I read this for ATY 2019 topic 11: a book related to one of the 12 Zodiac Chinese Animals (title, cover, subject). Here's the GR synopsis: This story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel, Flush, enchants right from the opening pages. Although Flush has adventures of his own with bullying dogs, horrid maids, and robbers, he also provides the reader with a glimpse into Browning’s life.
This synopsis doesn't really do the book justice, however. For example, Woolf reconstructs life in 1840s London from a dog's point of view, setting herself a challenge wich she refers to at a late stage in the book. She writes: that while 'it was in the world of smell that Flush mostly lived', 'there are no more than two words and one-half for what we smell ... To describe his simplest experience with the daily chop or biscuit is beyond our power' (pp. 83-4).
Woolf also gives an uncompromising account of life on London during the period, both for humans and for dogs, as exemplified by her account of the Rookeries. Nonetheless, the book is utterly charming.
This story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel, Flush, enchants right from the opening pages. Although Flush has adventures of his own with bullying dogs, horrid maids, and robbers, he also provides the reader with a glimpse into Browning’s life.
This synopsis doesn't really do the book justice, however. For example, Woolf reconstructs life in 1840s London from a dog's point of view, setting herself a challenge wich she refers to at a late stage in the book. She writes: that while 'it was in the world of smell that Flush mostly lived', 'there are no more than two words and one-half for what we smell ... To describe his simplest experience with the daily chop or biscuit is beyond our power' (pp. 83-4).
Woolf also gives an uncompromising account of life on London during the period, both for humans and for dogs, as exemplified by her account of the Rookeries. Nonetheless, the book is utterly charming.