The Wind in the Willows (Royal Collector's Edition) (Case Laminate Hardcover with Jacket)
Published by: Engage Books
With the arrival of spring and fine weather outside, the good-natured Mole loses patience with spring cleaning. He flees his underground home, and encounters Rat who teaches Mole how to use a row boat. The two friends team up with Badger and Toad, and go on many adventures together. The friends soon learn that Toad lives a reckless life, having crashed seven cars, been hospitalised three times, and spent a fortune on fines. Mole, Rat, and Badger follow Toad on his adventures, and try to help him realize what good friends he has, while doing their best to turn his life around.
Alternately slow moving and fast paced, The Wind in the Willows focuses on four anthropomorphised animals in a pastoral version of England. The novel is notable for its mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie and celebrated for its evocation of the nature of the Thames valley. In 2002, Mr. Toad was voted Number 38 among the 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900 by Book magazine.
This case laminate collector's edition includes a Victorian inspired dust-jacket.
Kenneth Grahame (8 March 1859 - 6 July 1932) was a Scottish writer, most famous for The Wind in the Willows (1908), one of the classics of children's literature. He also wrote The Reluctant Dragon. Both books were later adapted for stage and film, of which A.A. Milne's Toad of Toad Hall was the first. The Disney films The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and The Reluctant Dragon are other adaptations. While still a young man in his 20s, Grahame began to publish light stories in London periodicals such as the St. James Gazette. Some of these stories were collected and published as Pagan Papers in 1893, and, two years later, The Golden Age. These were followed by Dream Days in 1898, which contains The Reluctant Dragon. There is a ten-year gap between Grahame's penultimate book and the publication of his triumph, The Wind in the Willows. During this decade, Grahame became a father. The wayward, headstrong nature he saw in his little son Alastair he transformed into the swaggering Mr. Toad, one of its four principal characters. The character in the book known as Ratty was inspired by his good friend, and writer, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. Grahame mentions this in a signed copy he gave to Quiller-Couch's daughter, Foy Felicia. Despite its success, he never attempted a sequel. The book is still widely enjoyed by adults and children today, also in films, while Toad remains one of the most celebrated and beloved characters. In 1929, A. A. Milne wrote the play Toad of Toad Hall, which is based on part of The Wind in the Willows. The Wind in the Willows won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958. In the 1990s, William Horwood produced with a series of sequels.
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