The Wind in the Willows

The Wind in Willows

By Kenneth Grahame

First published in 1908

Audio book from librivox recording

Two Stars 

       First off, I would like to do a happy dance. I finished it, finally!

The Wind in the Willows is penned in lyrical prose, the adventures and misadventures of the book’s intrepid quartet of heroes—Mole, Water Rat, Badger, and, of course, the incorrigible Toad—raise fantasy to the level of myth. The animals’ world embodies the author’s wry, whimsical, and unfailingly inventive imagination. It is a world that succeeding generations of both adult and young readers have found irresistible. But why say more? To use the words of the estimable Mr. Toad himself: “Travel, change, interest, excitement!…Come inside.

Simply put, this story is an imaginative telling of talking animals. With all the animals, known only as their species name, live a life of free thinking with human behaviors. This novel is a child’s classic. A book often seen in a child’s library. Maybe I am getting older, or too cynical, but this story didn’t do it to me.

 Toad was a frustrating character from the beginning. Maybe that was Grahame’s intention, and if so he succeeded in me despising him as a character and with no sympathy towards this entitled animal prancing around the world with barely any remorse towards the havoc he wrecked.There were more animals that were more that I could stand, but none that made a lasting impression.

Since I listened to this book on my Itouch over an extended period of time, I became apathetic and not very attentive as I have been with other audio books I chose to listen to. As this was a librivox recording, all narrators were volunteers. The narrators changed ever chapter, both a positive and negative for me. Some of the narrators were decent. Mostly, the male narrators I felt for some reason. But as the narrators change, so does my attention span. If one narrator doesn’t stay put, why should I? Just made me less interested.

I understand this novel may be geared towards children, and there is a Disneyland ride based on this book, I had hopes. I loved The Secret Garden that was just as much geared towards children. Narration really is an important part of an audio book. I am realizing that now. Would touching and reading the book change my perspective, not sure. 

If you read or listened to this, let me know what you thought? A lot of my goodreads friends rated it high. Am I missing something?