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"So—this—is—a—River!"
"THE River," corrected the Rat.
"And you really live by the river? What a jolly life!"
"By it and with it and on it and in it,' said the Rat. 'It's brother and sister to me, and aunts, and company, and food and drink, and (naturally) washing. It's my world, and I don't want any other."
Chapter 1: The River Bank

A beloved 1908 children's novel by British author Kenneth Grahame, set in an idealized England of the late Victorian to early Edwardian Era. It details the adventures and misadventures of four variably anthropomorphic animals living around the banks of "The River".

Chapter 7, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" (where the name of Pink Floyd's debut album came from, if you ask) and Chapter 9, "Wayfarers All" are sometimes cut from publications of the book.

The whole text of the book is available for free here.

    Adaptations include: 
  • Disney released a heavily-condensed adaptation as the first half of their final package film, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, with the other half adapting The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Ever wonder what the inspiration was for the most terrifying ride at Disneyland and Walt Disney World? This was.
  • There was another animated version by Rankin/Bass Productions, that is sometimes mistaken for a Disney movie (probably because of how many times it was shown on the Disney Channel in the 1990s). This version aired in 1987 on ABC and featured Charles Nelson Reilly as Mr. Toad, Roddy McDowall as Rat and JosĂ© Ferrer as Badger.
  • Another animated movie produced by Burbank Films Australia.
  • There have been countless musicals and stage plays based on the book, amongst the most notable:
    • "Toad of Toad Hall" by A. A. Milne. It debuted at the Lyric Theatre in London on December 17, 1929. Focused mainly on the exploits of Mr. Toad, it incorporates the caravan and automobile, as well as his imprisonment, escape, and fight with the weasels and stoats to recover Toad Hall with the help of his friends.
    • An adaption by Alan Bennett for the National Theatre in 1990.
    • A 2017 West End Musical with a book by Julian Fellowes.
  • The stop-motion film done by Cosgrove Hall for Thames Television in 1983. It was so popular that they did a subsequent TV series premiered the following year that ran for five series — giving them an opportunity to adapt the chapters they left out of the film: "The Further Adventures of Toad", "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn", and "Wayfarers All", and another movie "A Tale of Two Toads", set between series four and five.
  • A trilogy of animated specials for ITV directed by Martin Gates - dubbed on home video as "The Wind in the Willows Collection", featuring Richard Briers as Rat, Peter Davison as Mole, Hugh Laurie as Toad, and Paul Eddington as Badger:
    • "Mole's Christmas (1994) — adapted from the chapter "Dolce Domum"
    • "The Adventures of Mole" (1995) — adapted from the first four chapters
    • "The Adventures of Toad" (1996) — adapted from chapters 6, 8, 10, 11, 12 ("Piper" and "Wayfarer" were left out)
  • The Wind in the Willows (1995) made by TVC is yet another animated version featuring Michael Palin as Rat, Alan Bennett as Mole, Rik Mayall as Toad, and Michael Gambon as Badger, with Vanessa Redgrave as the Narrator.
  • The Wind in the Willows (1996) (known as "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" in America), a live-action version directed by and starring Terry Jones as Toad, Eric Idle as Rat, Steve Coogan as Mole, and Nicol Williamson as Badger. Also features cameos by Stephen Fry, John Cleese, and Michael Palin.
  • Another live-action version that was coproduced by The BBC and CBC in 2007, airing in America as part of PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre" featuring Mark Gatiss as Rat, Lee Ingleby as Mole, Matt Lucas as Toad, and Bob Hoskins as Badger, with Imelda Staunton as the Barge Woman and Jim Carter as the Engine Driver.
  • From 1996-2001, French comic book artist Michel Plessix wrote and drew four graphic novels that adapted the story. The adaptation is mostly faithful to the book, following all the story beats and featuring all the characters, but a few scenes are expanded upon a little, a number of jokes and funny asides are added, and there are a few tweaks in characterizations (Mole, for example, is depicted as a bit of an artist who does sketches of things that happen to him).
