Dictionary Of Interesting Important Dogs

by Peter J. Conradi

Tin Tin's Snowy, Odysseus's Argos, Darwin's Polly, Mary Queen of Scots's 22 lap-dogs, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Flush... Behind every great man or woman is a dog.A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs is a rich compendium of the world's most significant and beloved dogs. Embracing the intriguing and the provocative, the essential and the trivial, Peter J. Conradi forays into history, literature and personal anecdotes to unearth a treasure trove of canine characters.Discover the stories behind Karl Marx's and his daughter's Dogberry Club; the lapdogs who were secreted in first-class cabins on the Titanic and how they survived; Edinburgh's Greyfriars Bobby who stayed by his master's grave for 14 years; and the one undisputed fact about Shakespeare - his singular dislike for dogs.A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs is a wonderful and witty homage to man's most faithful friend. Tin Tin’s Snowy, Odysseus’s Argos, Darwin’s Polly, Mary Queen of Scots’s 22 lap-dogs, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Flush… Behind every great man or woman is a dog. A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs is a rich compendium of the world’s most significant and beloved dogs. Embracing the intriguing and the provocative, the essential and the trivial, Peter J. Conradi forays into history, literature and personal anecdotes to unearth a treasure trove of canine characters. Discover the stories behind Karl Marx's and his daughter's Dogberry Club; the lapdogs who were secreted in first-class cabins on the Titanic and how they survived; Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Bobby who stayed by his master’s grave for 14 years; and the one undisputed fact about Shakespeare – his singular dislike for dogs. A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs is a wonderful and witty homage to man’s most faithful friend.

Genres: Animals

224 pages, Hardcover

Published November 7, 2019

About the author

See also Sunday Times journalist Peter Conradi

Peter J. Conradi FRSL (born 8 May 1945) is a British author and academic, best known for his studies of writer and philosopher, Iris Murdoch, who was a close friend. He is a Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Kingston and has been Visiting Fellow at Magdalen College Oxford and Research Fellow at University College London.

Conradi was educated at Oundle School, before going on to study English Literature at the University of East Anglia (BA, 1967), the University of Sussex (MA, 1969) and University College London (PhD, 1983).

Conradi has taught at South Bank Polytechnic, University of Colorado, Boulder (Exchange Professor), University of East Anglia, Kingston University and the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland (British Council Professor). In 1997 Conradi left Kingston University, where he is now Emeritus Professor, to write freelance; and in 2010 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Conradi has written a number of books, including studies of John Fowles, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Angus Wilson, but he is best known for his work on the life and work of Iris Murdoch. His authorised biography of Murdoch was widely chosen as a book of the year on its publication in 2001.

Peter Conradi lives in London and Radnorshire with his civil partner Jim O’Neill. He is a practising Buddhist. He is a Trustee of the Bleddfa Centre for the Creative Spirit and has been co-editor (2007-2018) of the Transactions of the Radnorshire Society.

Reviews

[Nelli Lakatos · Rating 5 out of 5]

"𝚆𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚍𝚘𝚐𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚘𝚏 𝚑𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚜."

A must read for dog lovers!
A book filled with beautiful stories and poem of dogs — both in literature and in real life. About how much these beautiful souls mean to us and interesting informations. Like the world's oldest dog was an Australian cattle dog named Bluey who managed a farm and lived up to 29 years! These kinds of informations always fills me with joy as it's heartbreaking to even imagine losing my fur babies.

My other favorite of this book was definitely the chapter titled The Titanic and it's Dogs. I absolutely love anything related to Titanic and I honestly haven't heard a lot about the dogs on board before, so this was the perfect book to learn more about them as well.

Ohh, and the illustrations of dogs were beautiful and obviously the cover of the book is what grabbed my attention in the bookstore.
I cried and laughed while reading this fascinating book, from joy and sometimes purely from how emotional the stories got.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a fascinating collection of stories, poems and facts about various dogs. Quite a number of the dogs, are very well known but there is also a good number of dogs I had never heard of in the book. It is written in very short chapters, each being about a different dog so it is a good book to dip in and out of. I have been reading it with my dog obsessed teenage son and we have learnt some things from it so, it is quite educational too, there are a few sad bits in it though! A very interesting book perfect for any dog lover!

[E-K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Designed as a collection of stories, poems, and ponderings about dogs & people, this is certainly a mixed bag. Some interesting ideas and perspectives on dog owners. I’d give five stars to some of the poems, in particular. But the tone of the prose could get preachy and there was a bit of tiresome name dropping. A good variety of dog-related topics, though. A great book to pick up and put down at intervals.