THE TOAD CAME HOME

This column in the "My Reading Life" series by Elinore Standard appeared in the Record Review in March, 2005

Works mentioned in the piece: The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, A Reading Diary by Alberto Manguel.



AND THE TOAD --- CAME --- HOME

On NPR I recently heard children’s book author and reviewer Daniel Pinkwater talk about a new, abridged edition of the 1908 Kenneth Grahame children’s classic, “The Wind in The Willows." Although the characters, Rat, Mole, Badger and Toad, seemed familiar, I realized that somehow I neither read it nor was it read to me. What a lack!

I quickly ordered the original 1908 version illustrated in 1961 by Ernest H. Shepard from Amazon, ($5.99), where I also browsed through another young reader’s edition with nice illustrations by Don Daily and re-told by G. C. Barrett. The original text is shortened somewhat but it does retain the spirit of the original so I decided to get it for the beginning reader in our family.

I checked the local library system and found the Pinkwater version, illustrated by Inga Moore, at three libraries. Many have the original with the Shepard illustrations and there are plenty of others. Several libraries have the unabridged audiobook and I discovered an abridged (2 tapes) BBC version read by Alan Bennett. Although there are many videos of “The Wind In The Willows”, the most likely version includes voices of Judy Collins, Roddy McDowall, Jose Ferrer and Eddie Bracken. Netflix (www.netflix.com) will mail DVD’s and is usually good source for movie and TV classics. Although they have several listings for “The Wind In The Willows” I was put off by the Disneyish animation in what I found.

Read this opening line of the original Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932) “The Wind In The Willows”, close your eyes, and think what comes to mind:
The mole had been working very hard all the
morning, spring cleaning his little home.”

Don’t you want to snuggle deeper into your cozy chair and keep reading? Don’t you think of warmth and the safety of home? When mole returns to his old underground home after adventuring afar, he looks around at his familiar things and realizes how much it all means to him. He realizes the value of such a base in one’s existence.

“But it was good to think he had this to come back to, this place which was all his own, these things which were so glad to see him again and could always be counted upon for the same simple welcome.”

Kenneth Grahame offers sly insights into human nature that may be lost on the young but will delight the older reader, such as when Mole observes, “After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working.” Kind of like being in Florida and knowing it is 15 degrees and snowing in The North Country.

For “A Reading Diary: A Passionate Reader’s Reflections On A Year of Books”, (Farrar, 2004), Alberto Manguel kept a volume of notes, reflections, impressions, sketches, all elicited by his re-reading 12 of his favorite old books. In one chapter, Manguel, an Argentine by birth, is about to buy his own house near Poitiers in France after not having one for a long time, and he begins thinking about “The Wind In The Willows” and the comforts of home. He says, “Kenneth Grahame is masterly at describing comfort,” and so Manguel decided to re-read “The Wind In The Willows”.

Manguel says he is like Mole in that he likes orderly adventures and as an exile he says, “I know that you can feel utterly at home in a place that is not the one to which you feel the deepest attachment. (Mole would agree).” He observes, “…throughout my reading year I found myself traveling to many different cities and yet wishing to be back home, in my house in a small village in France, where I keep my books and do my work.” Mole would agree with that, too.

If, by some small chance, you are unfamiliar with the story of “The Wind in the Willows”, it goes like this: Mole emerges from his underground home into the Springtime world above. He meets Rat and together they paddle a little boat around The River. While they are picnicking, Badger makes a brief appearance and Toad appears in a one-man shell, rowing erratically and tipping over. Mole and Rat visit Toad at Toad Hall and find him excited about setting out in his latest passion: a gypsy caravan. Toad convinces them to come along. They’ve not gone far when the caravan is wiped off the road by a speeding motor car and instead of lamenting, Toad is possessed by the newest new thing. A hopelessly bad driver, Toad wrecks one expensive auto after another and Rat and Mole give up. Winter has come and Mole sets off into the Wild Wood where he is terrorized by stoats and weasels. Heavily armed, Rat sets off to find Mole. A snowstorm covers up everything but reunited, they stumble upon the entrance to Badger’s snug burrow. The antisocial but kindly Badger welcomes them and eventually shows them a safe way out of the Wild Wood. Along about Yuletide, Mole realizes he is homesick and invites Rat to visit him for a change. Together they give Mole’s place a makeover and have a happy homecoming. Now it is summer again and Badger, Mole and Rat decide to do an intervention on Toad, who is a menace on the roads. They lecture him about his reckless ways and lock him in his room. He escapes and steals a motorcar outside a pub. Toad is caught and thrown into a dungeon where he stays until he bribes his way out. In the guise of a washerwoman, he wheedles a ride on a railway train and escapes from the pursuing Bobbies. Toad then gets a ride on a barge and is insulting to the bargewoman. Toad steals the barge horse and the barge runs aground. “Ha,, Ha,,” laughs Toad who then sells the horse. With shillings in his pocket, Toad hitches a ride in a passing motorcar, the very one he had taken from the pub. Overcome by his driving obsession, he grabs the wheel and plunges the car into a pond. Chased by the law once again, Toad jumps in the river and is saved by Rat. Rat is disgusted and Toad repents a little, seeing what an awful ass he has made of himself. In his absence, Toad Hall has been taken over by the Wild Wooders who are squatting there, wrecking the place. Badger knows a secret passageway to Toad Hall and together the four friends resolve to reclaim it. Armed with pistols and swords and sticks and accompanied by other friendly animals, they rush in and whack the evildoers. They get the place cleaned up and send out invitations to a celebration banquet. Although Toad has been forbidden to make speeches, he does sing one last little song that begins: “When the Toad ----came----home!”

And the moral of the story is? I was doing fine until I asked. You could say the moral is: you can do whatever you feel like doing if you have enough money to bail yourself out when you get in trouble. As Ratty observes, “Toad is rather rich, you know.” Although he is slightly contrite in the end, you get the feeling Toad is like every other irresponsible rich boy you’ve ever met: his impulse control is set on zero.

Electing to leave the story on a positive note, I prefer to remember the sweetness and loyalty of the animal friendships and Kenneth Grahame’s gorgeous descriptions of the seasons in nature, the fields, the Wild Wood and The River in “The Wind in the Willows."