Rab and His Friends

by John Brown

I was bitten severely by a little dog when with my mother at Moffat Wells, being then three years of age, and I have remained "bitten" ever since in the matter of dogs. I remember that little dog... and were I allowed to search among the shades in the cynic Elysian fields, I could pick her out still. -from "Our Dogs" The 1858 short story "Rab and His Friends"-based on a true incident about a gray mastiff, Rab, and his relationship with an Edinburgh doctor and one of the doctor's patients-is considered one of the finest examples of Victorian melodrama. It is also beautifully portrays the extraordinary insight author John Brown had into the canine temperament; it and other essays included here on Brown's life with the faithful animals will enchant dog lovers. Also featured in this volume: Brown's renowned 1863 sketch, "Marjorie Fleming." Scottish physician and writer John Brown (1810-1882) is best known for his two volumes of essays, Horae Subsecivae (Leisure Hours) (1858, 1861).

Genres: Classics

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1859

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

John Brown was a Scottish physician and essayist best known for his three-volume collection Horae Subsecivae, which included essays and papers on art, medical history and biography. Of his essays, his dog story Rab and his Friends (1859), Pet Marjorie (1863), on Marjorie Fleming, the ten-year-old prodigy and alleged "pet" of Walter Scott, Our Dogs, Minchmoor, and The Enterkine are best known.

In 1847 Brown became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and for a while was Honorary Librarian. He held strong views on the inappropriateness of examinations for evaluating student progress and was unimpressed by the view that scientific advances were in patients' best interests.

Reviews

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Die Geschichte spielt im Edinburgh des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts und erzählt die Geschichte der Freundschaft zwischen einem Old English Mastiff und dem Ehepaar, dem er gehört. Der Erzähler sieht Rab das erste Mal bei einem Hundekampf. Danach entsteht eine Freundschaft zwischen ihm und den Besitzern, James und Allie.

Einige Jahre nach der ersten Begegnung bringt James seine Frau zu Browns Arbeitgeber, Dr. James Syme ins Edinburgher Minton House Hospital. Allie ist an Brustkrebs erkrankt und wird dort operiert. Die Art, wie das schlichte Arbeiterpaar mit der Krankheit umgeht, berührt alle Medizinstudenten, die bei der Operation zusehen. Aber die Krankheit ist zu weit fortgeschritten, als dass es noch Heilung geben kann.

Rabs Geschichte ist kurz, aber sie erzählt viel. James und Allie hatten kein leichtes Leben. Sie haben ihr einziges Kind früh verloren und hatten danach nur noch einander. John Brown ist trotz aller Freundschaft nur ein Beobachter, denn die Beziehung zwischen James und Allie ist so eng, dass für niemand anderen Platz zu sein scheint. Rab war kein Ersatz für die tote Tochter, aber trotzdem war er ein vollwertiges Familienmitglied.

John Brown erzählt in schlichten Worten, aber das macht die Geschichte für mich so besonders.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully done, but don't read this if you are at all fragile emotionally.

[Nancy DeValve · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short story rather than a book, though it was published in book form. I got the free Kindle version after seeing it in a list of required reading for high school back in the day. It's a rather sad, depressing tale of a faithful dog, his master, his mistress (the dog's that is) who has breast cancer, and their dog. I didn't care for the writing style or the story itself, to be honest.

[Surreysmum · Rating 2 out of 5]

[These notes were made in 1984; I read the 1905 T.N. Foulis edition:]. This little leather-bound gift book (38 pp.) was given to me by a family friend this afternoon. Rab is a large and ungainly dog, whom we first meet in a rather unpleasant description of a dog-fight, and who is then an oft-mentioned looker-on in the rather pathetic death of his mistress Ailie from breast cancer. (Although he does not dwell on details, Brown's mention of an anaesthetic-less operation is horrible to contemplate). I find the near-sentimentality of his attachment to the dog curiously at variance with his crude acceptance of human and animal suffering.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Free Kindle download. Touching story from 1890 about a young doctor who meets a cartman, his wife with breast cancer, and their faithful dog, Rab.