- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; annotated edition edition (May 1 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0674034473
- ISBN-13: 978-0674034471
- Product Dimensions: 24.4 x 23.6 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.1 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #157,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"Lerer's annotated edition of The Wind in the Willows not only seeks to respond to every possible question a contemporary reader (of any age) might pose, but it goes beyond that aim to make the most penetrating and astute interpretive asides, and it does so economically, judiciously, and - what is most delightful - in a graceful prose of its own that matches the gleaming poetic style of Kenneth Grahame himself and thus honors him both in form and content." - Ellen Handler Spitz, author of The Brightening Glance: Imagination and Childhood"
The Wind in the Willows is one of the few books that inspires unconditional reverence, and it has long deserved a guide as sensitive, deft, insightful, and generous as Seth Lerer. Here, Toad, Rat, Mole, and other characters come alive for both adult and inner child. A splendid achievement.
--Maria Tatar, Harvard University
The Wind in the Willows is one of the few books that inspires unconditional reverence, and it has long deserved a guide as sensitive, deft, insightful, and generous as Seth Lerer. Here, Toad, Rat, Mole, and other characters come alive for both adult and inner child. A splendid achievement.
--Maria Tatar, Harvard University
Product Description
Begun as a series of stories told by Kenneth Grahame to his six-year-old son, The Wind in the Willows has become one of the most beloved works of children’s literature ever written. It has been illustrated, famously, by E.H. Shepard and Arthur Rackham, and parts of it were dramatized by A.A. Milne as Toad of Toad Hall. A century after its initial publication it still enchants. Much in Grahame’s novel—the sensitivity of Mole, the mania of Toad, the domesticity of Rat—permeates our imaginative lives (as children and adults). And Grahame’s burnished prose still dazzles. Now comes an annotated edition of The Wind in the Willows by a leading literary scholar that instructs the reader in a larger appreciation of the novel’s charms and serene narrative magic.
In an introduction aimed at a general audience, Seth Lerer tells us everything that we, as adults, need to know about the author and his work. He vividly captures Grahame’s world and the circumstances under which The Wind in the Willows came into being. In his running commentary on the novel, Lerer offers complete annotations to the language, contexts, allusions, and larger texture of Grahame’s prose. Anyone who has read and loved The Wind in the Willows will want to own and cherish this beautiful gift edition. Those coming to the novel for the first time, or returning to it with their own children, will not find a better, more sensitive guide than Seth Lerer.
(20090515)
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Informative & fun.,
By
This review is from: The Wind in the Willows: An Annotated Edition (Hardcover)
The annotations in this book are almost as fun to read as the story itself. All obscure language is fully explained, lots of the language is set in context with what the author would've been trying to get across with using certain words. All in all, a great book to understand the context of the story and how it would have been read/understood when it was first published.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews) 41 of 43 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lovely Edition of One of the Great Works of Children's Literature,
By John Klima - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Wind in the Willows: An Annotated Edition (Hardcover)
This edition, published by Harvard/Belknap, reproduces E.H. Shepard's wonderful line drawings and contains a color gallery of work by many of the best, most praised illustrators of The Wind in the Willows. It's a beautiful object you'll want to own and treasure. The notes by Seth Lerer -- who just won the NBCC award for his history of children's literature -- are superb, often rising to the level of short essays. Here is Lerer, for example, on "spring cleaning" and the novel's famous opening sentence: "The phrase emerged in the late Victorian period. Houses and apartments would have been turned out and cleaned at least once a year... It clearly marks a turn in the late-19th century domestic habits, one keyed to the gradual move away from the domestic space defined by objects and clutter to a space defined by cleanliness. The symbolic resonances, too, are obvious: spring is a time of renewal, of clearing out the past, and of refreshness. The OED offers this quotation form The Pall Mall Gazette of 1889: 'There are a few points of mutual sympathy between the poet and the spring cleaner.' Grahame begins the story, then, by clearing out the past and making a fresh start. But he also introduces one of the governing conceits of the story: that his main characters, even though they are animals, live in a comfortably familiar domestic world." A lovely edition.
36 of 40 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Nice, but Lacking...,
By W. J. Hunter - Published on Amazon.com
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This review is from: The Wind in the Willows: An Annotated Edition (Hardcover)
There are two recent annotated versions of "The Wind in the Willows", and I have only read this one, so this review isn't meant to be a comparison. Indeed, I chose Mr. Lerer's version because of its higher customer rating on Amazon.com. However, now that I've completed it, I am left hoping the other author's version is better.In short, these annotations just seem a bit perfunctory. Most of them are simple transcriptions from the OED, explaining the meaning and origin of obscure words. That, of course, is helpful, but lacks the imagination and ingenuity of, say, Martin Gardner's "The Annotated Alice", which really delves into the depth and meaning of Lewis Carroll's classic. At his worst, Lerer composes certain presumptions as facts, when they are occasionally rather poor guesses. In one section, he pronounces that Badger's house is an old church, whereas the prose leads most to believe Badger lives in a Roman ruin. All annotators make presumptions of course, but it is imperative to word them as such so readers aren't misled. The book is not without its strengths. Lerer's introduction is insightful, and the book is beautifully printed, with buttery paper and nicely printed illustrations. On the whole, it's not a bad book, I just wish more time was spent honing and refining it, making sure it was worthy of Grahame's original. 8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Both informative and delightful,
By San Antonio Book Review - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Wind in the Willows: An Annotated Edition (Hardcover)
It is safe to say that few would contest that The Wind in the Willows is one of the most beloved works of children's literature ever written. Children today love it, their parents loved it, their grandparents and even their great-great-grandparents loved it. The stories captured the hearts of young and old alike back in 1908, and over 100 years later the same still holds true. Turns of phrase and names of items that were commonplace at the turn of the 20th century are now charming and antiquated -- and very often confusing for the average modern day reader.Seth Lerer steps in to educate and entertain in this delightful new edition of a timeless classic. In the generously spaced margins running along the outer side of each page Lerer provides the etymological origins of words, the references and influences that Grahame drew upon to create his stories, and a description of the flora and fauna of Great Britain. In Chapter 1, he goes into detail about the Victorian trend of picnicking; later in Chapter 7 he notes the influence that Romantic poets, Keats in particular, had on Grahame's choice of words. And in the middle of the book there's a 16 page spread of glossy, full color images of the covers and illustrations of past editions. Whether readers are nostalgic for the stories of their childhood or looking to experience The Wind in the Willows in an entirely new fashion, this is a book that simply can't be passed up. |
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