The Wind in the Willows

The Wind in the Willows
Author	Kenneth Grahame
Year Published	1908
Language	English

The Wind in the Willows is a 1908 British children's novel written by Kenneth Grahame. The book follows the adventures of four anthropomorphized animals: Badger, Mole, Rat and Toad. The Wind in the Willows is considered by many to be a classic.

As retold by Samantha Noonan and published with large print for children by Arcturus Publishing in 2021, this is a very good book for an early reader.

Plot

The Mole is busy spring-cleaning his home on a warm spring morning in rural England. He gets fed up with all the cleaning and digs a tunnel up to the surface, where he marvels at springtime's beauty. After arriving at the river and being attached to it at once, he befriends the Water Rat (another name for a water vole), who makes his home beside the river and spends his time in boats. They become fast friends during a picnic and meet other characters in the story: brave Otter, solitary Badger, and eccentric Toad. Rat invites Mole to live with him for a little while as he teaches him how to row and swim.

Summer comes, and Mole wants to properly greet Toad, who is rich and owns a manor called Toad Hall. Toad is shown to be friendly and pleasant but also aimless and arrogant, becoming obsessed with a fad one day and skipping to the other the next. On this day, Toad has given up boating and has decided to travel in his horse-drawn gypsy cart, inviting Mole and Rat to join him on a journey throughout England. They have yet to go long and far when they run afoul of some people speeding along in their motorcar, upsetting the cart and startling the horse. Toad is fascinated with the vehicle and abandons carts to go to the next fad: motorcars.

Mole has wanted to pay a visit to Badger for some time. Rat, however, knows that Badger doesn't like visits because he's not a fan of society and advises against going to find him. On a cold late fall day, Mole goes off on his own to the Wild Wood, where Badger lives. He gets lost, frightened by the less welcoming residents of the Wild Wood, and hides in a hole in a tree. Rat knows where Mole may be and heads off to the Wild Wood with a pistol and cudgel. He does find his friend hiding in a hollowed-out tree and waits until Mole recovers.

While finding their way home, they stumble across Badger's house; Mole has tripped over a boot scraper on Badger's doorstep. Badger has been ready to go to bed and is initially irritable at being disturbed. Still, he recognizes Rat and Mole and welcomes them warmly, inviting them to spend the night in his large, cozy underground home. The two travelers are provided warm food and dry clothes, and the three have a good time talking with each other. It's also when Mole and Rat reveal that Toad has been very reckless with his obsession with motorcars, crashing a lot and wasting money with many hospital visits and more motorcars. Badger promises that when summer comes around, he'll help Mole and Rat make Toad come to his senses.

In the cold winter days of December, Mole senses his old home nearby and wants to find it. Rat, at first, doesn't understand the situation until Mole breaks down and admits that he misses Mole End. Because of this, Rat decides to help his friend out, finding the home and tidying it up so it becomes livable again. They invite some mice singing Christmas carols into Mole's house for dinner, and they have a good time feasting and talking. Mole isn't ready to give up his life of adventures with Rat, but he's at least happy to have his old home to come back to.

Summer arrives, and Badger arrives at Rat's house to announce that it's time to snap Toad out of his reckless behavior. They head to Toad Hall, where Toad is about to drive a motorcar until his friends arrive. Badger has Mole and Rat remove Toad's riding clothes before he tries talking Toad out of his obsession with motor cars. When Toad refuses to give up his mania, his friends place him under house arrest, guarding his room until he sees the error of his ways. Soon, Toad pretends to be sick and successfully tricks Rat into fetching him a doctor and a lawyer so that he can escape. Rat is scolded for being gullible, but Badger and Mole relent and volunteer to stay at Toad Hall to attend to it until Toad returns.

