Critical Essay | Critical Essay by John David Moore

Critical Essay by John David Moore

SOURCE: "Pottering About in the Garden: Kenneth Grahame's Version of Pastoral in The Wind in the Willows," in The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, Vol. 23, No. 1, Spring, 1990, pp. 45-60.

In the following essay, Moore argues that the Arcadian world portrayed in The Wind in the Willows is actually an "uneasy Eden. '

In his introduction to what has become accepted as Kenneth Grahame's classic of children's literature, A. A. Milne writes:

One does not argue about The Wind in the Willows. The young man gives it to the girl with whom he is in love, and if she does not like it, asks her to return his letters. The older man tries it on his nephew, and alters his will accordingly. The book is a test of character. We can't criticize it, because it is criticizing us. As I wrote once: It is a...
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