame was born in Edinburgh in 1859. He was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford, but family circumstances prevented him from entering Oxford University. He joined the Bank of England as a gentleman clerk in 1879, rising to become the Bank's Secretary in 1898. He wrote a series of short stories, married Elspeth Thomson in 1899 and their only child, Alistair, was born a year later. He left the Bank in 1908, the year that The Wind in the Willows was published. Though not an immediate success, by the time of Grahame's death in 1932 it was recognised as a children's classic.

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    Reviews for The Wind in the Willows

    4/5

    3,135 ratings133 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I managed to avoid somehow or other reading the complete Wind in the Willows until I was well into adulthood. Of course, it is probably impossible to escape bits of it such as Ratty's wise words...'Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing...."But I found myself reading the full version around the 100 year anniversary of its original publication in 1908. And, despite myself. Quite enjoyed it. There is a bit of the class struggle reflected in it with Toad representing the worst of inherited wealth and privilige and ratty the best blend of smarts and good-heartedness. But really, I didn't buy this book for the story and I already have 3 other copies of the W/W. I bought for the wonderful illustrations by Robert Ingpen. He really is a favourite illustrator of mine. And, as is pointed out in the preface, it is no mean challenge to illustrate a book where everyone has their own mental pictures of Toa's caravan, or of the wild wood, or ratty and Mole's boating expedition etc. But, to my mind, the Ingpen version is simply one of the best, His style is semi realist.....realist enough for one to enjoy the warmth of Badger's fire and the food hanging from the ceiling of his abode. (p 60-61). It doesn't do to be too critical however; Badger's kitchen is true to the text with the glow and the warmth of the fire-lit kitchen whereas a REAK Badger's lair would be pitch black and maybe damp and certainly smelly. There is so much fun detail in Inpen's paintings. (I assume they are watercolour) but not quite sure. And they fade into a blurriness that hints at more details but just not enough to resolve. His draftsmanship is superb and he manages to faithfully portray the various animals whilst bestowing a pleasing familiarity upon them. I don't know how many illustrations there are in the book but did a quick sample count and it averages out at 7.5 illustrations per 10 pages. That is a wealth of illustration and fit makes the book a delight to read to children. Some of my favourite illustrations are of mole in the wild wood with the rabbit p 50; Badger leading Rat and Mole through underground passageways p76; Rat and Mole in the rowing boat just prior to dawn p121; the weasels, armed to the teeth attacking Toad hall.....p195. But these are just a few of the absolute gems in the book. Strongly recommend it.
    • 4/5
      Not necessarily an avid children's book reader beyond my trusty Hardy Boys....but i recently saw a local community theater production of this, and in between the time i purchased the ticket and actually saw the play, this book showed up in a box of odds and ends someone gave me.....it seemed like fate was telling me to read it....So i did! And what a beautifully illustrated work this is. The fantastical world of these animals came to life for my stifled and stiff brain so much more so than had it not been just littered from end to end with gorgeous vivid drawings in both Black & White and Color
    • 4/5
      The Wind in the Willows is as daffy and charming as it must have seemed when it was first published in 1908. Kenneth Grahame’s classic children’s novel follows the anthropomorphic adventures of several woodland creatures, primarily Mole, Rat, Badger, and Toad. They enjoy many pastimes, including “messing about in boats,” Christmas caroling, and driving motor cars. This last becomes Mr. Toad’s passion, landing him in all sorts of trouble and, eventually, a dungeon. The animals have many adventures along the river and in the Wild Wood, but they all love home best, where they like to cozy up in front of a fireplace and enjoy simple meals with friends. What makes the book so funny is how the animals live alongside people, doing people things, but without exciting comment. And they do it all regardless of the comparative size of things. Mole and Rat harness a horse to a gypsy caravan, field mice slice a ham and fry it for breakfast, Toad drives people cars and wears a washerwoman’s clothes to escape from prison. It is easy to see why this book remains popular. Among other claims to fame, Teddy Roosevelt said he read it several times, P.G. Wodehouse was clearly influenced by the lighthearted humor (one of his novels, Joy in the Morning, shares the same title as the carol sung by the field mice), and it shows up as one of Radcliffe's Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century. Also posted on Rose City Reader.
    • 3/5
      Surprisingly decent.
    • 3/5
      I have never read The Wind in the Willows but enjoyed this moralistic story. I cannot believe that the story was intended for children, as underneath the characters reside many moral stories. The Toad represents a greedy, egotistic individual that must undergo a transformation. His friends, the Rat, the Badger, and the Mole, remain loyal in efforts to assist the Toad. The Toad encounters a lengthy journey of self-discovery and remains set on his misbegotten path. The story spends numerous pages on description that would bore a child. A child needs more action and less speech.
    • 2/5
      Ratty, Mole and Badger become great friends when they meet at the riverbank, and in the Wild Wood. But it seems impossible to them to keep close friendships with Toad, the owner of the great Toad Hall. He does not understand the traditional culture of peaceful animals, and goes against the rules entirely - it's up to the three 'normal' animals to bring him back to the good-natured animal he used to be.