  • There have been many unofficial sequels, but the most famous are William Horwood's four sequels written in the 1990s, dubbed "Tales of the Willows":
    • "The Willows in Winter" (adapted into an animated film by TVC as a sequel to their version of "The Wind in the Willows")
    • "Toad Triumphant"
    • "The Willows and Beyond"
    • "The Willows at Christmas"
  • Sequels by other authors include:
    • "Return to the Willows" by Jacqueline Kelly
    • "The Wild Wood", a retelling by Jan Needle, told from the viewpoint of the Wild Wooders, who have a very different view on the lifestyle of the Riverbankers.
    • "A Fresh Wind in the Willows" by Dixon Scott.
    • "The River Bank" by Kij Johnson. It takes place a year after the original introducing two new characters - Miss Mole (who is disliked by Mole due to past history) and Miss Rabbit, who encourages Toad to get into a new mania — motorcycling.
    • "Counselling for Toads" by Robert de Board. It depicts a depressed Toad getting therapy from Heron, the local therapist. It's less a story and more a series of conversations between Toad and Heron, where the concepts and ideas behind transactional analysis are explored through Toad's journey through his therapy — and the character of Toad is explored through transactional analysis.
    • "Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Mr. Toad" by Daniel Mallory Ortberg, which blends Wind in the Willows with the short story "Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby." Here, Toad's "friends" are manipulative bullies who use the guise of "rescuing" their friend to justify the abuse they put him through.
    • "In the Wake of the Willows" by Frederick Thurber, which recounts the adventures of the characters and their children.

This novel contains examples of:

  • Adaptational Heroism: The Greek God Pan's more ... adult passions are left out, instead focusing on his love for nature and animals.
  • The Alleged Steed: The barge-horse stolen by Toad from the bargewoman, being an old work animal, is a downplayed version, as it can't gallop for very long and soon slows down to a trot. A traveller Toad passes offers him four shillings total for the beast — "shillin' a leg" — which Toad rightfully considers a very paltry sum, but when paying back the woman for the theft at the end, the local assessors consulted by both parties admit it's actually quite fair.
  • Alliterative Title: "The Wind in the Willows"
  • Anachronism Stew: As Toad goes into the jail we time-travel from the turn of the century into the Middle Ages, walking past "men-at-arms" and "ancient warders" with halberds and a room with racks and thumbscrews, and by the time we've stepped into the "grimmest dungeon... in the heart of the innermost keep," the Edwardian police sergeant is starting to say things like "Oddsbodikins!" and "a murrain on both of them!"
  • Anthropomorphic Shift: The animals seem to alter their status several times over the novel, moving back and forth between Civilized Animal, Partially Civilized Animal, and Funny Animal. Seemingly they become more or less humanlike as the plot demands. The anthropomorphic line gets so uncertain that at one point Toad is said to have "combed the dry leaves out of his hair". It's probably best to think of it with the MST3K Mantra.
  • Arcadian Interlude: "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn."
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Toad is convicted for stealing a motor-car, dangerous driving and cheeking the police. Ironically, the Clerk is more lenient with the first two crimes. Although never specified, Toad's cheek is described as "imaginative" and "gross impertinence". Given his flamboyant, conceited attitude, it's not hard to believe.
  • The Baby of the Bunch: Mole quite often gets this portrayal, mostly due to having the least experience with the world outside his home. Toad sometimes takes this trope from Mole, if only because his immature and flamboyant personality often require his friends to keep him in line.
  • Barbarous Barbary Bandits: Discussed by Rat at one point when he and Mole are entertaining a bunch of Christmas guests, one of whom was a mouse who starred in a play in which his character was held captive by Barbary corsairs, after which he escaped only to find his love had left him to live in a convent.
  • Bedsheet Ladder: How Toad escapes after being locked in his bedroom.
