The Wind in the Willows :: RtK Book Club July CONCLUSION

This month's discussion is being held by Stephanie at Simple Things. Below are her concluding thoughts on The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Graham which was our July selection.

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So, what did you think? Have you enjoyed your time with Mole, Rat, Toad & Badger? I’m so glad that I finally sat down and read this! To sum up, I’m going to use that age-old blogger trick – the bullet point – since my thoughts are scattered all over the place with regards to this book.

• I read in the introduction (written by Margaret Hodges in my version) that this book is told “in a sandwich sort of way”. This was in reference to Grahame alternating Toad and non-Toad adventures – “the former providing the laughter and the ‘story’, the later the meaning and overtones.” Did you have a favorite of the two? I admit – the Toad stories were my favorite and by the time I got to chapter ten and we were well into Toad’s escape from jail and the eventual retaking of Toad Hall from the weasels, I couldn’t put the story down.


• I was heartily confused by chapter 7, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, at first. This is the chapter where Mole and Rat go in search of a young otter that has gone missing. Rat and Mole take a moonlight row down the river looking for the young author and there were some lines that I underlined in this chapter thinking that they were talking about God and the majesty of His creation (reminding me some of The Magician's Nephew, when the children see Aslan create Narnia at the beginning). There was a beautiful music that was calling to them that was almost painful to hear and Rat says,

“Here, in this holy place, here if anywhere, surely we shall find Him! … “Afraid?” murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love. “Afraid! Of Him? O, never, never! And yet – and yet – O, Mole, I am afraid!” Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and did worship.

Then, the story goes on to describe the Friend and Helper, with his backwards sweep of curved horns, the bearded mouth, the hand holding the pan-pipes, the hooves, etc. – it was a description of the god Pan! I guess I was surprised at how the descriptions of the Pan reminded me of how I feel about God and His creation when I think on them!

• I loved the characters of Mole, Rat and Badger! Each of them, in their own way, was a true friend to Toad and I don’t think I could pick a favorite from them. Badger, for all his crotchety ways, was supremely loyal. I loved what was said in my book’s intro about it, “though he cared little about Society, [Badger] was rather fond of children.” Mole, who was willing to go along with the other’s ideas and help in whatever way he could in his gentle way. And Rat … I loved his moment of tenderness to Mole when he finally realized how homesick Mole was and changed his agenda to minister to his friend.

I know these are random thoughts, but such as they are, I’m glad to have read this book this month! I’m always on the lookout for another group of animal friends to add to my book list and The Wind in the Willows did not disappoint. Thanks for asking me to host again this year, Carrie!

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And thank YOU, Stephanie, for hosting!!

Did anyone else out there read along? This is the post to link up your own posts to if you did. If you do not have a blog but want to share your thoughts on this read in the comment section below, please do so! We'd love to hear from you also.