Dream Days by Kenneth Grahame

Dream Days Reviews

• 
  Ajeje Brazov

  Racconti sul periodo magico dell'infanzia, quel periodo dove tutto appare come un'infinita scoperta, anche il minimo movimento, la minima percezione sonora, un oggetto ecc... ti fa scaturire le domande fatidiche: Cos'è? Perchè? Ma soprattutto: Cosa potrebbe essere?
  Domande che, poi, con l'andare degli anni svaniranno in patetiche, banali risposte così concrete, da rendere il tutto un Nulla. Invece in quell'età tutto è così astratto, immaginifico, esplorativo, fantastico agli occhi ed alla mente, che girovaga per miriadi di mondi, luoghi e tutto appare come in un sogno ad occhi aperti...
  
  Nelle lunghe sere invernali, quando aprivamo per terra i nostri libri illustrati e ci sdraiavamo a guardarli uno accanto all'altro coi gomiti sprofondati nel tappeto davanti al focolare, la prima operazione da compiere era l'assegnazione dei ruoli. Dovevamo spartirci, tutti senza eccezione, i personaggi delle illustrazioni in base alla nostra anzianità. Solo quando questa fase era stata conclusa in ogni minimo dettaglio, si poteva passare alla storia; da quel momento in poi, oltre alle emozioni suscitate dalla trama, ciascuno di noi era direttamente coinvolto nelle vicende di uno dei protagonisti, e ne condivideva successi o insuccessi come fossero propri.
• 
  Paul

  A sequel to ‘The Golden Age’, this one includes what is surely Grahame’s most famous short story, ‘The Reluctant Dragon’, in which we find out what really happened between St. George and the Dragon. I had a copy of this one as a child and it was absolutely delightful to revisit it in my forties.
• 
  GoldGato

  This book about Kenneth Grahame’s childhood remembrances from the 19th-century is the sequel to
  The Golden Age, the first book about his juvenile days. Here, Grahame has a tighter structure in the sense of having eight stories of which one, THE RELUCTANT DRAGON, is rather famous. The Olympians are still the unaware adults, too involved with the responsibilities of life to take much part in the great adventures of childhood.
  
  This is an English rural lifestyle before the onslaught of the mass consumerist changes of the coming 20th-century, so Grahame had the local countryside as his kingdom. It’s the type of idyllic life many children no longer have because of today’s go-go-go push to find oneself. Games and dramas unfold with simple premises and dragons can live just over the hill. In other words, there is still an air of innocence, motivated by toy soldiers and picture books.
  
  …the pictures remained; pictures never lied, never shuffled nor evaded; and as for the story, I could invent it myself.
  
  Whereas the first book was more involved with the actual play and incidents of Grahame’s youth, this book is more focused on the make-believe, such as finding walled towns to siege and ships to plunder. Obviously, he never did any of those things, but his imagination took him to other worlds simply because a child’s mind allows that to happen. Grahame hits on the essence of a child’s ability to fervently believe in the unknown until the child grows old enough to learn otherwise. Perhaps that is why children’s books remain so very popular today. I still remember the whisperings of night and all of its possibilities, something that Grahame lovingly portrays in one story. The two books make a very good pairing.
  
  Book Season = Spring (whimsical memories)
  
• 
  Andrew

  I will have to admit that this book was a bit of a disappointment - okay the binding and edition are amazing but what is what you would expect from a Folio edition - however the actual book itself was a bit of a disappointment.
  
  Ok this book is a classic although really it is second volume of a two book series of short stories which sort of centre around the same group of children - however the stories are a little too whimsical and disjointed for my liking although many scholar of children's literature quote these books as being some of the guiding lights in modern children's stories. The problem is this is from the same author that gave us Wind in the Willows one of my all time favourite children's books and one I often go back to reading time and time again. The problem is they just do not compare.
  
  So am I judging this book too harshly - more than likely, did I struggle to read the stories most certainly and should I really gauge this book in isolation more than probably but I cannot.
  
  But on top of that there is the whimsical nature of the stories - where story will meander between real and imaginary at the change of a sentence and I always struggle with such shifts - for example I child may be talking to another child about how he escapes in to an imaginary world only in the next paragraph to actually be there acting out what he has just described.
  
  In short I am sure this is an academics dream but for me it just did not click but I cannot withheld respect for the man as he did give me (I mean us) Wind in the Willows
• 
  Joe

  I read "A Wind in the Willows" last year, in my own late middle age, and was awed. It was like finding out there was this guy named Shakespeare who wrote plays—the work transcended a "star" rating.
  
