The Wind in the Willows

I read this over two days when I was sick, and really enjoyed it. The writing about nature's cycles and the insight into the character's foibles are just lovely. The story seemed disjointed to me–more like a series of short stories put together than something that was meant to hang together as one–and then I read that it began as a series of letters from the author to his son. That fact also explained why there were no explicitly female characters until more than halfway through the book. I loved how the characters recognize and forgive each other's flaws and see it as their duty to step in and set each other right when one of them starts to go off the rails.