Shaggy Muses

May 21, 2007
Coaxed through a depression by her golden retriever, Adams, a psychologist and former English professor, was drawn to five exceptional women writers who relied on their loyal dogs for emotional support. Flush distracted Elizabeth Barrett after her favorite brother's death, and the poet wrote about “the unsettling similarity between lapdogs and women in Victorian England”: both powerless and needing to please others. Formidable, eccentric Emily Brontë, who once savagely beat her fierce mastiff, Keeper, for sleeping on her bed, refused to sentimentalize the human-dog bond in Wuthering Heights,
which depicts innocent pets being hung. Carlo, a Newfoundland, comforted Emily Dickinson in a dark time—when she may have been in love with a married man—and Edith Wharton mourned the death of one of her pooches more than the death of her mother. And Adams suggests that Virginia Woolf, depicting a dog's trauma in her biography of Flush, who was dognapped for ransom, dealt with her own childhood molestation (a picture of Woolf's dog, Pinka, appeared on the cover of Flush's biography). Although Adams's knowledgeable minibiographies are necessarily skewed toward a specialized subject matter, lovers of both dogs and classic writers will identify with this sweet, quirky book. Illus.

July 1, 2007
Clinical psychologist and former English professor Adams wrote this book examining the intense emotional attachment felt by the five titular women writers toward their dogs after the death of her own dog. Despite their different personalities and backgrounds, these writers all had in common dogs that provided stability and consistency in their lives. Each chapter is a minibiography of an author emphasizing and offering anecdotes about the deep bond she shared with her dog. By using diaries, letters, illustrations, and sometimes passages from these women's writings, Adams provides a unique perspective of her subjects as pet owners. A recurrent theme is the comfort the dogs provided. Often, they kept these writers grounded during times of intense creativity and deep psychological distresse.g., Dickinson viewed her dog as a protector, while Barrett Browning's dog helped lift her out of depression. From this unusual vantage point, Adams succeeds in linking these writers' lives in various ways. Recommended for public and academic libraries.Erica Swenson Danowitz, Delaware Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Media, PA

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2007
Adams takes a fascinating look at the private lives of five women writers through their relationships with their dogs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was in deep mourning for the death of her brother when a friend sent her Flush, a lively little cocker spaniel that brightened her days and drew her out of her isolation. Emily Bront' scorned lapdogs but would roam the moors of Haworth with her ferocious mastiff, Keeper. Emily Dickinson shared her poems and her thoughts with Carlo, her Newfoundland, while Edith Wharton had a succession of small dogs, such as Chihuahuas and Pekingese, throughout her life, and they became her constant companions in old age. Virginia Woolf and her husband, Leonard, both loved dogs, and Virginia even penned a novel about Elizabeth Barrett Brownings dog, Flush, who was abducted several times by nefarious dognappers. Adams elucidates each womans emotional connection to the dogs in her life and also shows how each canine made it into a great authoress writing. Written in lively, accessible prose, this absorbing, wholly unique book is a must-read for literature- and dog-lovers alike.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)