  This book doesn't. It's beautifully written, and wise, but a historical curio. It's odd that a book about talking animals would seem to be timeless, and a book about talking children so dated, but there you have it. Glad to have read it.
• 
  Alec Longstreth

  The more I read Kenneth Grahame, the more I love his writing style. Like The Golden Age before it, this recounts scenes from childhood with great feeling and detail. Plus the wonderful pen and ink illustrations of Ernest Shepherd perfectly compliment the text. This collection includes an early version of The Reluctant Dragon, one of my all-time favorite stories. I look forward to finally reading The Wind in the Willows next!
• 
  Sam

  These eight stories are just superb. Each one takes the reader right back to their childhood (assuming they aren't still there of course) in all its imaginative glory where anything is possible and even the walk home can hold untold opportunities from palaces with chocolate and soda rooms to dragons reluctant to fight. An absolute delight.
• 
  Skye

  Possibly only suitable for those who adore Edwardian childrens fiction, or who, like me, would read a press release for shoe polish if it were penned by Grahame.
  
  The best of the lot: 'The Twenty-First of October.'
  
• 
  Rauf

  Bloody hell, this book is shiny! Some pieces are stronger than the other...I love "The Magic Ring", "A Saga of the Sea", "The Reluctant Dragon" and "A Departure".
  
  
• 
  Linda

  childhood vignettes - some are awfully close to my own memories.
• 
  Ann-Marie Messbauer

  "Dream Days" is divided into stories rather than chapters, but the collection reads like a novel. One story flows to the next. They are connected, and all together they make a cohesive whole. These are not children's stories but rather stories about children, remembrances of childhood written in a style for adults to appreciate.
  
  I love Kenneth Grahame's subtle style and his use of language. The writing feels confiding in a friendly way. There is humor, tenderness, hope, regret, and some lovely small-scale adventures.
  
• 
  Ulrik

  Fra den gyldne tidsalder for børnelitteratur kommer her en af genrens mestre og hans vidunderlige noveller. Kenneth Grahame skildrer på fantastisk og meget humoristisk vis livet set fra en victoriansk søskendefloks synsvinkel. Grahame har en fantastisk greb på hans børnekarakterer, og placerer de unavngivne voksne karakterer meget smart på et andet plan med begrebet "The Olympians", som fortælleren bliver ved med at bruge om dem. Altså at de voksne i deres liv er som fjerne guder på Olympus, som en gang i mellem blander sig i børnenes liv... for det meste imod deres vilje.
  
  Jeg var især glad for klassikeren The Reluctant Dragon, som også nemt kan findes udgivet selvstændig og er den mest kendte af novellerne, og October 21st, som er en lidt rørende hyldest til både Trafalgar Day (og Lord Nelson). "A Departure" er også en vidunderlig nærmest victoriansk udgave af Toy Story.
  
  Alt i alt har den her været en ren nydelse af læse... og nok snart genlæse.
• 
  Andre Piucci

  "Grown-up people really ought to be more careful. Among themselves it may seem but a small thing to give their word and take back their word. For them there are so many compensations. Life lies at their feet (...) I only waited till that hateful, well-known “Some other time, dear!” told me that hope was finally dead. It made it worse — if anything could — to hear that stale, worn-out old phrase, still supposed by those dullards to have some efficacy."
• 
  nuzzyfipples

  An excellent book to read to children, but also good to read as an adult. While this is a sequel to The Golden Age, you don't need to have read the first collection of stories to enjoy this one, which is what they both are - a collection of short stories from the point of view of an unnamed boy with his siblings.
  
  If you can find it, acquire the Folio Society edition for the wonderful Little Nemo-esque illustrations throughout.
• 
  Marmot

  Not so much a book for kids as a book about how an adult remembered feeling as a kid. Glad I just read this to myself and didn’t bother trying to read it to my kids, they wouldn’t have understood it, and found it really boring.
• 
  Janet Keeten

  The language is beautiful. I too am a reluctant dragon.
• 
  Rick

  Perfectly magical reminiscence on childhood and its eventual end.
• 
  Patti

  Fabulous.
• 
  Peter J.

  Not quite as good as the Golden Age, but still good.
• 
  Mandy

  Charming, sweet and very imaginative. Captures the essence of childhood so well.
• 
  Rita

  For anyone who was accustomed to whiling away the hours in distant fantasy lands as a child, this book is for you.
• 
  Mairi

  Hmm, ütleks, et keskpärane. Ma ei saanud päriselt aru, kes peaks olema raamatu sihtgrupp...
• 
  Shonna Froebel

  
  http://cdnbookworm.blogspot.ca/2015/0...
• 
  Emily Cook

  It's like going back to childhood, only better.
• 
  Brandon

  Excellent book! Delightful childhood reminiscences beautifully written in Grahame's charming prose. Poetic, tender, insightful, very lovely, a portal into the life of a children.