Lords of the Housetops: Thirteen Cat Tales by Balzac, Poe, Twain and others

by Carl van Vechten

This carefully crafted ebook: "Lords of the Housetops: Thirteen Cat Tales by Balzac, Poe, Twain and others" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Lords of the Housetops is a carefully chosen collection of thirteen tales about the beloved, clever and charismatic cat. We see the cat through the eyes of thirteen authors, including such famous writers as Mark Twain, Booth Tarkington and Edgar Allen Poe. Carl Van Vechten assembled and edited this collection. Lords of the Housetops Thirteen Cat Tales by : Alden, W. L. (William Livingston), 1837-1908 Bacon, Peggy, 1895-1987 Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850 Blackwood, Algernon, 1869-1951 Carryl, Guy Wetmore, 1873-1904 Freeman, Mary Eleanor Wilkins, 1852-1930 Hudson, W. H. (William Henry), 1841-1922 Janvier, Thomas A. (Thomas Allibone), 1849-1913 Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849 Powell, G. H. (George Herbert), 1856-1924 Tarkington, Booth, 1869-1946 Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 Warner, Charles Dudley, 1829-1900 Livingston Chester Lord (1851 - 1933) was the second president of Eastern Illinois University, serving from 1898 to 1933.

Genres: Short Stories, Animals, Classics

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1921

About the author

Carl van Vechten (B.A., University of Chicago, 1903) was a photographer, music-dance critic, novelist, and patron of the Harlem Renaissance who served as literary executor for Gertrude Stein.

Van Vechten was among the most influential literary figures of the 1910s and 1920s. He began his career in journalism as a reporter, then in 1906 joined The New York Times as assistant music critic and later worked as its Paris correspondent. His early reviews are collected in Interpreters and Interpretations (1917 and 1920) and Excavations: A Book of Advocacies (1926). His first novel, Peter Whiffle (1922), a first-person account of the salon and bohemian culture of New York and Paris and clearly drawn from Van Vechten's own experiences, and was immensely popular. His most controversial work of fiction is Nigger Heaven (1926), notable for its depiction of black life in Harlem in the 1920s and its sympathetic treatment of the newly emerging black culture.

In the 1930s, Van Vechten turned from fiction to photography. His photographs are in collections at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and elsewhere. An important literary patron, he established the James Weldon Johnson Collection of Negro Arts and Letters at Yale.

Reviews

[Mala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of Lord of the Housetops by Carl Van Vechten
Shelf: Short stories,Buried Book Club.
Recommended for: Cat lovers,duh!

Short stories are reader-friendly,with that in mind,I picked it up as a delightful diversion. This collection of thirteen cat tales by various writers,provided a much-needed respite from some heavy-duty reading of late,also,reading it as my first book for the Buried Book Club,imbued it with a greater joy!

Carl Van Vechten assembled,edited & also translated one story from original French to English. Each story shines a new light upon some hidden/new/fascinating aspect of feline nature– infact there's such variety here that it would be apt to steal Shakespeare's lines meant for Cleopatra:

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety.

CVV writes in the Preface:

Now the cat, independent, liberty-loving, graceful, strong, resourceful, dignified, and self-respecting, has a psychology essentially feline, which has few points of contact with human psychology. The cat does not rescue babies from drowning or say his prayers in real life; consequently any attempt to make him do so in fiction would be ridiculous. He has, to be sure, his own virtues. To me these are considerably greater than those of any other animal. But the fact remains that the satisfactory treatment of the cat in fiction requires not only a deep knowledge of but also a deep affection for the sphinx of the fire side. Even then the difficulties can only be met in part, for the novelist must devise a situation in which human and feline psychology can be merged.

CVV therefore,paid particular attention to this aspect. There are some perennial favourites like Poe's The Black Cat*, Dick Baker's Cat by Mark Twain and Gipsy by Booth Tarkington.

My personal favs turned out to be Zut by Guy Wetmore Carryl which examines a cat's tendency to change homes which brings to a boil the simmering hostilities between two neighbourhood establishments. How typical is the following image of the royal feline!
Zut, a white angora cat of surpassing beauty and prodigious size...what with much eating and an inherent distaste for exercise, had attained her present proportions and her superb air of unconcern. It was from the latter that she derived her name, that which, in Parisian argot, at once means everything and nothing, but is chiefly taken to signify complete and magnificent indifference to all things mundane and material: and in the matter of indifference Zut was past-mistress. Even for Madame Caille herself, who fed her with the choicest morsels from her own plate, brushed her fine fur with excessive care, and addressed caressing remarks to her at minute intervals throughout the day, Zut manifested a lack of interest that amounted to contempt. As she basked in the warm sun.

