Doggy People
The Victorians Who Made the Modern Dog
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Manchester University Press
Published:21st Feb '23
Should be back in stock very soon
We know that there were dogs in Victorian Britain, but who were the ‘Doggy People’ who kept them, bred them, showed them, worked with them and cared for them?
Chapter by chapter, this book reveals the varied and often eccentric lives of the Victorians who helped define dogs as we know them today. The cast runs from the very pinnacle of society, Queen Victoria, to near the bottom with Jemmy Shaw, a publican, boxer, promoter of dog-fights and rat-killing. The others include an artist, aristocrats, authors, a clergyman, doctors, a dog-dealer, a feminist, journalists, landowners, millionaires, philanthropists, politicians, scientists, a stockbroker, veterinarians, and a showman – none other their Charles Cruft.
Looking at the invention and meaning of new breeds such as poodles, collies, Jack Russells, and borzois amongst others, we see how the Victorians thought about pets, sports, dog shows and animal rights.
'Doggy People offers an entertaining, indispensable, and insightful guide to the cast of Victorian characters who created the dogs that live amongst us today'
Chris Pearson, Author of Dogopolis: How dogs and Humans made modern New York, London, and Paris
'Well researched, concise and accessible, Worboys traces the fascinating history of how and why Victorian society realigned the canine / human relationship - an engaging addition to this absorbing area of enquiry.'
Hilda Kean, author of Animal Rights; The Great Cat & Dog Massacre; The Routledge Companion to Animal-Human History
'Worboys succeeds in taking an arch, humorous view of each subject without descending into caricature. Anecdotes are interwoven with a curriculum vitae of canine-related exploits. The breadth and depth of the research are worn lightly, but nonetheless invest the book – which might easily have descended into a treasury of trivia – with an underlying rigour and an eye for social history.'
TLS, James Cahill, June 2023
ISBN: 9781526167729
Dimensions: 216mm x 138mm x 25mm
Weight: unknown
312 pages