

The Reluctant Dragon
Author: Kenneth Grahame
Narrator: Taylor Seth Hall
Unabridged: 55 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Storytime Classics Audio
Published: 01/02/2023
Categories: Fiction, Fantasy, Dragons, Humorous Fiction
Author: Kenneth Grahame
Narrator: Taylor Seth Hall
Unabridged: 55 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Storytime Classics Audio
Published: 01/02/2023
Categories: Fiction, Fantasy, Dragons, Humorous Fiction
Kenneth Grahame is best known internationally as a writer of children's books and is accredited with deeply influencing fantasy literature. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1859, he was the third child of an affluent lawyer. His great grand-uncle was the poet and curate James Grahame, and he was also the cousin of Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, who wrote The Prisoner of Zenda under the pen name "Anthony Hope."
During his early years, Grahame lived with his family in the Western Highlands. His father was an alcoholic, so when his mother died of scarlet fever, the children were sent to live with their maternal grandmother in the village of Cookham Dene. He later used this village as the chief setting for The Wind in the Willows. Grahame was educated at St. Edward's School, Oxford, but was unable to enter Oxford University. Instead, after a period of working for his uncle in London, he joined the Bank of England as a gentleman-clerk in 1879 and later rose to become secretary to the bank.
While pursuing his career at the bank, Grahame began composing light nonfiction pieces as a pastime. Throughout the 1890s, his articles and short stories were published in such journals as the St. James Gazette, the National Observer, and the Yellow Book. Many of these short stories, featuring children, were were published together in three well-received collections: Pagan Papers, The Golden Age, and Dream Days.
Grahame married Elspeth Thomson in 1899, and a year later their son, Alistair, was born. Grahame wrote parts of The Wind in the Willows originally in a letterform to entertain his young son. After an American publisher rejected his manuscript, The Wind in the Willows was published in England in 1908. The book did not receive instant acclamation; however, its reputation grew, and it became a children's classic.
Grahame experienced poor health and retired from the Bank of England in 1907, but he did continue to write. Tragically, his son committed suicide while he was an undergraduate at Oxford, two days before his twentieth birthday. Hereafter, Grahame and his wife spent long periods in Italy, and he did not write any other significant pieces. Grahame died peacefully at his home in Pangbourne, Berkshire, on July 6, 1932.
Kenneth Grahame, best known for his rollicking The Wind in the Willows, wrote this beautiful short story in 1898, and it’s a classic that simply doesn’t age. In this time of COVID-19, Audible made quite a few of its children’s books available for free, and I took advantage and listened to Anton Less......more
5/5 stars "...my wants are few, and at any rate I had peace and quietness and wasn't always asked to come along and do something. And I've got such an active mind-always occupied, I assure you!" When you're reading a big book that is consuming most of your time, you must be in want of short books......more
I've never ever read a book with a "happy bohemian" dragon. 😄 This was an interesting story, and quite unlike typical dragon tales. A shepherd boy who is more interested in reading and yet his parents are perfectly happy with him. A dragon who is more interested in poems than battles. When the two co......more
The Reluctant Dragon is quite humorous. My first thought was I was reading a Fairy Tale, “Long ago…” A family of shepherds are raising a boy whose name is not given, he is just referred to as Boy, who was treated by his parents very fondly, quite proud and almost like an equal member of the household......more
7.0/10 As we all know dragons are mostly famous for one thing and that is…… poetry. An old man narrates a story to two siblings ( a boy and a girl ), but this one takes a different approach to the whole dragon vs knight tales. A short and funny tale that will leave you with a smile. There is a moment wh......more