The Liminal Poetics of The Wind in the Willows

The Wind in the Willows is conspicuously concerned with liminal or ‘in-between’ space, repeatedly staging its narrative action through the evocation of liminal places and states of mind. This essay analyses the ‘liminal poetics’ of The Wind in the Willows in terms of narrative, motif, and genre, with particular attention to the novel’s use of the pastoral mode.