The Wind in the Willows

Image credit: Amazon

Continuing on with the children’s canonical bender, this week on the Couch I made friends with a narcissistic toad, an excitable mole, a concerned water rat, and an authoritative badger. Yep, in my late ‘20s I have finally filled a gap in my literary repertoire and read The Wind in the Willows.

What began as sweet and endearing letters to his son, has become one of the most iconic and canonical tales in children’s fiction. The Wind in the Willows chronicles the many adventures (and misadventures) of Mole, Rat, Badger, and Toad, as they strive to live their best lives on the banks of the River outside of the Wild Wood.

This tale is one hundred years old and it still retains a wondrously magic and endearing quality, while still being quite grown up and relevant to modern society. In these anthropomorphised characters, Grahame so pertinently paints a picture of the human world, in all its imperfections and complexities, while simultaneously sugar coating the more repellent aspects with sweet, cunning, and adorable animal characters.

Similar to what Pixar do in their films, The Wind in the Willows depicts themes that are expressly human, but makes them more appealing and accessible by having them acted out by the fantastical; in this case, talking animals. The story is a wonderful blend of animal cunning and natural impulses and human camaraderie with the added bonus of having characters that are so loveable and appealing that you form attachments to them as soon as they’re introduced.

Complex themes of law, social etiquette, narcissism, and even addiction and mental illness are prevalent, but the severity of these themes is softened and made easier to swallow by the poetic prose, darling imagery, and adorable characters.

Image credit: Wikiepedia

Covering the entire story, like a lovely warm blanket, is this beautiful sense of fun and hilarity that comes with the images of Toad in his motoring outfits or Badger fighting an epic battle primarily with a stick. There’s this undeniable and irrepressible sense of childlike innocence, imagination, and wonder that colours the tale so completely, making The Wind in the Willows a true timeless classic that absolutely everyone can adore!

The Wind in the Willows was written by Kenneth Grahame, beginning life as a series of endearing letters to his son before taking the short story shape that we have come to know and love. It was first published 1908 by Methuen & Co. in Great Britain, and Charles Scriber’s Sons in America.