  • The Big Bad: Although the weasels, stoats and ferrets are usually grouped together as a whole, The Chief Weasel is usually given this status.
  • Big Brother Mentor: Water Rat largely plays this role toward Mole, especially early in the story when Mole's just starting to learn his way around the outside world.
  • Big Eater: Rat is apparently one on picnics. See Food Porn below.
  • The Big Guy: Otter is a Boisterous Bruiser and Gentle Giant 2; while the main four confront The Big Bad, Otter and his posse keep the guards off their backs.
  • Bilingual Bonus: The Latin title of the chapter "Dulce Domum", where Mole rediscovers his old abandoned house, means "Sweet Home", obviously meant to evoke "Home Sweet Home".
  • Break the Haughty: Toad's humiliating arrest and imprisonment, during which he attempts to starve himself to death, but decides to live after all thanks to a kind jailer's daughter and a bit of bubble-and-squeak. Not to mention being chased by the police after escaping, and all the indignity he receives for his washerwoman disguise.
  • Broken Record: After Badger tells him off for correcting Toad's grammar ("teach 'em" vs. "learn 'em") because it's the same grammar Badger uses, Rat retreats into a corner and begins repeating the two phrases alternately until told to stop.
  • Carnivore Confusion: The narrative says it's against animal etiquette to actually discuss it, but the subject is touched upon by Rat, when he describes the inhabitants in the Wild Wood:
    "Weasels — and stoats — and foxes — and so on. They're all right in a way — I'm very good friends with them —pass the time of day when we meet, and all that — but they break out sometimes, there's no denying it, and then —well, you can't really trust them, and that's the fact."
    • The stew Toad feasts on late in the book contains rabbit meat, despite a couple of talking rabbits in the first few chapters.
  • Casual Danger Dialog: When Otter enters Badger's house, Mole asks him, "Weren't you at all-er-nervous?" Otter laughs and says, "I'd give 'em nerves if any of them tried anything," then talks over breakfast about how much fun he could have in the Wild Wood.
  • Character Development: Over the novel, Mole comes out of his shell, and Toad settles down to become serious and respectable by the end. Badger also becomes a little bit less reclusive, shown in the epilogue. Grahame pointed out in a later interview that Toad would eventually turn back to his old ways. Mole is the only character whose development would stick.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Mr. Toad, at times. "A motorcar! Poop-poop! Poop-poop!" (Or, in some editions, "Beep-beep!")
  • Classical Anti-Hero: Mole before Character Development.
  • Cool Boat: It's just a rowboat, but Ratty's boat is described as beautifully painted and gaily decorated, and there's always a picnic basket on board. Unfortunately, it gets sunk near the end of the novel thanks to the stoats.
  • Conspicuous Consumption: Toad lives in a luxurious manor house and is always spending lavishly on his latest craze.
  • Crystal Dragon Jesus: Pan, who is in fact the Savior, but for animals instead of humans. Interestingly enough, the chapter "Dulce Domum" has young field mice singing a Christmas carol that invokes and pays homage to Mary, Joseph and the Christ child. note 
  • The Darkness Before Death: When Mr. Toad pretends to be dying, he says, "Is it dark in here?!".
  • Dirty Coward: The Weasels who pick on any animal weaker than them, but scurry when someone stands up to them. When Mole enters the Wild Wood they scare him out of his mind. When Rat with his cudgel and brace of pistols enters the Wood to look for Mole, they don't dare pull any of the same nasty tricks.
  • A Dog Named "Dog": All the principal characters are either this or Species Surname; since they only appear to have one name apiece, it's hard to tell which.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Mr. Toad's second defining characteristic; he wrecks five cars a week, on average, and has to be locked into his room to try and dissuade him.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Mole is introduced getting frustrated with housework and going outdoors to explore; Rat idly messing about on his boat; Toad eagerly greeting his friends and announcing that he's given up boating in favour of caravaning; and Badger being annoyed at being disturbed in the middle of the night before letting Mole and Rat into his house.
  • Fake Faint: Mr. Toad pulls a prank on Ratty and Moley by asking, "Is it dark in here?!" and demanding a doctor and a lawyer before collapsing on the couch with his eyes shut.
  • Felony Misdemeanor: Mr. Toad's prison sentence. Stealing the motor car is twelve months (which according to the court clerk is mild), while his reckless driving warrants three years (quite lenient) and cheeking the police warrants fifteen years which adds up to nineteen years, which the judge then makes an even twenty, and he thinks he's being soft on Toad.
  • Fiction 500: Averted with Mr. Toad, he may be rich but as Rat points out "he's not a millionaire". note 
  • Fleeting Passionate Hobbies: A defining aspect of Mr Toad, who keeps throwing himself at every new fad only to quickly get bored with it and move on to something new. It's to the point that Ratty discussing it with Otter forms part of Toad's Establishing Character Moment in Chapter 1:
    Ratty: Once, it was nothing but sailing. Then he tired of that and took to punting. Nothing would please him but to punt all day and every day, and a nice mess he made of it. Last year it was house-boating, and we all had to go and stay with him in his house-boat, and pretend we liked it. He was going to spend the rest of his life in a house-boat. It's all the same, whatever he takes up; he gets tired of it, and starts on something fresh.
  • Food Porn:
    • The stew Toad dines on, which contains no less than seven animals, is lovingly described. Toad's expression of rapture in the accompanying illustration doesn't help.
    • The contents of Ratty's picnic basket.
    "What's inside it?" asked the Mole, wriggling with curiosity.
  • Forbidden Zone: Don't go into the Wild Wood by yourself. The only ones who do are — Badger (who lives in the heart of it and nobody would dare cross) and Otter. Ratty manages it only by going in armed to the teeth, and making sure anyone who sees him knows so at a glance.
  • Four-Philosophy Ensemble: Mole is the Optimist, Rat is the Realist, Toad is the Apathetic and Badger is the Cynic.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Mole is Phlegmatic, Badger is Choleric, Toad is Sanguine and Rat is Melancholic. That said, Badger is a pretty Melancholic character as well.
  • Funny Animal: The whole cast, except for the humans that Toad interacts with.
  • Furry Confusion:
    • Not particularly strong, but in a lot of the artwork, the main cast are much, much bigger than the stoats and weasels. Also, while the main cast wears clothing, Otter wears none.
    • Also: Toad has a horse called Alfred. While he is an actual quadrupedal horse who pulls the caravan, he does seem to be sentient. Strangely, this is one of the few animal characters not named after his species.
    • Mole's "black velvet smoking jacket" is a joke on a mole's fur.
  • Gentle Giant: Both Badger and Otter are as friendly as they are big and powerful.
  • Gilligan Cut: Toad steals a motorcar and roars off in triumphant splendor. Cut to him in court being sentenced to twenty years in prison, Grahame doesn't even bother to depict the trial, he just goes straight for the sentencing.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Mole and Water Rat.
  • The Hermit: Badger lives alone in the Wild Wood and doesn't like visitors. However, he's not really antisocial, just a bit cantankerous and fond of solitude. He is shown to be fiercely loyal to his friends.
  • I Lied: Toad says this after supposedly agreeing with Badger's long anti-car lecture. He gets locked up under guard.
  • Idle Rich: Toad. He's a deconstruction of this trope as he has way too much time to devote to whatever hobby takes his interest, it doesn't really become a problem until he takes up motoring and destroys a half-dozen cars in a row.
  • Karma Houdini: Toad is guilty of stealing a car and escaping prison, and yet once he returns to the River and with the help of his friends retake Toad Hall from the weasels he's able to resume his life without fuss or consequence.
  • The Leader: Badger is the de factor authority figure amongst the River Bankers by virtue of his seniority, strength, and sheer force of personality.
  • Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: Zig-zagged. Most of the animals live in burrows (albeit in very human-like comfort) and have little or no interaction with humans. Mr. Toad, on the other hand, lives in an actual house, drives cars, is put on trial in a human court, held in a human prison, and escapes by disguising himself as a human washerwoman. During his escape no one suspects that he's Mr. Toad until he actually announces it when he rides off with a barge woman's horse. And he also interacts on a more-or-less equal basis with all the other animals.
  • The Load: Mole becomes this during the "Wild Wood" chapter; he recklessly goes off to visit the place in the middle of a winter snowfall, and proceeds to be absolutely useless while Rat is trying to save both their lives.
  • Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: There appears to be an ancient ruined human city abandoned and buried beneath the Wild Wood (heavily implied to be Roman). Badger cynically comments how its builders thought that they were building for eternity.
  • Loveable Rogue: Toad is considered an epitome of this. Although conceited, reckless and even kleptomaniacal at one point, he genuinely cares for his friends and shows great humility and distress upon learning of the hardships they suffer on his account.
  • Lower-Class Lout: The Wild Wooders are treated this way, a product of Grahame's class-based mistrust of the English working class whom he saw as lazy, idle, prone to theft rather than honest labour, ill-educated and vicious to their social betters. (And, unlike the more selective middle-class house-owning voles, moles and badgers, breed uncontrollably). The book is a pretty reactionary text, written at a time when the English bourgeoisie were frightened of unrest, labour agitation and socialism among the lower orders — in short the proletariat rising up against the hard-working middle classes. It is no accident the heroes are all members of the stout English yeomanry.
  • Make It Look Like a Struggle: The washerwoman who sells her clothes to Toad so he can escape the prison asks to be left bound and gagged so she can make out that he took her clothes without her consent.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's unclear whether Water Rat's sudden desire to board a ship with Sea Rat in Wayfarers All is due to Sea Rat putting some sort of charm on him or due to Sea Rat being a good storyteller and playing on Water Rat's natural, buried desire to travel.
  • Mundane Fantastic: While Toad is the only animal to have extensive interaction with humans, no one seems surprised at the sight of a bipedal talking toad who wears clothes. And then Pan shows up in one chapter.
  • Must Make Amends: Badger forces Toad to compensate the Bargewoman for her stolen horse. It's a fairly small amount but Toad really hates her that much.
  • Not Helping Your Case: Mr. Toad is fairly unconvincing when he stands trial for auto-theft, destruction of property and cheeking the police.
  • Nouveau Riche: It's implied that Toad's family bought their way into squiredom rather than inheriting it. Toad inherited his money from his father and is rather cavalier towards spending his inheritance on whatever takes his fancy — he also conspicuously lacks any kind of title or honorific; not even "the Honorable" or "Esquire". Badger's comments implies that Toad Hall belonged to somebody else before Toad's father came to live there.
  • One-Hour Work Week: It's never established what the animals do for a living — they don't seem to need to work at all, though Mole seems to be the least well-off, though he can still afford a velvet smoking jacket. Rat never seems to anything except boating, fishing, and poetry writing.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After reclaiming Toad Hall, Toad makes an unconvincing pretense that he has learned from his past hubris, though Badger and Rat make clear they don't buy into it. At the celebration banquet however, Toad acts genuinely modest and gentlemanly, not grandstanding the slightest, with the two left dumbfounded the whole evening.
    • In Wayfarers All, after the Sea Rat left to sail again and while Water Rat is preparing to follow him, Mole walks into Water Rat's house and is alarmed at his sudden desire to leave all he has ever known to hop on a ship, his mechanical behavior, and his strange-looking eyes. Mole ends up tackling Water Rat to the ground until this behavior stops.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Toad's washerwoman outfit.
  • Pride: Mr. Toad's defining characteristic.
    The Queen and her ladies-in-waiting
    Sat at the window and sewed.
