The Wind in the Willows

The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame. The story is alternately slow-moving and fast-paced, centering on three middle-aged male characters in bucolic England. It had illustrations by E. H. Shepard.

The book made Kenneth Grahame's fortune, enabling him to retire from his hated (though respectable and well-paid) bank job and retire to the country, pretty much doing what the animal characters in this book do.

Characters

• Mole – mild-mannered
• Water Rat (or Ratty) – loves the river
• Otter – friend of Ratty
• Portly – son of Otter
• Badger – powerful yet solitary
• Toad – mischievous estate-owner
• The Magistrate
• The Court Clerk
• The Jailer
• The Jailer's Daughter
• The Engine Driver
• The Barge Woman
• The Gypsy
• The Chief Weasel
• Pan – makes a single, otherwise anomalous, appearance

Adaptations

William Horwood created several sequels to The Wind in the Willows:

• The Willows in Winter
• Toad Triumphant
• The Willows and Beyond

A. A. Milne adapted The Wind in the Willows into a play called Toad of Toad Hall.

There are several film and television versions of The Wind in the Willows, notably including:

• a 1949 animated version by Walt Disney
• a 1983 animated (with stop-motion puppets, not drawings) version by Cosgrove Hall, which was followed by an ongoing television series done in the same style
• a 1996 animated version with an all-star cast led by Michael Palin and Alan Bennett as Ratty and Mole; followed by an adaptation of The Willows in Winter
• a 1996 live-action version written and directed by Terry Jones

Trivia

• The first album by psychedelic rock group Pink Floyd was called The Piper at the Gates of Dawn after Chapter 7 of The Wind in the Willows. The songs on the album, written largely by Syd Barrett, are not directly related to the contents of the book.

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