Toad Hall (''The Wind in the Willows'')

Toad Hall
The 1913 edition of the novel
The Wind in the Willows location
Located in The Thames Valley
Created by Kenneth Grahame
Genre novel

Toad Hall is the fictional home of Mr. Toad, a character in the 1908 novel, The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame.

History

On his retirement from the Bank of England in 1908, Grahame returned to Blewbury in Berkshire, the county in which he had grown up. In October that year he published The Wind in the Willows, a novel for children featuring an array of anthropomorphic characters, including Rat (a water vole), Mole, Badger and Toad.[1] Toad lives in a house on the edge of the River Bank, Toad Hall. The novel was almost universally condemned by critics, but achieved very considerable sales.[2] It has been in print continuously since its publication and has been adapted for plays, a ballet,[3] films and musicals.[4] Originally published as plain text, it has subsequently been illustrated by a number of notable artists including Paul Bransom, Arthur Rackham and E. H. Shepard.[5]

Description

Grahame's description of Toad Hall is sparse: "a handsome, dignified old house of mellowed red brick, with well-kept lawns reaching down to the water's edge".[6] Its owner is in no doubt as to its merits: "'Finest house on the whole river', cried Toad boisterously. 'Or anywhere else, for that matter'".[7] The hall has a "very old banqueting-hall" and a "large boat-house".[6] Stables stand to the right of the house, as viewed from the river.[6] An ancient passage, unknown to Toad but vouchsafed to Mr Badger by Toad's father, and of critical importance to the novel's denoument,[8] "leads from the river bank ..., right up into the middle of Toad Hall".[9]

Inspirations

A number of houses have been cited as the inspiration for Toad Hall. These include:

Notes

  1. ↑ "Kenneth Grahame". Biography.
  2. ↑ Preston, John (10 February 2008). "Kenneth Grahame: Lost in the wild wood" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  3. ↑ Andrew Motion. "Return to Toad Hall | Books". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  4. ↑ Williams, Albert. "The Wind in the Willows".
  5. ↑ "Wind in the Willows Books & Illustrators". 27 May 2012.
  6. 1 2 3 Grahame 1995, p. 35.
  7. ↑ Grahame 1995, p. 36.
  8. ↑ "The Wind in the Willows—A Summary".
  9. ↑ Grahame 1995, p. 184.
  10. ↑ "High Court fight over 'Toad Hall'". 11 July 2011 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  11. ↑ "Would the real Toad Hall please stand up - Creation Theatre Company". 23 November 2017.
  12. ↑ "Wind in the Willows Centenary". Berks&Bucks Life.
  13. ↑ Duncan, Fiona (3 October 2017). "Is this Cornwall's most family-friendly hotel?" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  14. ↑ "Foxwarren Park, near Cobham, Surrey". www.victorianweb.org.
  15. ↑ Michelle Nichols (10 March 2001), "Is this house the real Toad Hall?", The Scotsman
  16. ↑ Davidson, Max (24 October 2015). "Secrets, scandal and Toad of Toad Hall: the properties with stories to tell" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  17. ↑ BBC. "Who spawned Mr Toad?".

Sources

  • Grahame, Kenneth (1995). The Wind in the Willows. London: The Folio Society. OCLC 38040126.
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