"A Household Book; a book which everybody in the household loves, and quotes
continually; a book which is read aloud to every new guest and is regarded as the touchstone
of his worth."A. A. Milne

The Wind in the Willows is a book for those "who keep the spirit of youth alive in them;
of life, sunshine, running water, woodlands, dusty roads, winter firesides." So wrote Kenneth
Grahame of his timeless tale of Rat, Mole, Badger, and Toad, in their lyrical world of gurgling
rivers and whispering reeds, a world which is both beautiful and benevolently ordered. But it is
also a world threatened by dark forces"the Terror of the Wild Wood" with its "wicked little
faces" and "glances of malice and hatred"and defended by the mysterious Piper at the Gates
of Dawn.

In the end, Grahame triumphantly succeeds in conveying his most precious theme: the miracle
of loyalty and friendship.