Kenneth Grahame · 1908 · river

Kenneth Grahame's 1908 book, written out of the Thames between Cookham Dean and Pangbourne. A mole comes up from his spring cleaning, discovers the river and never really goes home. Around that sit the Wild Wood, the Wide World that sensible animals do not enter, and Toad - who buys a caravan, then a motor-car, then several motor-cars, and ends in gaol.

1. 1
   The River Bank

   Mole abandons his spring cleaning, comes up into the sunlight and meets Rat, who is messing about in a boat - and the book's argument, that the river is enough, is made in chapter one and tested thereafter.

2. 2
   The Wild Wood

   Mole goes into the Wild Wood alone in the snow to call on Badger, and learns why the river-bankers do not - and the two of them are found half-buried and taken in, which is the warmest passage in English children's writing.

3. 3
   The Wide World

   Beyond the wood lies the Wide World, which Rat says does not matter to any of them - and Toad goes straight into it with a caravan and a horse, and comes back having discovered the motor-car.

4. 4
   Toad Hall

   While Toad is in gaol for stealing cars and escaping dressed as a washerwoman, the weasels take Toad Hall - and the four of them go in through the tunnel with sticks and pistols to get it back for him.