The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
This book was ridiculously tedious, uninteresting and incredibly difficult to wade through!
Had it been any longer I would probably have given up! However I became determined not to be beaten by a children's book*!
The character of Toad is horribly unsympathetic. The 'hijinks', such as they are, are unrealistic** and not overly engaging. Perhaps Toad was meant to be written as a duffer and a slimy character; but Rat is also condescending to Mole, not listening to him and presuming he knows more - much in the vein of Toad's behaviour. Even Badger is quite harsh to Toad. Perhaps that is what they believe Toad needs but being mean, lecturing and eventually imprisoning someone is hardly good manners.
In the case of Toad it is clear that he is not interested in changing his ways, so the others are really wasting time and energy.
Until half-way through, the book doesn't even suffer from the smurfette trope because there are no women at all. When we finally meet some, they are unfavourable caricatures of the worst traits of women (as perceived by men). The gaoler's daughter is stereotypical mother figure; caring for Toad's every need.
Her aunt is money-hungry and unrealistically willing risk her job to help a prisoner escape.
The barge washer-woman entraps Toad into looking like a fool (how dare she!).
Notice that none of these women have names? Now, to be fair, none of the human characters have names and the animals are all named by their species. But seriously? No women animals? Otter, who has children, is not even mentioned to have a wife; let alone her having a part in the story.
Lastly, the animals eat chicken, ham, bacon and tongue. How is this okay? The first horse is mentioned to have a personality, despite being a beast of burden, but later Toad steals and sells a horse, a process throughout which the horse never offers an opinion - even when a price for him*** is being negotiated.
My recommendation is that no one ever read this book again. It isn't worth it.
Jocelyn.
*This may have been karma, on account of I was (am) trying to cheat by reading all the easy books, so that I will have read more than Emmeline, it would have taken less time to read a 'hard' book I'm sure!
** For example Toad receives a sentence of one year for stealing a car, three for 'furious driving' and 15 years for giving cheek to the police. All of which gets rounded up to 20 years. What? In what universe is 'giving cheek' 5x worse than reckless driving and 15x worse than stealing a car?? Also would Toad really be allowed to return to his house after escaping from a 20 year sentence - did the police not think to check there for the escaped prisoner?
*** I'm going to assume the horse was male - everyone else was
This book was ridiculously tedious, uninteresting and incredibly difficult to wade through!
Had it been any longer I would probably have given up! However I became determined not to be beaten by a children's book*!
The character of Toad is horribly unsympathetic. The 'hijinks', such as they are, are unrealistic** and not overly engaging. Perhaps Toad was meant to be written as a duffer and a slimy character; but Rat is also condescending to Mole, not listening to him and presuming he knows more - much in the vein of Toad's behaviour. Even Badger is quite harsh to Toad. Perhaps that is what they believe Toad needs but being mean, lecturing and eventually imprisoning someone is hardly good manners.
In the case of Toad it is clear that he is not interested in changing his ways, so the others are really wasting time and energy.
Until half-way through, the book doesn't even suffer from the smurfette trope because there are no women at all. When we finally meet some, they are unfavourable caricatures of the worst traits of women (as perceived by men). The gaoler's daughter is stereotypical mother figure; caring for Toad's every need.
Her aunt is money-hungry and unrealistically willing risk her job to help a prisoner escape.
The barge washer-woman entraps Toad into looking like a fool (how dare she!).
Notice that none of these women have names? Now, to be fair, none of the human characters have names and the animals are all named by their species. But seriously? No women animals? Otter, who has children, is not even mentioned to have a wife; let alone her having a part in the story.
Lastly, the animals eat chicken, ham, bacon and tongue. How is this okay? The first horse is mentioned to have a personality, despite being a beast of burden, but later Toad steals and sells a horse, a process throughout which the horse never offers an opinion - even when a price for him*** is being negotiated.
My recommendation is that no one ever read this book again. It isn't worth it.
Jocelyn.
*This may have been karma, on account of I was (am) trying to cheat by reading all the easy books, so that I will have read more than Emmeline, it would have taken less time to read a 'hard' book I'm sure!
** For example Toad receives a sentence of one year for stealing a car, three for 'furious driving' and 15 years for giving cheek to the police. All of which gets rounded up to 20 years. What? In what universe is 'giving cheek' 5x worse than reckless driving and 15x worse than stealing a car?? Also would Toad really be allowed to return to his house after escaping from a 20 year sentence - did the police not think to check there for the escaped prisoner?
*** I'm going to assume the horse was male - everyone else was
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