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THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS is another great classic childen's book, written in 1908 by Kenneth Grahame. The story focuses on four heavily anthropomorphised animal characters in a bucolic England. The novel like many others of its time includes mysticism, adventure, and Victorian morality and camaraderie. Although the book was technically "children's literature," like many similar novels, it had a largely adult readership. It can be viewed as a reflection on class structure in British society with the 'River-Bankers' as the upper classes, and the 'Wild Wooders' as the lower. Or in a with a different perspective, the character of Toad represents the upper class, Rat and Badger the middle classes with Badger closer to upper class, and the character Mole representing Lower class due to his earthy nature. The book was extemely successfull, allowing the author to take early retirement to enjoy 'simply messing about in boats'. There have been many around 20 stage, film and animation versions plus sequels and variations over the years.
The page numbers given are not the same as in the original book
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