This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them.
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This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them.
Read Less
I love THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, and had expected to love this book too. Instead, I found it a rather tedious bid for sympathy for the author's childhood, one in which he and his orphaned siblings were raised by aunts for whom he had enduring spite.
I have little patience with books that depict adults as the enemies of children --and the idyllic rural setting in which the orphaned children shared their childhood with their aunts sounds blissful, an invitation to imaginative play. The author's account of it makes more vivid his scorn for "the Olympians" (the aunts who offered them a comfortable home are never named) that it does the warmth that may have existed between the siblings. (it would be interesting to know if his siblings may have enjoyed those years more than did young Kenneth.)
I'd never choose to share this book with a child; it is unattractively mean-spirited. I assume his later adult life was happier, allowing us to have the book that made his name.
Were it not for the lovely illustrations, my rating would have been one star.
