The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
305 pages
Published 1908
Read from May 5 to May 6
Rating: ★★★½ out of 5
Before
I began to read this book, I had typed out some long and rambly
reminiscences about reading an abridged version of it when I was 7 or 8.
Then I read the first chapter and realized nothing here rang a bell,
and I had been thinking of some other book the whole time. (It was an
novel about talking animals vs. mean old farmers, but I can't remember
the name. Help me out?) So this turned out to be my very first time
reading The Wind in the Willows.
I thought it was adorable
in an ineluctably British fashion, where gentlemen cure ruffians by
application of stout sticks and good friends chaff each other kindly
over a well-provided luncheon. The stakes are low, the conflicts
resolved smoothly, the heroes always win out, and the wastrel heir
learns to comport himself with dignity and self-control. It's
insubstantial stuff, but winsome all the same.
Were you thinking of The Fantastic Mr. Fox?
ReplyDeleteNope. Never read anything by Dahl, actually. This novel was public domain when I read it circa 1991 or 1992. I read it in a Readers Digest abridged edition, so it had to have been pretty old. I don't think it's Peter Rabbit, either.
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