"Wind in the Willows": Some Illustrations

Oddly enough, much as I love The Wind in the Willows and a few other books like it, even as a child I found anthropomorphic animals (read: white rabbits in waistcoats) confusing, unnerving, and downright creepy depending on the books they were in. 

Brian Jacques’ popular Redwall series, for instance. It’s about mice…in Britain…in the Dark/Middle Ages…that are monks…. That’s just too many factors for my literal-minded brain to handle. Re-reading The Wind in the Willows this past January brought condundrums afresh!

Of course, reasonable explanations can be thought up for some things, such as when Mr. Toad has a “birdcage with a bird in it,” it could be a fake one (since later Ratty has conversations with birds, it seems beyond credulity that a bird would allow Mr. Toad to hold it captive, nor would Ratty have allowed such a travesty to occur). Indeed most of the human things (like picnic baskets, boats, and clothing) could be made in miniature.  I assume that this is how Mr. Toad’s cars and horse-cart and everything were built, since he seems the vain sort of creature who would pay extravagantly for anything to be tailor-made to his dimensions.

That falls apart when Toady steals a human car. Twice. Once, when humans are still in the car, and he is disguised as a washer-woman. He breaks out of prison in the washerwoman’s garb, having switched clothes with a human girl’s aunt. 

These sorts of impossibilities are discussed more in-depth in the blog entry by First Things, called “Beyond the Wildwood,” which discusses the quandaries Kenneth Grahame imposed on his illustrators.  

But as for me, I will consider it part of the book’s humor by interpreting scenes as if the creatures were realistically-sized:

Here is Mr. Toad driving his "gipsy caravan," from Chapter 2: The Open Road.

Here Mr. Toad is with his newest obsession: motorcars! 

And here Mr. Toad is, ready for his daring prison break, disguised in the clothes of a washerwoman. (Huh, can't seem to get this image to show up any larger. Suffice it to say that little dark dot at the neckline is the head of Mr. Toad.) This scene shows up in Chapter 8: Toad's Adventures.

Lastly, here is the Mole in Chapter 12: The Return of Ulysses. "The good-natured Mole picked up a stick, formed his prisoners up in a line on the floor, gave them the order 'Quick march!' and led his squad off to the upper floor."