      He comes up with random likings to completely different things - once, he went on about boats, and a few days later, forgot all about them and whenever they were mentioned said what utter badness they caused and were. But this time, he has taken a liking to motor cars, and he steals and robs them, and when he does, drives them terrifically horribly.

      Ending up in prison and in even more trouble than when he was driving about in the motor car, Toady was upset and missed his beautiful Toad Hall. And even when he escapes with the gaoler's daughter, he returns to the mansion to find that it has been taken over by the evil stoats and weasels!

      It's up to him, Ratty, Mole and Badger to get it back for Toad. And when they do, will he turn to that ordinary young Toady he so used to be?

      Goes on a bit, I suppose; but then, it uses good words and phrases, unlike the modern-day books, which are filled not with, '"Come, Moly, let us take back the Hall! Toady, you should know better!"', but with, 'She still looked stunningly beautiful.' and that sort of thing. Still, I would rather it didn't have so much description-this-description-that.
    • 4/5
      What a sweet, lovely listen! Somehow I managed to totally miss this when I was a child. Even with my waning interest in kid lit, this darling tale captivated me. There's adventure and silliness seasoned well with kind friendship.
    • 5/5
      Excellent comfort book for when the day has been just that bad.
    • 4/5
      Wonderful children's classic.
    • 4/5
      It is great to read an old classic!
    • 5/5
      I suppose I was in the mood for this book, but it was a sheer delight and it immediately became a favorite book. My copy has an introduction and afterword, as well as a brief author bio written by Jane Yolen which I really appreciated. We only have a small cast of central characters here, a mole, a water rat, a badger and a toad, 'Mr. Toad'. I adore Mole and Ratty. I found myself loving every one of them, maybe even Mr. Toad. This is a children's book for grown-ups as well as mid aged kids. When I got to chapter 7, titled "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" my mouth dropped open. My copy only has a few illustrations in it - lovely black and white drawings, and the artist is not credited, although I think I deciphered the name Zimic. Then I decided that artist Tricia Zimic created the delightful cover illustration as well as the interior pen and ink drawings.I much more partial to the early half of the book, the rather nostalgic, pastoral adventures of Mole, Rat and Badger as well as the Piper piece in the middle. As Jane Yolen notes, this is really three sorts of stories in one book.
    • 4/5
      I know I'd read this book as a kid, but have always been a bit surprised by how little impression it apparently left on me and how little I remembered about it. So a revisit seemed in order.And... Well, it's a perfectly fine kids' book. The writing is good, and doesn't condescend to or oversimplify itself for young readers, which I approve of, although a few of the hymn-to-nature passages do get to be a little bit much. And Toad is kind of a fun character; the chapter where his friends stage an intervention for him for his automotive addiction made me laugh out loud. But I can kind of see how kid-me didn't find it all that memorable. I just never quite felt as charmed by it as its reputation suggests I should be. It's nice enough, but when it comes to classic talking-animals-in-the-woods-of-Britain stories, it's never going to rival Winnie-the-Pooh for a place in my heart.
    • 5/5
      Priceless!
    • 4/5
      There is a brilliant book here - absolutely whimsical childlike adventuring brilliance! Unfortunately a lot of rubbish got mixed up with it somehow. For a vastly improved reading experience read these chapters:

      Chapter 1 - The River Bank
      Chapter 2 - The Open Road
      Chapter 3 - The Wild Wood
      Chapter 4 - Mr. Badger
      Chapter 5 - Dulce Domum
      Chapter 9 - Wayfarers All
      Chapter 7 - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

