Dimensions
141 x 222 x 26mm
Inspired by the author's overweight French Bull terrier, Grisby, this charming book chronicles literature and history's most cherished canines. From Anna (Schopenhauer's poodle) to Zemire (Catherine the Great's Italian greyhound), the stories of these prized pets offer unconventional insights into the lives of their human companions.
The dogs we meet in these pages come from all walks of life.
Some belong to great thinkers, like Picasso's dog Lump and Freud's dog Yofi; others appear in literature, like Bill Sikes's dog Bull's Eye in Oliver Twist, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's famous lapdog Flush, whose life story was written by Virginia Woolf.
Others are royal dogs, like Prince Albert's greyhound Eos, or dogs beloved of authors, like Thomas Hardy's fox terrier, Wessex.
Although the book covers a broad territory, each individual chapter provides an accessible, bite-sized rumination on a particular animal.
Through quirky anecdotes and personal reflections, with side-trips into psychoanalysis and animal studies, The Great Grisby shows us the many ways in which dog is the mirror of man.