Another one was Balzac's The Afflictions of an English Cat– with its deliciously wicked satire of English respectability,it's is a tale not to be missed. Here are a few samples:

Permit me to give you a lesson in gentility," she said. "Understand, Miss Beauty, that English Cats veil natural acts, which are opposed to the laws of English respectability...In the future when such a desire seizes you, look out of the window, give the impression that you desire to go for a walk, then run to a copse or to the gutter.

What these men and old women call education is the custom of dissimulating natural manners, and when they have completely depraved us they say that we are well-bred.

...true Anglican religion which did not permit lying and cheating except in the government, foreign affairs, and the cabinet.

...in England we have another standard of morality. We are always respectable, even in our pleasures.

In a collection like this,it's not always possible to sustain the same level of quality in all the selected material but here,barring A Psychical Invasion, by Algernon Blackwood,the longest & (to me) the most boring tale,the rest fared fairly well.
It's rather pointless to describe the remaining stories as CVV has done that quite succinctly in the Preface,why not then read the book & give it the many reviews that it deserves? Kobo is giving it to readers as free ebook though there are printing errors in quite a few of the stories.

Reading this collection has given me some insight into the secretive world of the cats. My husband who is a cat lover & is always telling me amusing stories from his past about his pet kittens & cats,wants to gift me a Persian cat. Next time,I might say yes!

For advanced readers,I would recommend CVV's The Tiger in the House: A Cultural History of the Cat & that "sublime nonsense" from Mr.Eliot- Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. (Both of which I'm yet to read).

* Don't confuse it with that 1934 Edgar G. Ulmer movie which only shares its name. But do watch it for the atmosphere & the superb soundtrack.

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had this 1921 collection of thirteen stories about cats on my Someday Lists for years, then picked it to go into what I call Collected Collections, a list of short story collections to be read as a personal challenge. I thought this refinement would help me whittle away at that Someday mountain.

I did enjoy the first story. The Cat, written by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, tells the story of a cat who is out hunting for himself in a snowstorm. He catches a rabbit and then drags it home. His master is not there (he won't be home until Spring, but The Cat doesn't know that) but Cat manages to get into the house with his bunny anyway. But will he be allowed to enjoy his hard won meal?

This story introduced me not only to The Cat but to a word I had never seen before. Cats meow, they mewl, they mew, but did you know they also miaul? I didn't think it was a real word but it is and of course it just means meow.

Well, as I said, I enjoyed this first story and prowled off happily to the next one which had to do with the rivalry between two beauty salons in France. But before any type of kitty could show up I became bored with the story so skipped on to the next one, a very long Algernon Blackwood piece that also did not talk about a cat right away and began to feel more spooky than I cared to deal with so I skipped that one too.

Next was one by Honore Balzac, about the life of an English cat but I'm afraid I couldn't get a purr going for that one either so I have decided to put this book out of its misery and mark it a DNF.

Bit of trivia: the editor's preface was pretty much the most entertaining reading here, and he was so obviously a cat person that I became curious about him. Turned out that one of Carl Van Vechten's many claims to fame was that he had written the book The Tiger In The House (1920). The GR blurb says that this is a glorious historical overview of humanity’s long love affair with the cat. GR reviews of the book are mixed, however, so my curiosity was killed quicker than the proverbial cat was.

So now I am off to my Collected Collections list to see if I can find something more entertaining.

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Lords of the Housetops’ is a collection of thirteen short stories about cats by famous and competent authors. These short stories are not quick one-offs written for a check, but are crafted with care by writers who clearly know and love kitties, warts and all. While often the writer has a silly smile on his/her face while writing the story, they do not soft-soap the realities of the animals’ personalities.

The Cat by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
Zut by Guy Wetmore Carryl
A Psychical Invasion by Algernon Blackwood
The Afflictions of an English Cat by Honoré de Balzac
Gipsy by Booth Tarkington
The Blue Dryad by G. H. Powell
Dick Baker's Cat by Mark Twain
The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
Madame Jolicoeur’s Cat by Thomas A. Janvier
A Friendly Rat by W. H. Hudson
Monty’s Friend by William Livingston Alden
The Queen’s Cat by Peggy Bacon
Calvin by Charles Dudley Warner

Not all of the cats survive. Those of us who adore cats know how reckless and arrogant they are. So.

Some of the stories are funny, others are dramatic, some involve the paranormal. Some are about the cat but others are about the people who care for the cat. But always “It is the way”.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

13 tales involving cats, mostly by people who actually know cats very well. Very enjoyable; sometimes heartwarming and sometimes creepy, this contains a couple of classics including one by Edgar Allen Poe. Bonus: free from Project Gutenberg!

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of "Thirteen Cat Tales" was first published in 1921.

As with any anthology, there will be some selections that appeal to each reader's taste, and some that won't. My favorites: "Zut", by Guy Wetmore Carryl, 1903; "Madame Jolicoeur's Cat", by Thomas Janvier, 1912; and "The Cat", by Mary Wilkins Freeman, 1901.

