The Dogs’ Dinner Party, The White Cat, The Little Dog Trusty and My Mother.
Published by George Routledge in 1870.
Originally published as Routledge’s Large-size Six-penny or Shilling Toy Books. This is a collection of four of these titles bound together under the title of my mother.
Size: 27 x 23 cms or 10 3/4 x 9 inches.
53 cloth backed pages with 23 high quality illustrations (with The Dogs’ dinner part covering two pages) printed by Kronheim and Co.
My Mother is a poem in praise of motherly devotion.
Little Dog Trusty is a classic morality tales about two brothers. One is good, the other tells tales. Trusty the dog is going to suffers the consequences of a particular falsehood; he’s going to be beaten. But the small boy comes clean - it was he that spilt the milk. He is punished and learns a valuable lesson.
The White Cat is a Fairy story in which, not unpredictably, the feline transforms into a princess. The author is unknown but the story is very well written. The illustrations are by F. Shill. One in particular, in which the cat, wearing human clothing, rides a monkey, is particularly marvellous.
The Dogs’ Dinner Party is considered to be a landmark of anthropomorphic fiction. It’s charmingly written by Harrison Weir. The illustrations are by E. Evans. In the tale two genteel spaniels invite all kinds of dogs to a grand feast. They have reservations about asking the bull-dog since he is not considered respectable, but decide to do so anyway. Unfortunately the bull-dog lets himself down by sneaking off and eating the servants’ dinners; and like the small boy above is obliged to suffer the consequence of his poor behaviour .
Condition: Very Good. The whole is quite shabby and somewhat grubby. There is no title page. The binding is quite worn. Repairs have been made to the text throughout. There are some crayon marks within, on the back side (the cloth side) of script. There are spots of foxing throughout. The pictures remain bright however and the binding, despite wear, use and repair, is still secure.