    She cried, "Look! Who's that handsome man?
    They answered, "Mr. Toad."
    The clever men at Oxford
    Know all that there is to be knowed,
    But they none of them know one half as much
    As intelligent Mr. Toad!
  • Playful Otter: Otter is this in spades—just don't mess with his friends.
  • Pride Before a Fall: Toad's pride is eventually his undoing; see above under Break the Haughty.
  • Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Mr. Toad. He has more than enough money to throw away on all the luxury cars he wants, but can't seem to grasp that driving recklessly is a bad idea that will crash them and land him in jail.
  • Science Is Bad: Not science, exactly, but the rush of new fads for the rich, such as automobiles and aeroplanes.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: In Chapter 11, Ratty tells Toad that Mole and Badger fully expected him to buy his way out of his prison sentence.
  • Silence of Sadness: When Mole is homesick, Ratty notices how quiet his friend is, and how he is dragging his feet.
  • Snap Back: Averted, in that Ratty mentions that if Toad keeps buying all these new cars, he's eventually going to use up his whole fortune.
  • Spoiled Sweet: Despite his faults, Toad is as Rat says "So simple, so good-natured, and so affectionate."
  • Staging an Intervention: Mole, Rat, and Badger have a rather forceful one to stop Toad from his self-destructive behavior before he squanders his whole fortune on motor-cars he'll inevitably wreck to bits.
  • Storming the Castle: "When the Toad came home..."
  • Taking the Veil: Mole recounts how the young mice had put on a play about a sailor lost at sea and how when he returned, his beloved had done this.
  • Uncle Pennybags: At the end of the book, Toad gives The Gaoler's Daughter a locket for her kindness and the Engine Driver financial compensation for his help in his escape.
  • Upper-Class Twit: Toad is quite rich and also rather fat-headed.
  • Wardens Are Evil: Downplayed. The Gaoler isn't evil or abusive, but he does make repeated overtures to make Toad's stay in the dungeon more comfortable .... for a price.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: The weasels, and the related ferrets and stoats, are all nasty little buggers, sneaking into Toad Hall to take it over while Toad is out. They're eventually let go with a warning, though, as they promise to be good after being thrashed by Badger.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: In a humorous incident, Toad escapes prison disguised as a washerwoman with clothes from the jailer's daughter, and manages to wind up disguised on a train outrunning the police.
  • Wicked Weasel: One of the most iconic examples in literature! Ratty is very evasive about them telling Mole flat out that they can't be trusted, and then they invade Toad Hall while Toad's away, fully prepared to protect their conquest by lethal force.
  • Wistful Amnesia: After their encounter with the god of the forest in "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn", Rat and Mole are left with a feeling that something amazing and wonderful has recently happened, but they can't recall quite what. As the book said it's the gift that Pan bestows on all animals who see him, "lest the awe should dwell and turn [their] frolic to fret".
  • Your Size May Vary: The animals at first seem to be about the size you expect, until they get affected by Toad's Anthropomorphic Shift, and are suddenly the right size for operating a horse-drawn caravan. Then later, Ratty and Mole can both comfortably fit inside a hollow tree, while Toad is crashing motor cars and having extensive adventures in the human world. Some editions also have artwork of a human sized and anthropomorphic main cast and rodent-sized, non-anthropomorphic weasels.

Adaptations with their own pages include:

Other adaptations (including sequels by other authors) contain examples of:

  • Adaptation Expansion: Pretty much every adaptation, even the most faithful ones, add a scene at the end where Toad shows signs of slipping back into his old ways by developing a fascination for (or buying) aeroplanes. This fails to be Adaptational Personality Change since Word of God admitted Toad's epiphany likely wouldn't last.
  • Adapted Out: The chapters "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" and "Wayfarers All" tend to get left out of adaptations, probably because they interrupt the ongoing story of Toad and don't actually add anything to the overall plot.
