<Tr> <Th> Text </Th> <Td> The Wind in the Willows at Wikisource </Td> </Tr> <P> The Wind in the Willows is a children's novel by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908 . Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animals in a pastoral version of Edwardian England . The novel is notable for its mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality and camaraderie, and celebrated for its evocation of the nature of the Thames Valley . It is illustrated by Arthur Rackham in 1940 . </P> <P> In 1908, Grahame retired from his position as secretary of the Bank of England . He moved back to Berkshire, where he had lived as a child, and spent his time by the River Thames doing much as the animal characters in his book do--as the book says, "simply messing about in boats"--and expanding the bedtime stories he had earlier told his son Alastair into a manuscript for the book . </P> <P> The novel was in its 31st printing when playwright A.A. Milne adapted part of it for the stage as Toad of Toad Hall in 1929 . Almost a century later, it was adapted again for the stage as a musical by Julian Fellowes . In 2003, The Wind in the Willows was listed at number 16 in the BBC's survey The Big Read . </P>

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