The Wind in the Willows: An Annotated Edition

Begun as a series of stories told by Kenneth Grahame to his six-year-old son The Wind in the Willows has become one of the most beloved works of childrens literature ever written. It has been illustrated famously by E.H. Shepard and Arthur Rackham and parts of it were dramatized by A.A. Milne as Toad of Toad Hall. A century after its initial publication it still enchants. Much in Grahames novelthe sensitivity of Mole the mania of Toad the domesticity of Ratpermeates our imaginative lives (as children and adults). And Grahames burnished prose still dazzles. Now comes an annotated edition of The Wind in the Willows by a leading literary scholar that instructs the reader in a larger appreciation of the novels charms and serene narrative magic. In an introduction aimed at a general audience Seth Lerer tells us everything that we as adults need to know about the author and his work. He vividly captures Grahames world and the circumstances under which The Wind in the Willows came into being. In his running commentary on the novel Lerer offers complete annotations to the language contexts allusions and larger texture of Grahames prose. Anyone who has read and loved The Wind in the Willows will want to own and cherish this beautiful gift edition. Those coming to the novel for the first time or returning to it with their own children will not find a better more sensitive guide than Seth Lerer.