Kenneth Grahame was born Mar. 8, 1859 and died July 6, 1932.
He was a Scottish author best known for this classic which he
completed in 1908. He wrote the book for his only son, Alastair,
while Kenneth was serving as a secretary of the Bank of England.
He wrote only three other books: Pagan Papers (1893),personal
essays that reflect his private frustrations, and the short-story
collections The Golden Age (1895) and Dream Days (1898).
Noted for its graceful charm, this book reveals the conflict
between Grahame's aristocratic background and the
new social concerns.
The major theme of the story is the struggle between the noisy,
common way of life and the quiet and genteel. The Wild Wooders,
including the stoats and the weasels, epitomize the former, while
the River-Bankers, including Badger, Mole, Rat, and Toad, represent
the latter. Toad is a lovable rebel who does not fit well into either
camp. Structurally, the fantasy is a small epic in prose paralleling
to some degree the events in Homer's Odyssey.