Toad comes across a motorcar in the village and steals it so he can drive again. He crashes it and is arrested and thrown into the dungeon for twenty years, mostly because he had cheeked the police. It's thanks to kindness from the jailer's daughter that he's able to break out of prison in the guise of a washerwoman. He asks for help from an engineer and a horse-drawn barge. He briefly gets hired by the barge woman; however, he is thrown into the river after insulting the washerwoman for laughing at his clumsy attempt at cleaning laundry. In revenge, Toad steals the woman's horse and sells it to a gypsy. He comes across the same motorcar that he stole and got arrested for, pretending to be a washerwoman once again and getting a ride. Gripped by the thrill of being in a vehicle again, he takes control and crashes into a pond. This brings the attention of the police, who chase him until he falls into the river and is soon out of sight of the law.

While Toad has his adventures, there are two other stories about his riverside friends. The first - "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" - has Mole and Rat looking for Otter's lost son Portly; Otter is worried and frets that Portly never goes missing for too long. Fortunately, they find him unharmed and in the presence of the Greek satyr Pan. Pan removes their memories of this meeting "lest the awful remembrance should remain and grow and overshadow mirth and pleasure". This inspires Rat for his latest poem while he and Mole are on their way home. The second story - "Wayfarers All" - tells of Rat feeling restless one late summer day as if something is missing from his life. He meets a sea rat who tells him about his adventures out at sea, exploring places like Greece and Italy. Tempted and going crazy, Rat tries to abandon his riverside home, but Mole snaps him out of it. To Rat's credit, he comes to his senses and decides to stay by the river, but he gets inspired by the stories the sea rat has told him and decides to try some poetry about it.

Back with Toad's adventure, Toad drifts a while on the river before coming to the home of Rat, who brings him to his house. Mole and Badger had stayed at Toad Hall and kept things in order until the weasels, stoats, and ferrets from the Wild Wood chased them out. Hearing this, Toad furiously heads to Toad Hall to confront the Wild Wood residents, but they repel him; he even rows Rat's boat to Toad Hall, only for the Wild Wood animals to destroy the boat, leading to Rat calling out Toad for all his misdeeds. Toad regrets what he has put his three friends through and promises to make it up to them, and Mole and Badger return to welcome Toad. Mole soon heads to Toad Hall disguised in Toad's washerwoman clothes and gets the Wild Wood animals paranoid by telling tales of armies of badgers, rats, and toads coming to invade them. Then the four friends devise a plan to drive the Wild Wood animals out and take back Toad Hall.

Thanks to a tunnel beneath the kitchen and a trick from Mole, the four animals manage to sneak into Toad Hall and fight the weasels and their allies. Once the weasels, stoats, and ferrets are driven out, Toad is told to host a feast for all his neighbors to herald his return. He is discouraged from singing or making speeches during this, which at first disheartens the amphibian before he composes himself. Toad sings one song to himself and confidently attends the feast, becoming a humbler animal; he even makes up for his wrongdoings by seeking out and compensating those he had wronged. After this, he, Mole, Rat, and Badger live peacefully and happily ever after in the English countryside.

Characters

Mole: Mole is a quiet, ordinary fellow who gets caught up in huge adventures and arguably shares the role of spotlight character with Mr. Toad. Soft-spoken and a dedicated homebody, he nonetheless sometimes gets wild urges to go out into the wild and "hang spring cleaning!" At first in total awe of the hustle and bustle of the world above his home, he adapts to a busier and eventful life, and he later shows that he's good with children (such as welcoming mouse children singing Christmas carols to feast with him and Rat in Mole's newly refurbished home). He is also best friends with Rat, who affectionally calls him "Moley".

Rat: Rat is Mole's best friend - Mole calling Rat "Ratty" in affection - and is fiercely loyal to his other friends. He feels at home by the river: stubborn when it comes to doing things outside his riverside lifestyle ("What it hasn't got is not worth having, and what it doesn't know is not worth knowing.") and happily messing about in boats. He's also fond of writing poetry and looks to the river for inspiration. Whenever Badger isn't present, Rat acts as the voice of reason and is somewhat annoyed by the fast pace of modern living. In spite of being called a rat, he's actually a water vole (which is also called a water rat, hence his name).

