The Wind in the Willows
1. A reviewer writing in The Nation about The Wind in the Willows asked whether it was designed “for children, for grown people, or for grown-up children.” Who would you say this book is for? Is it for the child in the grown-up, or for the adult in the child?
2. A. A. Milne said of The Wind in the Willows that “the young man gives it to the girl with whom he is in love, and if she does not like it, asks her to return his letters. The older man tries it on his nephew, and alters his will accordingly. The book is a test of character. We can’t criticize it, because it is criticizing us.” What gives the book so much power that it can divide the world into those who get it and those who don’t? What type of person likes The Wind in the Willows, and what type doesn’t?
3. In 1981 Jan Needle published Wild Wood, a Marxist take on TheWind in the Willows. (The proletarian weasels, stoats, and ferrets take over Toad’s home and rename it Brotherhood Hall.) Is there any justification for this variation in the original? Is there an economic critique built into the original?
4. Is The Wind in the Willows based on a common adult fantasy? If so, how would you express it? What do you think about the relative absence of females? Would you describe the novel as “escapist”?