The Difficulty of Being a Dog (Hardback)

Roger Grenier (author), Alice Kaplan (translator)

£17.00

Hardback 134 Pages
Published: 01/12/2000

Synopsis

It's not always easy to be a dog--to be a companion to those strange human animals, as Roger Grenier shows us on this literary dog walk. In some fifty self-contained and lovingly crafted vignettes, esteemed French author Grenier visits the great dogs of history and legend, beginning at the beginning, with Ulysses and his dog, Argos, the only creature to recognize him after years of absence. From Virginia Woolf, who became the self-appointed biographer of Flush, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's cocker spaniel, to Andre Gide, whose diary records his bemusement at his dog's propensity to mount his ancient cat, Grenier reveals how dogs have inspired writers. He introduces us to Freud's chow Lun, who was able to make him understand he was about to die; to Fala, FDR's scottish terrier, who now has his own statue in Washington; and to Michael and Jerry, the heroes of Jack London's novels. Along the way, Grenier tells us about a few of the dogs who have occupied his own life and heart. Though the rapport between dogs and people remains a mystery, it is also, for him, the source of the purest form of love.

Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226308272
Number of pages: 134
Weight: 290 g
Dimensions: 210 x 140 x 19 mm

MEDIA REVIEWS

"This slim volume is beautifully written, and the prose flows like poetry. The market has been flooded with a plethora of popularly written books attempting to explain canines and why people love them, yet this book... raises the subject to a higher plane. A gem." - Library Journal, starred review "[L]iterate, light and lighthearted....[A] kind of anthology of literary musings about dogs based on Mr. Grenier's extensive readings in everything from Faulkner to the Japanese novelist Junichiro Tanizaki." - Richard Bernstein, New York Times "[A] very superior commonplace book of canine characteristics, the mixture of Grenier's own anecdotes with quotations from other intellectuals making it far from the average gift-shop item - as if Roland Barthes had opted for domestic animals rather than for fashion or photography." - John Stokes, Times Literary Supplement "With whimsical humor and mordant wit, [Grenier] applies a broad and deep knowledge of literary dog lovers from Homer to Flaubert and Faulkner, elaborating not only on their insights into doglove and hate but also on what these writers' revelations tell us about ourselves....[A]n appealing gift item, this slim volume will make lovers both of literature and canines sit up and take notice." - Publishers Weekly