      This pretty much cuts out Toad, and ends on the highest of notes. I'm really pretty sore about reading all the crappy adventures of Toad, but I did love the rest. I had better come back in a year, follow my own advice and review again
    • 3/5
      The Wind in the Willows is an odd book in that it is meant for children yet has chapter titles such as "Dulce Domum", "Like Summer Tempests Came His Tears", "The Return of Ulysses" and most famously "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn". Some of these chapters are stand alone with only a few threads of plot to interconnect them. In fact there is very little plot as the book is about friendship and maintaining the status quo. It's a very conservative book. I read it last forty years ago and can remember as a child being confused but somehow affected by The Piper at the Gates of Dawn chapter. Reading it as an adult, it is clearly the best part of the book. Still dislike Toad though.
    • 4/5
      Such a funny book! You are introduced to Mole who leaves his home to go out and travel. He meets Ratty and takes up life on the river. All to soon we are introduced to my favorite character Mr. Toad of Toad Hall. That silly little fellow does whatever he takes it into his head to do, from traveling in a canary-yellow gypsy wagon to stealing a motor car. After being arrested Toad comes home to find Weasels have taken over Toad Hall. Ratty, Badger, and Mole must fight to save his home.
    • 4/5
      This is a childrens book about four riverside animals the Water Rat, the Mole, the Badger and the Toad. It is an exciting and funny narrative about their adventures. The language is superb and it gives a good feel of the English countryside.
    • 5/5
      classi children's story well loved
    • 5/5
      I just finished reading this story to my five year-old daughter. She loved it! I sometimes needed to substitute more familiar vocabulary for less to create a smoother read aloud experience. For a slightly older child I wouldn't think this would be necessary. If you have only seen the Disney version, you are missing out. The characters are very genuine and lovable. The adventures they have are exciting without being terrifying, funny without being too silly, and the story is long enough for the reader (or read-to) to connect with the animals.I wasn't sure if the pace would be too slow for a young child, but it was not. The book could be divided into three acts: The River, The Woods, and Mr. Toad. Each story arc was exciting enough in it's own way to keep attention. The addition of so many wonderful full-color illustrations by Inga Moore only helped to hold interest. My daughter was truly sad to finish the final chapter. She now plays "Wind in the Willows" with her stuffed friends so that even though we have finished the book - the story continues.
    • 4/5
      I remember my mom reading this to me when I was young. Brings back such great memories. I picked it up for 40 cents in a second hand store and what a treasure. Best money I have spent in a long time.
    • 4/5
      The introduction tells us this is "the first novel-length animal fantasy" and as such "foreshadowing" "Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, Adam's Watership Down and White's Charlotte's Web. I've never read Winnie-the-Pooh, but I can't say I liked this one anywhere near as much as Watership Down or Charlotte's Web.. I think partly because those two other books the picture of the animals are consistent. The animals of Watership Down are ordinary rabbits, if rabbits had fables, myths and their own speech and consciousness. The animals of Charlotte's Web are animals who can speak to each other. The animals of The Wind in the Willows sometimes seem animal-shaped creatures who can be mistaken for humans, wear clothes and steal motorcars, and sometimes animals. And the stories seem more episodic compared to those other books. There is some lovely writing within, appealing tales of friendships (among males anyway, Grahame has seemingly little use for women) and certainly Toad of Toad Hall with his mania for motor-cars is unforgettable. Read for the first time as a adult, this doesn't have the appeal of say Alice in Wonderland, but I bet if I had first had it read to me at six-years-old or read it for myself at ten, I'd have been enchanted.
    • 5/5
      As I child, I tried to read this book several times. Each time, I made it about 1/2 a chapter in and I was bored to tears and stopped. But I kept being drawn back to it for two reasons. 1) It had animals in it and I found that appealing. 2) Disneyland's Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Come on... a ride like that had to come from a great book!!So I'm now an adult and I'm walking through Borders and I see it on a discount rack. I grab it with the same instinct - knowing it must be a good book. This time, I made it past the first chapter. Midway through Chapter Two, I was hooked.What a beautifully written book. it was absolutely magical and eloquently written. I could just read some of the paragraphs and chapters over and over. My particular favorites were Dulce Domum, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Wayfarers All. These are some of the best writing I have read in a long time. The end was a bit of an off trajectory from the rest of the book... but still fun - a little more like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.... funny though, now that I'm an adult I wasn't as attracted to this aspect. It was the beauty of the chapters noted above.But I do want to go to Disneyland again, just to experience it from a knowing perspective...