My least favorite: "The Black Cat", by Edgar Allan Poe, date unknown. Not that I object to Poe in principle -- I do like some of his work -- but I draw the line at stories in which a human mutilates, tortures, and kills an innocent pet. Even if the cat's twin? ghost? doppelganger? does avenge itself in the end.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of thirteen fairly literary short stories (although one's closer to novella length), all about cats, and they're a mixed bag. Two of them I couldn't get into and skipped, but the rest were at least okay and one, "Gipsy," was rather good.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories involving cats. Prefaced by a wonderful history and description of cats.

1) The Cat. By Mary E Wilkins Freeman. 4 stars. A cat left behind in his master’s cabin in the woods is surviving on his own through the winter. Then a sick, desolate stranger arrives and the cat hunts for him, until he too disappears.
2) Zut. By Guy Wetmore Carryl. 1 star. There were a lot of French words which made it a little difficult to understand. Something about a feud between 2 shop owners in Paris. Never did figure out how the cat fit in.
3) A Psychical Invasion. By Algernon Blackwood. 4 stars. An excentric doctor takes patients with psychical afflictions of the mind. His current patient is losing his sense of humor after taking Cannabis. In order to ‘cure’ him, the doctor uses a cat named Smoke and a dog named Flame.
4) The Afflictions of an English Cat. By Honore de Balzac. 1 star. Odd story from the POV of the cat who thinking with the brain patterns of a human, but believes it’s self-better. At least that’s what I think is happening.
5) Gipsy. By Booth Tarkington. 3 stars. Gipsy started out as the beloved kitten of a sweet little girl, but grew up to have the temperament of an untamed wanderer of alleyways. One day, while foraging for scraps he had an encounter with a sleeping hound dog named Duke. Poor cat. He was just hungry.
6) The Blue Dryad. By George Herbert Powell. 4 stars. If you don’t like snakes, don’t read. But I like Stoffles, a very haughty, vain feline cat.
7) Dick Baker’s Cat. By Mark Twain. 3 stars. Gold miner’s cool cat. Loves the explosion, but poor cat.
8) The Black Cat. By Edgar Allen Poe. 3 stars. Typical Poe. Animal cruelty, murder and drunkenness. I usually like him, but nope.
9) Madame Jolicoeur’s Cat. By Thomas Allibone Janvier. 1 star. Widow lady that won’t make up her mind. Dumb story.
10) A Friendly Rat. By William Henry Hunson. 4 stars. Stars with an interesting list of what kinds of pets people have. Then tells story about a woman who had both a cat and rat as pets.
11) Monty’s Friend. 5 stars. Another goldfield story. A lonely man comforted by a lonely cat.
12) The Queen’s Cat. By Peggy Bacon. 3sars. The king is deathly afraid of cats. The queen has to have one. So the doctor finds a cat who not a cat.
13) Calvin. By Charles Dudley Warner. 3 stars. A very long, detailed history and obituary of a wonderful, large household cat.

[LaShana Claude · Rating 5 out of 5]

- No; Gipsy was not the pet for a little girl. The rosy hearthstone and sheltered rug were too circumspect for him. Surrounded by the comforts of middle-class respectability, and profoundly oppressed, even in his youth, by the Puritan ideals of the household, he sometimes experienced a sense of suffocation. He wanted free air and he wanted free life; he wanted the lights, the lights, and the music. He abandoned the bourgeoisie irrevocably. He went forth in a May twilight, carrying the evening beefsteak with him, and joined the underworld.

[Rex Libris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is thirteen short stories about cats. For as packed as it was with literary giants (Twain, Poe, Balzac), it was rather un-entertaining. The best piece was Poe's "The Black Cat." There were a few cat "biographies" that were mildly amusing, and a suspenseful Gothic story where the cat actually played only a very minor role, but beyond that there was very little to note.

[Cobb K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could not pass up a cat story, good or bad.

I wasn't fond of the long Blackwood or punning Balzac stories. Balzac wrote 'A Passion in the Desert' which might have fit in better, but she was a big cat. Blackwood's was just overly long compared to others, and more interest as a mystery novel than for the cat it featured.

The rest of the collection was nice light reading, and it could help find readers for people who wrote short stories in the early 20th century who don't get much attention now.

[Janelle]

I'm very disappointed with this as I expected to really enjoy it. Unfortunately the main Librivox narrator read in a hurry, and another kept inserting weird pauses every second sentence. One of the narrators is excellent, but her first story had so much French in it, which she read with apparent fluency, that I couldn't understand it. I started on two other stories that had good narrators, but I quickly became disinterested and bored. Judging by the description, this should be a wonderful book. So perhaps it's one that should be read, rather than listened to.

[Lupu Adrian · Rating 2 out of 5]

3-4 povestioare chiar merită, restul sunt doar drăguțe

[A gin and orange, a lemon squash, and a scotch and water, please! · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's about cats. What more do you need?