Audiobook · read by volunteers
Wind in the Willows (version 3)
Kenneth Grahame (1859–1932)
Read by Adrian Praetzellis · 12 chapters · 6 h 55
About the book
Mole leaves his spring cleaning behind and discovers the river, a wonderful place where he meets Water Rat, who lives on its bank and loves messing about in boats. Together they visit the wise and gruff Badger in the Wild Wood, and they try to keep an eye on the boastful, accident-prone Toad of Toad Hall, whose passion for new fashions and fast motor cars leads him into one disaster after another. Kenneth Grahame's classic has all the ingredients of a good story: excitement, sentiment, mischief, friendship and, in the end, a happy ending. The prose is beautiful, sometimes touching on the mysterious and the pagan. Twelve chapters, read by a single volunteer, last close to seven hours. It is a book to share with children and to rediscover as an adult, one of the most loved animal stories in English.
Introduction
Kenneth Grahame, who lived from 1859 to 1932, worked for many years at the Bank of England and wrote in his spare time. The Wind in the Willows was published in 1908 and grew out of stories he told his son at bedtime. It quickly became a favourite, and it has been adapted for the stage, television and film many times.
The book follows the adventures of four animal friends along the river and the countryside around it. It combines comic episodes, such as Toad's escapades, with chapters of quiet poetry about nature, home and friendship. Some critics have noted how it looks back with longing to a countryside that was already changing in Grahame's day. The language is rich and musical and rewards being read aloud.
This is the third LibriVox version of the book. It has twelve chapters, from The River Bank and The Open Road to The Wild Wood and beyond, and runs for roughly seven hours with one reader. Different recordings of the same classic give different pleasures, and this one invites you to enjoy the story again with fresh ears. The chapter titles promise much, and the book delivers: picnics, boat trips, midwinter shelter, a daring escape and a final reckoning at Toad Hall. The reader's steady voice carries the humour and the lyrical passages equally well, and the book rewards repeated listening in a way that few children's stories do.
Public domain
Kenneth Grahame died in 1932: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text