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The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame

(2026-04-06 10:05:06) 下一个

The aged paperback looked unread when I picked it up from the Little Free

Library box: the pages were yellowing and brittle but none was marked or

dog-eared. I thought I'd sail through it in three days. The children's classic

of 305 well-illustrated pages of wide-spaced lines, however, used up a whole

week and I took more notes than Wuthering Heights.

 

The following summarizes each chapter in one or two sentences. (1)One spring

day, the Mole gives up cleaning his bijo residence, joins the Rat in his boat,

and thereupon enters a new life. (2)They meet the Toad who is presently besotted

with horse-drawn carts, after ditching punting, and the three go glamping. On

the highway the Toad sees a motor car and is smitten. (3)Next, the Mole wanders

into the Wild Wood in search of the reclusive Badger and ends up being rescued

by the brave and loyal Rat. (4)Together, they stumble on the home of Mr. Badger

who turns out to be a hearty host and strikes a fast friendship with the Mole.

(5)On their way back from the Wild Wood, the two friends re-visit the Mole's old

home. (6)Meanwhile Toad's wayward obsession with motor cars lands him in prison.

(7)The Rat and the Mole paddle to the weir and with divine help rescue the baby

otter Portly and return him to his father. (8)By cunning and luck, Toad breaks

jail and trains homebound. (9)A seafarer so magnetizes the Rat with stories of

his adventures and the Mole has to take his friend in hand. (10)Continuing his

journey home, Toad rides a barge, a horse, and then the same motor car that got

him in trouble, until they blow his cover. (11)Fleeing from the police, Toad

tumbles into Rat's riverbank hole to learn that his residence, the grand Toad's

Hall, has been seized by a Wild Wood gang of weasels, stoats, and ferrets.

(12)Just when all seems lost, the Badger reveals a secret tunnel which turns

Toad's home-coming into an Odyssean triumph and the Toad turns a new leaf.

 

I fell in love with the author's language. For example, the seafarer describes

the Mediterranean as "classic seas whose every wave throbs with a deathless

memory," and Toad rages: "I'll learn them to steal my house," as he finds out

what happened while he was incarcerated. There are "an apricot sky," "a ragged

string of wild geese," "a paroxysm of grief," "lurid and imaginative cheek,"

"heavenly vision that has been vouchsafed me," etc. etc. I learned much about

the life at the Thames through words and expressions such as towpath, stile,

nets of onions, sloe, rowan, rushes, copses, mullion, trifle, herb borders,

horse pond, well-metalled road, The Red Lion, etc. etc.

 

If I will be blessed with grandchildren, I will read the stories to them.

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