THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
Kenneth Graham
Original Publication: 1908

I bought my latest copy of Kenneth Graham’s 1908 classic "The Wind In The Willows" at a bookstore near the University of California, which sells paperbacks at half the cover price. The cover price of my 1966 edition was 75¢, and I wondered if I was going to get stopped at the door for stealing. Truly this is one of the great treasures of English literature.

The characters in "Wind" are all animals living alongside a riverbank in the turn of the century British countryside: Rat, Mole, Badger and, of course, Toad.

Generally, talking animal books ought to be avoided at all cost. Either they those smarmy, philosopher-pig stories that only a child could love, or else they tell us far too much about the human condition than we care to know (see "Animal Farm" and "Bambi"). But Graham blends the animal personality with the human, allowing us to see the world in its glorious wonder, such as when Mole emerges from his hole and sees the river for the first time:

"Never in his life had he seen a river before--this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that shook themselves free, and were caught and held again. All was a-shake and a-shiver--glints and gleams and sparkles, rustle and whirl, chatter and bubble."

If there is a main character in this book it is Toad, the irrepressible and irresponsible heir to a landed estate, a thoroughly conniving, manipulative, vain, and rakishly likeable rogue. At one point he is jailed for stealing a motor car, gets out of prison, is hitchhiking disguised as a washerwoman when he is picked up by the very people whose car he originally stole, cons them into allowing him to drive, and then proceeds to steal the car again. Cheek, I think, is how the British describe such actions.

But mostly this is not a book about woods or rivers or animals at all, but merely about the steadfastness and loyalty of good friends, who must save Toad from himself. A guaranteed warm, cozy book for warm days.