The Sophisticated Cat

by Joyce Carol Oates (Editor), Daniel Halpern (Editor)

In this amazingly diverse new anthology, the eternal cat is captured in the prose and poetry of the world's finest writers from Aesop to Zola. Here are stories by European masters of the form - Balzac, Chekhov, Wodehouse, Saki, and Colette - along with such American masters as Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Damon Runyon, and Ernest Hemingway. The best in contemporary writing is well represented, too, by Joyce Carol Oates, James Herriot, Alice Adams, Angela Carter, and Ursula K. Le Guin, to name just a few. And the poets - from Keats and Emily Dickinson to Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop and, of course, Old Possum himself, T. S. Eliot. Finally, a wonderful group of pieces called "The Truth About Cats" collects the wisdom of the ages ranging from Herodotus to Benjamin Franklin to William Faulkner, with many a delightful digression along the way. Utterly irresistible, The Sophisticated Cat is rich, eclectic, and universal in its appeal, the perfect anthology to dip into or to read from cover to cover for all of us who feel the affinity, unbroken for thousands of years, between the soul of that magnificent creature, the cat, and our own. And the perfect gift for cosmopolitan cat-lovers of every literary stripe.

Genres: Cats, Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Poetry, Animals

396 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1992

About the author

Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel Them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).
Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. From 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters. She now teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Oates was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2016.
Pseudonyms: Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.

Reviews

[Mary Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cat is the supreme creation of a benign and wonderful god, someone like Santa Claus in a GQ suit. Obviously, sophistication becomes the cat, and any person who reads about cats becomes sophisticated. This large collection of stories, fables and poems spanning ancient to modern times describes the innate ability of cats to transcend the sad attempt at cleverness practiced by humans.

The Sophisticated Cat is a sometimes farcical, sometimes wise, often poignant and passionate collection of writings by an impressive array of great authors from many countries and cultures. Humorous stories include “The Cat That Walked By Himself” by Rudyard Kipling, “The Story of Webster” by P. G. Wodehouse, and “Lillian” by Damon Runyon (the latter takes place in the vicinity of Eighth Avenue and 49th Street). Colette’s “Saha” and Joyce Carol Oates’ “The White Cat” deal with human cruelty toward cats and the frailty and folly behind this cruelty.

Alice Adams’ exceptional story, “The Islands,” begins with the question, “What does it mean to love an animal, a pet, in my case, a cat, in the fierce, entire and unambivalent way that some of us do?” The story of her life with the silver grey tailless cat “Pink” rings true in every phrase.

Soseki Natsume’s “I Am A Cat” is told from the cat’s point of view. It is beautiful, precise, and haunting. There are stories by Aesop, the Brothers Grimm, Emile Zola, Balzac, Mark Twain, Hemingway, Saki, Italo Calvino, and Ursula K. LeGuin. Chekhov’s “Who’s To Blame?” is one of the finest, Orwellian-style allegories ever written.

The poetry is presented in five sections, from the romantic to the whimsical. In Pablo Neruda’s poem, “Cat,” he describes the complete catness of cats; a cat intends or impersonates nothing else: “His is that peerless / integrity, / neither moonlight nor petal / repeats his contexture: / he is all things in all, / like the sun or a topaz.”

Paul Valery describes them as “indifferent to everything but Light itself.” W. B. Yeats’ well known poem about Minnaloushe the cat is included: “And lifts to the changing moon / His changing eyes,” and fine poems by Hart Crane, Robert Graves, and Marianne Moore. “My Cat Jeoffrey” by Christopher Smart is the most fun to read and William Wordsworth’s “The Kitten and Falling Leaves” is the loveliest.

I did wonder why May Sarton’s work was not included. She has written a beautiful book, “The Fur Person.” To a purrfectionist, sophisticated cat reader, this was a glaring omission. The Sophisticated Cat receives ten purrs, five meows, and only one tail flick.

[SusanwithaGoodBook · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this book at a book fair several years ago (before I forced myself to stop going to those things). It’s a nice clean hardcover book with a lovely dustcover, and cats are my thing, so it was a must have, don’t you know?

Fast forward several years to last month when I began to review and clean out my To Read Shelf. One of the things I did was check every book I have - is it also available in ebook? Audio? Can I get the ebook or audio at the library?

If a book isn’t available in ebook version and can’t be found at the library I always wonder why. Is it too old? Is the story too dated? Why is it unpopular?

In particular, why is a collection of cat themed short stories and poems not popular enough for ebook format?

Well, now that I have read this one I can answer that question easily.

People who love cats don’t want to read about them being abused. Period.

Yes, there were a few very nice stories in here (thank you, James Herriot) and some cute poems. (I particularly loved the one written in the shape of a cat. Nice, that.) BUT, a lot of the stories are terrible. We could definitely do without Poe’s take on a cat story. No. Nevermore.

So I finally read this, but I can't recommend it. If you're a cat lover stay away. Far, far away.

[Radical · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable collection of short stories and poems. It makes it clear that whatever you think about cats, the answer is: yes. Cats inspire, simultaneously in the same person, affection and revulsion and this collection perfectly captures artists’ attempts to embrace or, a much more painful endeavor, reconcile those two conflicting views.

[Beth Stephenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, duh, it's Joyce Carol Oates. Need I say more? Cats are fabulous creatures, and I am privileged to share my life, currently, with four of these mesmerizing creatures, who condescend to live with me, my husband, and a varying coterie of dogs. Each a unique individual. Each a charming presence in his or her own right. Lovely to read and savor each chapter in its own right.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now very dated - by means of not including recent works. The type is tiny and cramped so it is hard to read. There are short excerpts, poems and a few short stories. But mostly poems. The items are broken up into blocks by type of content, there are five blocks of poetry. Tennyson, Twain, Colette, Herriot, Grimm, Kipling, Carroll, Chekov, Wodehouse etc.

[Rose Lilian]

Good if you hate cats.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes.