The Wind in the Willows
The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame.
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.
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.
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 Gaoler
- The Gaoler's Daughter
- The Engine Driver
- The Barge Woman
- The Gypsy
- The Chief Weasel
- Pan -- makes a single, otherwise anomalous, appearance
Adaptations and spin-offs
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
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.
