Dream Days (Common Reader Editions)

In This companion volume to The Golden Age, Kenneth Grahame Continues his winning reminiscences of childhood. Flavored with fancy and an evocative nostalgia, Grahame's second classic collection of vignettes and inventions(including the famous tale "The Reluctant Dragon") once again captures the spirit of a family of children who live magnanimous lives of their own devising within the restraints of their ordinary English circumstance. Disdainful of the "Olympians" (those adults who watch over them, but don't see very much), the five youngsters-three boys and two girls-have an imaginative camaraderie nourished by the secret expedition and private games they share. The tame adventures Grahame details are animated by his singular ability to convey, simultaneously, the active ingenuity of youth and the reflective tenderness of memory. Written in the last few years of the 19th century, a decade before Grahame's masterpiece, The Wind in the Willows, Dream Days and The Golden Age remain beguiling today. The author's fidelity to the felt experience of childhood is so obvious and rewarding I'd not be suprised to find confident readers of the and older caught in the web of story the weaves; older readers have no excuse not to revel in the wonder of these marvelous books.

Kenneth Grahame was born in Edinburgh in 1859. His career at the Bank of England, which spanned three decades, was overshadowed by the literary achievement of three books that have earned him the esteem and affection of readers of all ages: tow volumes of scenes from childhood, the Golden age (1859) and Dream Days (1898), and his masterpiece, The Wind in the Willows (1908). Grahame died in Pangbourne, England in 1932.

Book Description
From the imaginative author of "The Wind in the Willows," an enchanting pair of books that map the imaginative landscape of childhood.

From the Publisher
Kenneth Grahame's unjustly neglected collections of vignettes, reminiscences, and inventions capture the ingenuities of a family of children -- three boys and two girls -- who live magnanimous lives nourished by the secret expeditions and private games they share. Written in the last few years of the 19th century, as Grahame looked back fondly at his own childhood, these sketches of growing up are poised artfully between two states of consciousness -- that of a child protagonist and that of a remembering adult -- and so manage to evoke both the active energies of youth and the nostalgic tenderness of reflection. This book, and a companion volume entitled "The Golden Age," remain beguiling today. While their language is sophisticated, confident reader of ten and up might easily find themselves caught in the web of story the author weaves; older readers have no excuse not to revel in these marvelous volumes.

About Author
Kenneth Grahame, 1859 - 1932 Kenneth Grahame was born in Edinburgh on March 3, 1859. He was the third of four children. When he was five years old, his mother died of scarlet fever and he nearly died himself, of the same disease. His father became an alcoholic and sent the children to Berkshire to live with relatives. They were later reunited with their father, but after a failed year, the children never heard from him again. Some time later, one of Grahame's brothers died at the age of fifteen. Grahame attended St. Edward's School as a child and intended to go on to Oxford University, but his relatives wanted him to go into banking. He worked in his uncle's office, in Westminster, for two years then went to work at the Bank of England as a clerk in 1879. He spent nearly thirty years there and became the Secretary of the Bank at the age of thirty-nine. Grahame retired from the bank right before "The Wind in the Willows" was published in 1908. Grahame wrote essays on topics that included smoking, walking and idleness. Many of the essays were published as the book "Pagan Papers" (1893) and the five orphan characters featured in the papers were developed into the books "The Golden Age" (1895) and "Dream Days" (1898). "The Wind in the Willows" (1908) was based on bedtime stories and letters to his son and it is where the characters Rat, Badger, Mole and Toad were created. In 1930, Milne's stage version was brought to another audience in "Toad of Toad Hall." On July 6, 1932, Kenneth Grahame died.

Introduction
1 The Twenty-first of October
2 Dies Irae
3 Mutabile Semper
4 The Magic Ring
5 Its Walls Were as of Jasper
6 A Saga of the Seas
7 The Reluctant Dragon
8 A Departure