The golden age

The Golden Age (1895) is a collection of stories by Kenneth Grahame.

Although less popular than The Wind in the Willows (1908), which would go on to become not only a defining work of Edwardian English literature, but one of the most popular works of children’s fiction in the world, The Golden Age is a moving portrait of youth, an understated autobiographical meditation made for children and adults alike. Recalling his youth among elders who exemplified Victorian values of stoicism and quiet decency, Kenneth Grahame refers to these hallowed figures as the “Olympians” whose presence provided both order and necessary balance to his rambunctious, imaginative boyhood.

Now an adult himself, Grahame wonders if he has become one of these “Olympians,” and looks back on his youth not only for an answer, but for a reaffirmation of the joy and freedom of a childhood spent among friends.

In the stories that follow, he recalls the games they played, the places they discovered, and the legends they made of the normal, the boring, and the everyday found all around them.

Filled with references to classical Greek mythology, Grahame’s collection is nostalgic for a world left behind, yet open to reconstituting a reality more wonderful for its common nature.

The Golden Age is not just a book about the experience of childhood, but a study of the past that must remain present within us.

Grahame’s book remains, over a century after it was published, a classic work of literature for children and adults alike. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Kenneth Grahame’s The Golden Age is a classic work of British literature reimagined for modern readers.