The Wind in the Willows: An Annotated Edition - Hardcover

Grahame, Kenneth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674034473 ISBN 13: 9780674034471

Publisher: Belknap Press, 2009

Synopsis

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 children’s 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 Grahame’s novel—the sensitivity of Mole, the mania of Toad, the domesticity of Rat—permeates our imaginative lives (as children and adults). And Grahame’s 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 novel’s 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 Grahame’s 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 Grahame’s 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.

About this title

About the Author:

Seth Lerer is Dean of Arts and Humanities and Distinguished Professor of Literature at the University of California at San Diego.

Review:

Lerer's annotated edition of The Wind in the Willows not only seeks to respond to every possible question a contemporary reader (of any age) might pose, but it goes beyond that aim to make the most penetrating and astute interpretive asides, and it does so economically, judiciously, and--what is most delightful--in a graceful prose of its own that matches the gleaming poetic style of Kenneth Grahame himself and thus honors him both in form and content. (Ellen Handler Spitz, author of The Brightening Glance: Imagination and Childhood)

The Wind in the Willows is one of the few books that inspires unconditional reverence, and it has long deserved a guide as sensitive, deft, insightful, and generous as Seth Lerer. Here, Toad, Rat, Mole, and other characters come alive for both adult and inner child. A splendid achievement. (Maria Tatar, Harvard University)

You might think it a bit extreme to painstakingly annotate a children's book, but, oh, what a children's book. And oh, what an annotation...[This] is an exquisite examination of the nuances, allusions, Britishisms and context of Kenneth Grahame's wonderful 1908 novel...This big, lovely book is illustrated by some of the most famous Grahame illustrators--Nancy Barnhart, Arthur Rackham, Wyndham Payne and, of course, Ernest H. Shepherd, who brought to life the brash, cigar-smoking, swaggering Mr. Toad. This book is a labor of great scholarship, but it is also, clearly, a labor of love. (Laurie Hertzel Minneapolis Star-Tribune 2009-05-15)

A handsome edition of Grahame's great classic...One of the delights of this edition is the collection of beautiful illustrations from each edition, from Nancy Barnhart's wonderful 1922 version to Arthur Rackham's in 1940, as well as Paul Bransom's deliciously weird 1913 images for Scribner's. (Lawrence Osborne Forbes 2009-05-07)

Lerer's book perform[s] magic. [It] demonstrates how much of a writer's life can wind up distilled in a stack of paper--in this case, how Kenneth Grahame's daydreams, fears, heartbreak, upbringing, era and locale all sneaked into a fanciful children's book about talking animals. In what other book can you find slapstick auto theft, a dirge for lost arcadia and a numinous encounter with that pagan refugee and mascot of the Edwardian neo-romantics, the great god Pan?...Lerer's preface is a thoughtful and elegant survey of the biographical and literary context for this beloved book. (Michael Sims Washington Post Book World 2009-06-14)

[An] exquisite new annotated edition of Kenneth Grahame's masterpiece...It takes us into a pre-modern world of lyrical beauty, with animals that behave like humans, landscapes that are painted for us rather than described, and language more literary than spoken...Rereading this volume, which Harvard University Press has given all the high production values it deserves, led me to understand more fully the soporific effects of The Wind in the Willows on children. Under the spell of an artist who animates his fictional world with something akin to solar energy ("Suddenly the sun was with them again, and grey was gold and colour was born and sprang out of the earth once more"), readers enter dreaded conflict zones but always return to that consummate comfort zone known as Home...By turns ecstatic and elegiac, and always without pathos, sentiment or pyrotechnics, The Wind in the Willows is also always there, ready to provide us, when we feel lost, with all the comforts of Home. (Maria Tatar Globe and Mail 2009-06-20)

[A] handsome edition...[Lerer] provides a wealth of information that will be welcomed by anyone who wants return to the riverbank and discover just how enduring and endearing Grahame's masterpiece remains a century after it was published. (Peter Parker Times Literary Supplement 2009-06-26)

For all its apparent celebration of neatness and domestic orderliness The Wind in the Willows is really a book about letting go. It begins with Mole, tired of spring cleaning, putting aside his whitewash brush and taking to the road, and its true hero is Toad, who is anarchy incarnate. (Charles McGrath New York Times Book Review 2009-07-10)

An enduring masterpiece of children's literature. (Bill Ruehlmann Virginian-Pilot 2009-07-26)

Full of luminous little notes on the story. (Robert Pincus Sign On San Diego 2009-05-28)

About this edition

• Publisher: Belknap Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0674034473
• ISBN 13: 9780674034471
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Lerer Seth