Dream Days

First published in 1898, this sequel to The Golden Age is an informative snapshot of the late Victorian era that captures the world of imagination inhabited by children. These stories are written with humor and wit as Grahame depicts a private, separate universe of five siblings whose concerns rarely overlap with the world of adults, whom they refer to as Olympians. The collection’s most famous story, "The Reluctant Dragon," sees the narrator and his neighbor Charlotte following dragon footprints in the snow one winter’s evening. Meeting with a Circus Man, they are regaled with tales of a dragon, which, modest and retiring, was reluctant to fight St. George purely for the sake of convention. The author captures perfectly the tone of a childhood enriched by legend and romance, and unsullied by the concerns of adulthood.