Toad: Toad is one of the spotlight characters in the book, living a fancy rich life in Toad Hall (which he had inherited from his father). He is most famous for throwing himself to the latest fads one day and then dropping that fad to go to another fad the next; for example, the story begins with him taking to boating and then to carts and then to motorcars (his latest obsession). While he can be spoiled, conceited, and impulsive, he does value his friends and wants to do right by them, admitting at times when he's slipped up and done something stupid. Several chapters in the book chronicle his latest fad getting him into trouble with the law, being thrown into prison, and escaping.

Badger: Badger is a hermit living by himself in the middle of the Wild Wood, in an underground set. He's a large and fearsome animal who hates going into society (and doesn't approve of things like not putting elbows on tables), but he can be welcoming to his friends and is kind to children. Like Mole, he has a fondness for living underground since they're both burrowing animals; in fact, his home had been built by the Romans when they lived in Great Britain before being claimed by badgers. He is also a friend of Toad's late father, uncompromising with Toad yet remaining optimistic that his good qualities will prevail.

Otter:: While not a main protagonist, Otter is a friend of all four animals. A brave and boisterous animal, he is perfectly at home on the river with his son Portly. He is also one of the few animals besides Badger to go through the Wild Wood by himself and not be scared.

The Weasels: The weasels of the Wild Wood are a rowdy group of animals that take over Toad Hall while Toad is in prison. They and their stoat and ferret allies eventually get overthrown by the four friends and have become mostly reformed.

The Jailor's Daughter: The jailor's daughter is a young woman who befriends Toad while he stays in prison. She feeds him and helps him devise a way to escape from prison, and he later repays her for her kindness.

The Seafarer: The seafarer is a ship's rat who takes a short break from his seafaring ways and talks to Rat about his adventures at sea, going to places like Constantinople. His stories briefly lull Rat into trying to leave the river, but Mole brings him back to his senses.

Pan: Pan is a satyr from Greek mythology who is said to watch over the wild animals, who see him as a god. Mole and Rat see him when they find Otter's son Portly safe and sound in his presence, and he wipes the memory of this encounter out of their minds.

Film adaptations

In 1949, Walt Disney released his version of The Wind in the Willows in his film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, sharing this with Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. One major change he has done is Toad being framed for stealing the motorcar instead of stealing it himself. Other changes include changing Rat from a sailor with a Bohemian streak to a stuffy yet caring Englishman and having Badger being Scottish instead of British.

1983 saw the release of a stop-motion animated movie created by Cosgrove Hall Films for Thames Television. This soon gave way to an animated TV series the following year, which contains five seasons. The first season even contains two stories adapted from the book: "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" and "Wayfarers All"; all the other episodes are original adventures such as Mole meeting his playwright city cousin and a railway threatening the Riverbankers and Wild Wood animals' ways of life. It also had another movie called A Tale of Two Toads, which deals with a Toad imposter trying to divide Toad's friends and take over Toad Hall with the weasels all while Toad is kidnapped; this second movie takes place during the fourth and fifth seasons.

Rankin/Bass had their own animated film released in 1987, which stars actors like Charles Nelson Reilly and Roddy McDowall. Changes from the book include Portly - Otter's son - being a badger and thus Badger's nephew, as well as making Rat a common brown rat as opposed to a water vole.

An animated film was adapted in 1995 that follows the book almost faithfully, which is then followed in 1996 by a sequel called The Willows in Winter. This sequel deals with Toad's latest obsession - airplanes - that gets him not only in trouble with the law again but also nearly gets Rat killed when he was supposed to help the river-bankers find Mole.

1996 had a live-action adaptation with human characters instead of the animal characters. However, those who play the animal characters have some animal characteristics to them, like whiskers and tails.

External links

• The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame - Audiobook at LibriVox