Dream Days


Read by Catharine Eastman

(4 stars; 8 reviews)

Dream Days is a collection of children's fiction and reminiscences of childhood written by Kenneth Grahame. A sequel to Grahame's 1895 collection The Golden Age (some of its selections feature the same family of five children), Dream Days was first published in 1898 under the imprint John Lane: The Bodley Head. (The first six selections in the book had been previously published in periodicals of the day—in the Yellow Book, the New Review, and in Scribner's Magazine in the United States.) The book is best known for its inclusion of Grahame's classic story The Reluctant Dragon.

Like its precursor volume, Dream Days received strong approval from the literary critics of the day. In the decades since, the book has perhaps suffered a reputation as a thinner and weaker sequel to The Golden Age—except for its single hit story. In one modern estimation, both books "paint a convincingly unsentimental picture of childhood, with the adults in these sketches totally out of touch with the real concerns of the young people around them, including their griefs and rages." Its concern is chiefly with the lands of imagination, ranging from a reconnaissance of men of solitude, a disastrous introduction of a girl to the narrator's private castle in the clouds, derring-do on the high seas, and, of course, an encounter with a dragon. Its concluding bittersweet story bids a reluctant farewell to the dream days of childhood. (Summary by Wikipedia and Catharine Eastman) (4 hr 51 min)

Chapters

The Twenty-First of October 27:33 Read by Catharine Eastman
Dies Irae 29:15 Read by Catharine Eastman
Mutabile Semper 32:26 Read by Catharine Eastman
The Magic Ring 34:34 Read by Catharine Eastman
Its Walls Were As Of Jasper 31:54 Read by Catharine Eastman
A Saga of the Seas 32:15 Read by Catharine Eastman
The Reluctant Dragon Part 1 42:10 Read by Catharine Eastman
The Reluctant Dragon Part 2 30:44 Read by Catharine Eastman
A Departure 30:52 Read by Catharine Eastman

Reviews

Awesome


(5 stars)

This collection of short stories, as well as its sequel, The Golden Age, were surprisingly delightful to listen to. I've never read anything by Kenneth Graham before, and now I can't wait to read The Wind in the Willows. I highly recommend this book to anyone with fond recollections of spending time outside and/or playing make-believe as a kid. Simply lovely. Ms. Eastman is a fantastic reader as well