  • Ascended Extra:
    • In Willam Horwood's sequels, Otter is promoted from "most major of the minor characters" to a full fledged major character. In the same books, the judge who sentenced Toad to prison becomes a recurring character and is pretty much the series' Big Bad.
    • In Jacqueline Kelly's sequel Return to the Willows the "small, bedraggled weasel" who volunteered to deliver the invitations to Toad's banquet is a major character (His name is "Sammy").
  • The Baby of the Bunch: Mole in sometimes treated as such in some adaptations, usually due to Mole being often portrayed in said adaptations as more naive and wide-eyed compared to the rest of the cast.
  • Big Ball of Violence: In the 1987 made-for-tv animated film version by Rankin-Bass. When Toad was briefed about what happened to Toad Hall while he was in prison, he went into a big rant over it, prompting Badger to order Ratty and Mole to restrain him, resulting in the Big Ball of Violence.
  • Bowdlerize: Some "Young Reader" adaptations of the book change Toad's imitation of a car horn from "poop-poop!" to "beep-beep!"
  • Character Exaggeration: Played with for Mr Toad. Given his already bombastic nature already fits the cartoon format, it's not rare for Animated Adaptations to elevate his crazy, show off personality, if in a more endearing way. Perhaps to help keep him sympathetic, a lot of renditions increase Rat and Badger's neuroses towards Toad into borderline prudishness (thus making the often used outcome of them discovering his new addiction to planes all the more amusing).
  • Characterization Marches On: For the sequels by William Horwood, the main characters have slightly changed personalities. Toad's been hit with some Character Exaggeration and become even more egotistical and ridiculous (though with frequent bursts of extravagant generosity), while Ratty's become a spiritualist of some sort who talks to the river. Only Mole remains more or less the same.
  • Deconstruction Fic: Counselling for Toads is partly this and partly an introduction of counseling process and transactional analysis used in therapy. It opens with Toad having lapsed into depression, and his friends insisting he needs counselling — then, through Toad's therapy session we explore the reasons behind his foolish and sometimes self-destructive behavior, and how his friends (particularly Badger) completely mishandled the situation and just added to the problems which led to Toad's eventual depression.
  • Footnote Fever: The American edition of Jacqueline Kelly's Return to the Willows has a number of footnotes to explain British terms, but there are a number of other footnotes, including one explaining the concept of life not being fair, and another directing readers back to the previous footnote when Mr. Toad complains to himself about how unfair things are.
  • Gender Flip:
    • In the 2017 West End Musical, Otter and Portly are now Mrs. Otter and Portia.
    • Dina Gregory released an all-female adaptation on Audible in 2020. The story sticks very closely to the original, but with Lady Toad, Mistress Badger, Miss Water Rat and Mrs Mole.
  • Happy Ending Override: In the first of William Horwood's sequels, The Willows in Winter, Toad discovers that he's still wanted for all the crimes he committed in the first book, and for breaking out of prison. His continued escapades to stay out of prison results in a life-long enmity between him and the High Judge, who becomes his most prominent adversary and pretty much the Big Bad of the rest of the series.
  • Impoverished Patrician: Toad tends to be a borderline example in some adaptations, since the book mentions he's rich but not a millionaire. The 2006 BBC Adaptation had Toad selling his chairs to pay for a car. In The Willows in Winter he actually does lose his fortune and Toad Hall in a fire, until he finds out that his American cousin left him a fortune.
  • Large Ham: Mr. Toad is usually played as this in any adaptation.
  • The Pardon: Alan Bennett's play has the judge show up on the end to pardon Toad in exchange for a free breakfast.
  • Retcon: As mentioned, many adaptation end with Toad developing a mania for airplanes, whereas the original novel ended with him (seemingly?) having learned his lesson and become more mature.
  • Wolverine Publicity: Several adaptations aren't named "The Wind in the Willows" but rather "Toad of Toad Hall", "The Adventures of Mr. Toad", etc. etc.

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