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Illustrated classic

The Wind in the Willows

by Kenneth Grahame

Mole, Rat, Toad and Otter, drawn by AI from Kenneth Grahame's text. Here are six scenes from the first two chapters, each beside the passage it shows.

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Mole and Rat row a blue boat down a willow-lined river while Badger and Toad watch from the banks, under the title The Wind in the Willows.
  1. Mole bursts out of a molehill into a sunny meadow, his black fur splashed with whitewash, beside a comic-book POP!

    Chapter 1 · The River Bank

    The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said “Bother!” and “O blow!” and also “Hang spring-cleaning!” and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above was calling him imperiously, and he made for the steep little tunnel which answered in his case to the gravelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences are nearer to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself, “Up we go! Up we go!” till at last, pop! his snout came out into the sunlight, and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow.
  2. Mole sits on the riverbank watching Rat's whiskered face peep out of a hole on the far bank.

    Chapter 1 · The River Bank

    It was the Water Rat!
  3. The boat bumps the bank: Rat lies on his back with his feet in the air while Mole clutches the side, beside a comic-book BONK!

    Chapter 1 · The River Bank

    It was too late. The boat struck the bank full tilt. The dreamer, the joyous oarsman, lay on his back at the bottom of the boat, his heels in the air.
  4. Otter, in a red neckerchief, climbs out of the river by a mill to greet Mole and Rat at their picnic.

    Chapter 1 · The River Bank

    A broad glistening muzzle showed itself above the edge of the bank, and the Otter hauled himself out and shook the water from his coat.
  5. The boat capsizes and Mole and Rat tumble into the river among flying oars and a picnic basket, beside a comic-book SPLOOSH!

    Chapter 1 · The River Bank

    Over went the boat, and he found himself struggling in the river.
  6. Toad, in a yellow check suit, shows off his yellow-and-green caravan to Mole and Rat in the yard of Toad Hall.

    Chapter 2 · The Open Road

    He led the way to the stable-yard accordingly, the Rat following with a most mistrustful expression; and there, drawn out of the coach house into the open, they saw a gipsy caravan, shining with newness, painted a canary-yellow picked out with green, and red wheels.