My Private Menagerie

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About this book

The title page reads "THE WORKS OF THÉOPHILE GAUTIER VOLUME NINETEEN" and the contents list names parts called "Antiquity," "The White Dynasty," "The Black Dynasty," "This Side for Dogs" and "My Horses." A narrator says "I have often been caricatured in Turkish dress seated upon cushions, and surrounded by cats so familiar." Josephine "bought on the Pont-Neuf a little dog not unlike the Tarbes specimen."

A dog "freed of a sort of overcoat made of curled lambskin" is said to appear "in all the wretched guise and ugliness of a street cur." A character named Eponine "bolts her soup in hot haste," and a remark is quoted: "A lady who has no appetite for soup cannot have any appetite for fish." The text says Jane "was naturally intrepid; she never refused, and nothing frightened her, but after a few months of cohabitation with Blanche her character changed."

About the author

Théophile Gautier

Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) was a French poet and playwright who also worked as a novelist, journalist, librettist and critic of art and literature. He was linked with Romanticism and the Parnassian movement, and held the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honour. His titles include "Clarimonde" and "The Mummy's Foot".