Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Bibliographical note
- 1 The Definition of Literature
- 2 On Liberty of Interpreting
- 3 Evaluative Criticism, and Criticism without Evaluation
- 4 The Novel: a Critical Impasse?
- 5 The Sea Cook: a Study in the Art of Robert Louis Stevenson
- 6 On Kidnapped
- 7 On The Wind in the Willows
- 8 The Present Value of Tennyson
- 9 Robert Frost
- 10 Hopkins and Literary Criticism
- 11 T. S. Eliot: a Poet's Notebook
- 12 I. A. Richards
- 13 Yvor Winters: Counter-romantic
7 - On The Wind in the Willows
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Bibliographical note
- 1 The Definition of Literature
- 2 On Liberty of Interpreting
- 3 Evaluative Criticism, and Criticism without Evaluation
- 4 The Novel: a Critical Impasse?
- 5 The Sea Cook: a Study in the Art of Robert Louis Stevenson
- 6 On Kidnapped
- 7 On The Wind in the Willows
- 8 The Present Value of Tennyson
- 9 Robert Frost
- 10 Hopkins and Literary Criticism
- 11 T. S. Eliot: a Poet's Notebook
- 12 I. A. Richards
- 13 Yvor Winters: Counter-romantic
Summary
Many people think of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows as a children's book, and it certainly begins like one: indeed the first sentence sounds as if the book is going to be addressed to very young children.
The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, springcleaning his little home.
We are not far from the world of Beatrix Potter (Peter Rabbit, 1904; Wind in the Willows, 1908). But even in the first few sentences we are aware of a larger rhythm, something on a greater scale than her tiny world. The novel begins with a dramatic gesture of revolt, like Vanity Fair:
But, lo! and just as the coach drove off, Miss Sharp put her pale face out of the window and actually flung the book back into the garden.
or Antic Hay:
He picked up his pen and denounced.
Mole responds to the first ‘imperious summons’ of the book. There are to be more; but none more elemental.
Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said ‘ Bother!’ and ‘O blow!’ and also ‘Hang spring-cleaning!’ and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat. […]
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Definition of Literature and Other Essays , pp. 119 - 144Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1982