The Golden Age by Kenneth Grahame
Published by admin January 21st, 2007 in British Classics, The ClassicsThe masterful wind was up and out, shouting and chasing the lord of the morning. Poplars swayed and tossed with a roaring swish. Dead leaves … so begins a delightful account of children living, learning and playing together amongst the often puzzling adults inhabitating their society …
The Golden Age is a collection of reminiscences of childhood, written by Kenneth Grahame and originally published in book form in 1895, in London by The Bodley Head, and in Chicago by Stone & Kimball. (The Prologue and six of the stories had previously appeared in the National Observer, the journal then edited by William Ernest Henley.) Widely praised upon its first appearance—Algernon Charles Swinburne, writing in the Daily Chronicle, called it “one of the few books which are well-nigh too praiseworthy for praise”—the book has come to be regarded as a classic in its genre.
Typical of his culture and his era, Grahame casts his reminiscences in imagery and metaphor rooted in the culture of Ancient Greece; to the children whose impressions are recorded in the book, the adults in their lives are “Olympians,” while the chapter titled “The Argonauts” refers to Perseus, Apollo, Psyche, and similar figures of Greek mythology. Grahame’s reminiscences, in The Golden Age and in the later Dream Days (1898), were notable for their conception “of a world where children are locked in perpetual warfare with the adult ‘Olympians’ who have wholly forgotten how it feels to be young”—a theme later explored by J. M. Barrie and other authors. (Summary by Wikipedia)
1 Prologue: The Olympians
Read by: Erin Hastings
2 A Holiday
Read by: Erin Hastings
3 A Whitewashed Uncle
Read by: Erin Hastings
4 Alarums and Excursions
Read by: Kara Shallenberg
5 The Finding of the Princess
Read by: Kara Shallenberg
6 Sawdust and Sin
Read by: Catharine Eastman
7 Young Adam Cupid
Read by: Peter Eastman
[pay] 8 The Burglars
Read by: Kristin Hughes
9 A Harvesting
Read by: Catharine Eastman
10 Snowbound
Read by: vanrose
11 What They Talked About
Read by: Kara Shallenberg
12 The Argonauts
Read by: Mark F. Smith
13 The Roman Road
Read by: Peter Eastman
14 The Secret Drawer
Read by: Kara Shallenberg
15 Exit Tyrannus
Read by: Muhammad Mussnoon
16 The Blue Room
Read by: Muhammad Mussnoon
17 A Falling Out
Read by: Muhammad Mussnoon
18 Lusisti Satis
Read by: Kara Shallenberg
