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February 2008
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For that audience for whom a) dogs, and b) 19th and early 20-century women authors are absolutely irresistible (and really, doesn't that include just about everyone?), author Maureen Adams has given us the summer's most delightful book: Shaggy Muses: The Dogs Who Inspired Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edith Wharton, and Emily Bronte (Ballantine, $24.95). This love-letter to canine fidelity comprises exacting, interesting mini-bios of all the authors mentioned, always putting emphasis on the solace and joy wrought by their doggy companions. Ms. Adams had me nearly in tears in the introduction, talking about a note Emily Dickinson sent to her literary mentor announcing the death of her beloved dog Carlo: "Carlo died: Would you instruct me now?" The book's details are fascinating: Who knew that in the mid-1840s, a dog-napping gang flourished in London (Elizabeth Barrett had to ransom her cocker spaniel, Flush, from them twice). Or that Edith Wharton had a deathly fear of crossing thresholds (shared by Lily Bart in The House of Mirth). Shaggy Muses might just have you penning poetry dedicated to your own pooch. Here, a very brief example, courtesy of Ms. Wharton, about Linky, her Pekinese: My little old dog, If similarly inclined, post your own Ode du Dog here. |
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