The Wind in the Willows

With paper and pen or needle and thread, storytelling has many traditions. Penguin’s award-winning art director Paul Buckley presents Penguin Threads, a series of Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions inspired by the aesthetic of handmade crafts with specially commissioned cover art. Jillian Tamaki’s embroidered artwork appears on The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett,Emma by Jane Austen, and Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. This latest set features three beloved classics for both adults and children with cover art by painter and illustrator Rachell Sumpter. Sketched in a traditional illustrative manner, the final covers are sculpt embossed and present full front and reverse hand-stitched designs. Through story, style and texture, the Penguin Threads is an exciting chapter in Penguin’s long history of excellence in book design, for true lovers of the book, design, and handcrafted beauty.

Meek little Mole, willful Ratty, Badger the perennial bachelor, and petulant Toad. In the more than one hundred years since their first appearance in 1908, they’ve become emblematic archetypes of eccentricity, folly, and friendship. And their misadventures–in gypsy caravans, stolen sports cars, and their beloved Wild Wood- continue to capture readers’ imaginations and warm their hearts long after they grow up. The Wind in the Willows is a timeless tale of animal cunning and human camaraderie.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

About the Contributors

Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and raised in Berkshire by his grandmother, whose house and garden would inspire the backdrop of his most famous work. His books of stories for children include Pagan Papers, The Golden Age, and Dream Days.

Gregory Maguire is the bestselling author Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and many other novels for adults and children.