    • 5/5
      The first novel my father bought me. Read it for the first time as an adult. It is without doubt my favourite book of all time. Grahame is a master. Should be read every Christmas.
    • 4/5
      It was nice to go back and read a book that I treasured as a Disney movie when I was a child. I definitely would not have gotten as much from it as a child but I'm not sure it was written for children with such imagery and complex vocabulary. It compared to Alice in Wonderland in that the vocabulary and imagery are very complex, though the actions and characters are meant for children. I enjoyed it emensely. My only disagreement was that the pictures are not in the same chapter of the actions. Pictures for actions happening in chapter 12 are at the end of chapter 11 and I tried not to look at them because I felt like I was cheating...Now I'm off to find the old Disney movie to relive my childhood again. :)
    • 5/5
      The story centers around the animal citizens of an English riverbank. Each animal has a different personality, from easy-going Mole to the wise and wiley Badger, the spoiling-for-a-fight Weasels and of course boastful Toad, the owner of splendid Toad Hall who has too much money and too little sense to know what to do with it. The education of Toad by his well-meaning friends is a good lesson. The battle for Toad Hall near the end of the book is also exciting.
    • 5/5
      This was my favorite book when I was a child. When I read it years later to my own children, I still loved it, and they did too!
    • 4/5
      Substance: The story of two friends never gets old, and I love the chapter where they discover Mole's old home. However, be warned that the book is full of antiquated notions. Toad is only part of the story.Style: Not too dated yet.
    • 5/5
      Kenneth Grahame's classic children's novel, The Wind in the Willows, is the story of a friendship, a picnic, an encounter with the divine, a daring impersonation, a jail-break, a secret passage, a battle, and any number of motorcars. It combines at once the fantasy imagination of a bank secretary and the comforts of a well-off British home, peopled by a collection of memorable animal characters whose foibles continue to delight readers of all ages. At least, they delighted this reader!As I read it this time, I was struck by how much it reminded me of C. S. Lewis's Narnia books. Grahame's tone is the closest to Lewis's that I've ever read: genial, oh-so-British, and wonderfully humorous (as when Mole "had started his spring-cleaning at a very early hour that morning; as people will do" (34)). There are also religious/spiritual undertones that occasionally come quite sharply to the forefront, but somehow never jar the tenor of the stories. The presence of the divine is a natural feature of the imaginative landscape of both worlds. Both Willows and Narnia are home to humanized animal characters who reflect all the ideas and mindsets of their creators. And yet these characters are faithful to the quirks of their species as well. I love the part in Willows when it is explained to us that animal etiquette demands that one should never comment on the sudden disappearance of another animal for any reason at all.Of course, Willows was published in 1908, while the Narnia books appeared in 1950–1957. So all my perceptions of Grahame being like Lewis are backwards; really it's Lewis who was influenced by Grahame (in his Poems, Lewis refers to some of Grahame's characters by name). Lewis was by far the most prominent author in my own childhood and so remains the standard by which I measure other similar works, but there is always room for more kindred-spirited literature among my favorites.Another fascinating fantasy connection I noticed—or imagined, anyways—is actually related to J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, in the invasion of the comfortable little British home and how physical force, actual pitched battle, is necessary to rout the intruders. Go adventuring, by all means, but your safe home may not be yours when you return...Though I alluded earlier to the classic status of The Wind in the Willows, I think Grahame is underrated both as an author and as an influence on the British children's authors who would follow him. At least, he was to me before this reread. This is an utterly delightful book that fully deserves its place among the very best of children's literature. And, like its company, it is just as delightful to adult readers as it is to younger. I'm already wanting to reread!
    • 4/5
      A classic story that will challenge students with its use of vocabulary and will delight students with its inviting and memorable characters. Great for reading aloud.
    • 5/5
      I absolutly love this book! It is beautifully written with a quality that is not seen often. Four true friends Rat, Mole, Badger and Toad experience many adventures together and support and encourage each other as only true friends would.