TALES TOLD BY A DOG. On May 11, the Wall Street Journal had a review by Charles Harrington Elster of CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE by John Sutherland, which seems to be, as the review describes it, “a book crammed with…amusing trivia” on literary subjects. Because trivia is important, I have to register a correction. The review gives some examples of firsts from the book, including that “The first canine narrator, a black Aberdeen terrier named Boots, appeared in a 1930 short story by Rudyard Kipling called ‘Thy Servant a Dog.'” In fact, a heartbreaking story by Mark Twain, “A Dog’s Tale”, which is narrated by a dog, appeared in 1903. The story begins with one of the great opening sentences: “My father was a St. Bernard, my mother was a collie, but I am a Presbyterian.”
Categories
Archives
Recent Comments
- Gary Nuetzel on THE OLDEST FANTASY BASEBALL LEAGUE STARTS ITS 32ND SEASON. (COMMENT).
- Francesca on EATING PEAS WITH A KNIFE.
- avon wilsmore on CHEATING IN CHAMPIONSHIP BRIDGE.
- Anonymous on THE LANGUAGE WEIRDNESS INDEX.
- James Friscia on THE SECOND OLDEST FANTASY BASEBALL LEAGUE.
- Ken Babcock on THE SECOND OLDEST FANTASY BASEBALL LEAGUE.
- Lickity Splitfingers on THE SECOND OLDEST FANTASY BASEBALL LEAGUE.
- Ken Babcock on THE OLDEST FANTASY BASEBALL LEAGUE STARTS ITS 32ND SEASON. (COMMENT).
- David Quemere on THE OLDEST FANTASY BASEBALL LEAGUE STARTS ITS 32ND SEASON. (COMMENT).
- Nicholas Schaefer on THE SECOND OLDEST FANTASY BASEBALL LEAGUE.
Meta
There are lots of Victorian examples. I just found a few on Google Books by searching on “dog” and the phrase “my mistress”; _Neptune, or the autobiography of a Newfoundland dog_, by E. Burrows, 1869; _The Confessions of a Lost Dog_, by Frances Power Cobbe, 1867; _Cat and dog, or Memoirs of Puss and The Captain_, by Julia Charlotte Maitland, 1854. I’m sure there are many more, and probably much earlier ones.
Pingback: TALES TOLD BY A DOG (COMMENT). | Pater Familias
The Bar Sinister by Richard Harding Davis, which is narrated by a dog, appeared in a magazine in 1903. My father liked the story a lot. I had to ask him what a “bar sinister” was. The Amazon books entry quotes the author as saying that something like the events in the story really happened in Canada in 1900. Chekhov’s Kashtanka, which appeared in 1887, is told from the point of view of a dog.