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 ChildhoodThe 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
You might think it a bit extreme to painstakingly annotate a children's book, but, oh, what a children's book. And oh, what an annotation...[This] is an exquisite examination of the nuances, allusions, Britishisms and context of Kenneth Grahame's wonderful 1908 novel...This big, lovely book is illustrated by some of the most famous Grahame illustrators--Nancy Barnhart, Arthur Rackham, Wyndham Payne and, of course, Ernest H. Shepherd, who brought to life the brash, cigar-smoking, swaggering Mr. Toad. This book is a labor of great scholarship, but it is also, clearly, a labor of love.
--Laurie Hertzel (
Minneapolis Star-Tribune 20090515)
A handsome edition of Grahame's great classic...One of the delights of this edition is the collection of beautiful illustrations from each edition, from Nancy Barnhart's wonderful 1922 version to Arthur Rackham's in 1940, as well as Paul Bransom's deliciously weird 1913 images for Scribner's.
--Lawrence Osborne (
Forbes 20090507)
Lerer's book perform[s] magic. [It] demonstrates how much of a writer's life can wind up distilled in a stack of paper--in this case, how Kenneth Grahame's daydreams, fears, heartbreak, upbringing, era and locale all sneaked into a fanciful children's book about talking animals. In what other book can you find slapstick auto theft, a dirge for lost arcadia and a numinous encounter with that pagan refugee and mascot of the Edwardian neo-romantics, the great god Pan?...Lerer's preface is a thoughtful and elegant survey of the biographical and literary context for this beloved book.
--Michael Sims (
Washington Post Book World 20090614)
[An] exquisite new annotated edition of Kenneth Grahame's masterpiece...It takes us into a pre-modern world of lyrical beauty, with animals that behave like humans, landscapes that are painted for us rather than described, and language more literary than spoken...Rereading this volume, which Harvard University Press has given all the high production values it deserves, led me to understand more fully the soporific effects of
The Wind in the Willows on children. Under the spell of an artist who animates his fictional world with something akin to solar energy ("Suddenly the sun was with them again, and grey was gold and colour was born and sprang out of the earth once more"), readers enter dreaded conflict zones but always return to that consummate comfort zone known as Home...By turns ecstatic and elegiac, and always without pathos, sentiment or pyrotechnics,
The Wind in the Willows is also always there, ready to provide us, when we feel lost, with all the comforts of Home.
--Maria Tatar (
Globe and Mail 20090620)
[A] handsome edition...[Lerer] provides a wealth of information that will be welcomed by anyone who wants return to the riverbank and discover just how enduring and endearing Grahame's masterpiece remains a century after it was published.
--Peter Parker (
Times Literary Supplement 20090626)
For all its apparent celebration of neatness and domestic orderliness
The Wind in the Willows is really a book about letting go. It begins with Mole, tired of spring cleaning, putting aside his whitewash brush and taking to the road, and its true hero is Toad, who is anarchy incarnate.
--Charles McGrath (
New York Times Book Review 20090710)
An enduring masterpiece of children's literature.
--Bill Ruehlmann (
Virginian-Pilot 20090726)
Full of luminous little notes on the story.
--Robert Pincus (
Sign On San Diego 20090528)
The pages have a slight gloss, the typeface is elegant; the margins are pleasingly wide, and the annotations are terse, informative, and properly infrequent...The images are also well chosen...Reading Lerer's edition is a great pleasure. The notes are there when you need them and are easy to ignore when you don't. This book is, among other things, a delightful testimony to the bookmaker's art...His edition will be the one I return to when the book, as it often does, calls out to me and in its quiet and gracious tones requests my attention.
--Alan Jacobs (
First Things 20091001)
This annotated version of the children's classic holds a college course's worth of information between its covers. Giving the gift of Toad's adventures with Rat and Mole will always be, and always has been, an appreciated gift. This edition, however, takes the reader deeper into the world of
The Wind in the Willows with relevant annotations and cultural contexts. This book deserves a spot on the bookshelf to be enjoyed by the old and young alike. Revisited, or newly discovered, Kenneth Grahame continues to inspire imaginations.
--Katharine Wray (
popmatters.com 20091215)
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...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.
--Kate Maruska (
San Antonio Book Review 20100121)
