I’ve finished the Project Gutenburg edition of The Wind in the Willows on my Kindle. I can relate to it, because I used animals dressed as people to tell stories, in my Books in Canada cartoons. Still, the characters here are perfect English gentlemen, even if they take breaks to snap up flies once in a while. How does Mr. Toad have hair, if he’s a toad, and not wearing a toupée?
It scarcely matters, because reading about the book on the web after finishing it, I find the novel was based on stories the author made up to entertain his son at bedtime. That son committed suicide at school aged 20, which makes these stories more moving to me. Stories, at least of that era, had to have a happy ending.
They’re in the mold of Robert Louis Stevenson or Walter Scott high adventure, also with a love of nature. So, the actual events are hard to believe, but the general effect is charming. Very happy to catch up with this, another piece of my early childhood.