Books by Peter Hunt

The Wind in the Willows (Oxford World's Classics)

by Kenneth Grahame, Peter Hunt

One of the best-known classics of children's literature, a timeless masterpiece and a vital portrait of an age, The Wind in the Willows began originally in Kenneth Grahame's letters to his young son, where he first recounted the adventures of Rat and Badger, of Mole and Toad--all narrated in virtuoso language ranging from lively parody to elaborate fin-de-siècle mysticism. Yet for a children's book, it is concerned almost exclusively with adult themes: fear of radical changes in political, social, and economic power. This new edition considers this conundrum and provides a wealth of fascinating contextual information about the book's author and its historical, cultural, and literary significance. The Introduction by Peter Hunt, one of the foremost scholars of children's literature, focuses on the book's status as a classic, and as both a self-portrait of Kenneth Grahame's psyche and a portrait of an age. Reproducing the text of the first British edition, the book includes explanatory notes that shed light on the sources of the book--biographical, psychological, geographical, and literary--and an up-to-date bibliography.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

The Secret Garden (Oxford World's Classics)

by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Peter Hunt

An orphaned girl, a grim moorland manor with hundreds of empty rooms, strange cries in the night, and a walled garden, with its door locked and the key buried. These are the ingredients of one of the most famous and well-loved of children's classics, an inspiring story of regeneration and salvation that gently subverted the conventions of a century of romantic and gothic fiction for girls. Marking the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of The Secret Garden, this new edition of Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic tale of redemption and renewal features a fascinating introduction by Peter Hunt that explores the relationship between the book and the 19th-century genres of girls' stories, romances, the gothic, and the sensational, and examines the book's symbolic undercurrents. The book includes new explanatory notes that point out literary parallels and manuscript changes as well as glossing historical allusions and meanings, an up-to-date bibliography, a new chronology, and Burnett's essay "My Robin," a companion piece to the book.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

The Making of The Wind in the Willows

by Peter Hunt

The adventures of Mole, Ratty, Mr. Toad, and Mr. Badger—and their tangles with the Weasels—have been adored by children for more than a century. Yet, with its oddly bureaucratic town dramas and the esoteric hobbies of its protagonists, The Wind in the Willows was originally intended almost entirely for adults. Though first inspired by bedtime stories Kenneth Grahame told to his son Alastair, as he wrote them down, the tales of these woodland creatures developed into something much more sophisticated.
Peter Hunt explores the unusual trajectory of The Wind in the Willows through previously unpublished archival materials, original drawings, and fan letters (including one from Theodore Roosevelt). He identifies the colleagues and friends on whom Grahame is thought to have based the characters of Mole, Rat, Badger, and Toad, and explores the literary genres of boating, caravanning, and motoring on which the author drew. He also recounts the extraordinary correspondence surrounding the book’s first publication and the influence of two determined women—publisher’s agent Constance Smedley and the author’s wife, Elspeth Grahame—who helped turn the book into the classic for children we know and love today. Generously illustrated throughout, this book celebrates one of the most beloved works of children’s literature ever published.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There

by Lewis Carroll, Peter Hunt

The "Alice" books are two of the most translated, most quoted, and best-known books in the world. Alice's encounters with the White Rabbit, the Cheshire-Cat, the Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter, and many other extraordinary characters have made them beloved by children. Yet they also appeal to adults fascinated by the many layers of satire, allusion, and symbolism about Victorian culture and politics.

This new edition explores the phenomenal range of reference and the paradoxical appeal of two of the most inventive books in world literature. The volume has been deftly edited by one of the foremost children's literature experts, Peter Hunt, and it features the original, much-loved illustrations by Sir John Tenniel, newly scanned and reset for enhanced sharpness and clarity. Extensive explanatory notes give information on Carroll's political, social, intellectual, and personal allusions and sources. The book provides an extensive bibliography and a chronology of Carroll's life and times, and it also includes a deleted episode called "The Wasp in a Wig."

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Alice's Oxford People and Places That Inspired Wonderland

by Peter Hunt

A guide and history of the town and young girl that inspired Lewis Caroll's famous Alice stories.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are two of the most famous fantasies in world literature, and yet their roots are firmly in the nineteenth century and the university city of Oxford. Oxford's streets, colleges, buildings, the River Thames, and the villages on its banks are imbued with hundreds of intricate connections to the books--from the hatters on the High Street to the dodo in the Museum of Natural History.

Their author, Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, spent most of his life as an academic at Christ Church, one of the largest and oldest of the Oxford colleges. His muse, Alice Liddell--who is the thinly disguised Alice of the books--was the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church and she grew up in the college. The Alice books began as stories told to Alice and her sisters. In these stories, Dodgson would incorporate local people, places, and events that they would recognize. But as the books developed, he included a much wider range of satire and caricature until Oxford itself became an eccentric wonderland. Alice's Oxford, a guide and a history, explores the often curious and always entertaining glories of the city from the colleges to the river that Alice and Lewis Carroll knew and shared.