“There are innumerable books on dogs, but no substantial, comprehensive history, no history that meets the standards of scholarly accuracy,” Rogers says. For example, she explains that the present standard breeds we know were actually developed in the nineteenth century; in earlier times dogs were classified by function rather than appearance – sight hounds, mastiffs, scent hounds, shepherd dogs, toys. She traces the portrayals of dogs in literature from Homer’s Argus in “The Odyssey” (a scent hound) to canine partners such as Bill Sikes’s bulldog Bull’s Eye and Dora’s toy spaniel Jip in Dickens’s novels to raffish independent dogs in modern fiction.
Dogs, which have been with us since the beginning of human society, have worked for us in countless ways and also been our beloved companions. Today we tend to think of them as junior members of the family, with similar feelings to ourselves and legitimate interests of their own.
“First Friend”
By Katharine Rogers
Softcover | 7.5 x 9.25in | 292 pages | ISBN 9781450208734
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble
About the Author
Katharine Rogers, professor emerita of English at the City University of New York, has written several books on women and literature and a biography of L. Frank Baum, which was a New York Times Notable Book. Recently she has focused on animals – two books on cats, as well as “First Friend.” She lives in Gaithersburg, Md., with her husband, her dog, Sylvia, and her cat, Ben.
She is the author of “The Troublesome Helpmate: A History of Misogyny in Literature,” “William Wycherley,” “Feminism in Eighteenth-Century England,” “Frances Burney: The World of ‘Female Difficulties,’” “The Cat and the Human Imagination,” “L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz,” “First Friend: A History of Dogs and Humans,” “Cat” and “Pork.”
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