The Wind in the Willows

 
 
The Wind in the Willows

by Kenneth Grahame
art by Don Daily
Applesauce Press

1908, reprinted 2014
 

I'm sure I read The Wind in the Willows at some point as a kid, although I could hardly remember it, and I think it might have been mixed up with the Frog and Toad stories. Maybe I'll reread those soon too!
 

We start off following Mole as he skips out on spring cleaning to go enjoy a lovely spring day, then meets up with Rat, who's out boating. Mole joins Rat for boating and a picnic, and then seems to just move into Rat's house. They remain the characters we follow most closely, but what they're really interested in is their friend Toad.

 
Toad sees a couple human men driving a car, and decides he wants to take up this fascinating new hobby. He's a terrible driver, but very rich, so he keeps buying and crashing cars. Badger, Mole, and Rat basically put Toad on house arrest to stop him from wasting so much money on cars, but he escapes, steals someone else's car and wrecks it, and gets thrown in jail. Toad later escapes jail by disguising himself as a laundry woman, and somehow manages to hitchhike, take over driving, and crash again on his way back to his friends.

 
While Toad was in prison, some weasels moved into Toad Hall and took it over, so the four friends load up on pistols and sabers and burst into Toad's house, scaring all the weasels away, and they celebrate with a black tie ball, as one does, I suppose. 

 
Honestly, aside from the fact that they're all animals, these stories are all really reminiscent of the antics of Jeeves and Wooster. I like J&W though, so I certainly see the appeal of the genre!