Author(s): Rodney Dale

Gift/Humour

In this lavishly illustrated volume, Rodney Dale presents some of the finest renderings of cats as they have appeared in books over the centuries. Some, like Sir John Tenniel's classic Cheshire Cat or Lewis Caroll's Alice's Adventures Under Ground, are well known; others, such as the cats shown in the margins of the Lindisfarne Gospels and Luttrell Psalter, may be new to many readers. From Ancient Egypt onward, cat illustrators have endeavoured to capture the character of this notoriously elusive animal. Among those whose work is reproduced in Cats in Books are Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Durer, Arthur Rackham, and Aubrey Beardsley. Here, too, are images from Edward Gorey's playfull version of T.S. Elliot's Old Possum Book of Practical Cats and Kathleen Hale's Orlando. Feline fanciers and bibliophiles alike will delight in the cats depicted in this distinctive volume.