The Rat: A Perverse Miscellany [Paperback]

Barbara Hodgson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1997

A full-color homage to everybody's favorite rodent, The Rat is packed with rat facts, rat fiction, rat lore, rat art, and more. Quick-paced and fun-to-read, this compendium explores the unsinkable rat in fables, folklore, novels, pulp fiction, and horror flicks.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

YA?A companion to humankind from its earliest days, the rat has left an indelible imprint on humans and history. Seen from differing perspectives, it appears in many dichotomies: from abhorrent enemy to personal pet, or from scientific instrument to carriers of death, just to name a few. Hodgson gives scientific facts about these animals; countless quotes about rats from myriad literary sources; engravings of medieval rats; and pictures and photos of rats from movies and comics. Unfortunately, the details in a map meant to show the spread of rats across the world and throughout history is too small and unclear to be useful. The bibliography includes books, periodicals, interviews, and image sources, making this book an ideal place to begin additional research. Fascinating graphics matched with the easy-to-read information should appeal to reluctant readers as well as students of history or science. A factual look at rats and the history they share with humanity.?Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Rats abound in this aptly subtitled, wonderfully creepy celebration of one of nature's least appealing creatures, a book whose charm is not unlike that of a favorite frightening movie scene lovingly seen and recalled again and again, for each turn of the page scares, shocks, or thrills anew. Here are rat vignettes from many disparate sources, including George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, and Pliny's Natural History, to name a few (the bibliography is quite a treat, too). Rat myths are debunked, "rat vocabulary" (really a rat glossary) is illuminated, and, generally, rat culture is explored. The illustrations constitute a treasure trove of creepy clip art and may be the most extraordinary feature of this singular collection that does, indisputably, "show just how deep our fascination for this repellent rodent is." Mike Tribby

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (September 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898159261
• ISBN-13: 978-0898159264
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 7.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,178,198 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If you hate rats you'll love it, July 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Rat: A Perverse Miscellany (Paperback)

This book is a fascinating collection of literary and historical references to rats. There are quotes, urban legends, comic book covers, movie synopsis, and lots more. My favorite is a photo of an ivory carving of a ratcatcher, with the rat escaping by climbing over him. If you have a horror of rats, you'll enjoy the book. The author herself seems fascinated but horrified with them. If you like rats as pets or just as interesting animals, you will find that the book leans heavily toward the horrific and sensationalistic. References to bitten babies and devouring hordes abound. There are positive references to rats as well, but they are in the minority, including a quoted paragraph from the Rats of Nimh. Positive references have obviously only been cursorily researched. There is, for example, no reference to the history of keeping domestic rats, stories of prisoners in the Bastille taming rats, mention of Jules Verne's(!) story The Adventures of the Rat Family, though much lesser authors are quoted for much less rat-oriented literature.

3.0 out of 5 stars Rummaging through an odd rodent assortment, November 3, 2008

By 

Maggie Brasted "co-author of Wild Neighbors: ... (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rat: A Perverse Miscellany (Paperback)

Barbara Hodgson opened every basement door, manhole cover, and ship's hold to turn up these tidbits about rodents in literature and popular culture. Her material ranges widely and, other than treating on the title rodents, has little commonality. The book seems to collect everything people have written about rats. And that is what this book is really about: what people have written down, passed down, stored up, invented, imagined, and feared about rats. Hodgson's miscellany builds up an image of rats as people have perceived and misperceived them over the centuries.

The Rat is about human reactions to these animals as icons; mostly negative but also sometime positive. We find how rats have been used to invoke mood and symbolize degradation, poverty, doom, and terror in numerous books, comics, and movies. We encounter little-known morsels about rats in societies around the globe. (Did you know there is a Jain temple where rats are worshipped?) There are rat tales from around the world and through history, with period illustrations on every page. Some entries may unsettle you; we are not spared the many ways rats have been killed. Other entries are cute; here are rats as storybook heroes. Others are simply gross; a rat king is not a rodent monarch but a bizarre phenomenon that I will leave for you to read about, if you care to.

Hodgson doesn't interpret her collection. We readers are left to draw our own conclusions. This book may satisfy your curiosity, settle some bar bets on obscure movies, provoke you to research previously unheard of topics, or amuse you with rodent and human oddities and wonders.

4.0 out of 5 stars Long after we're gone, the rat will still be thriving., January 12, 2002

By 

Nancy A. Staab (West Virginia USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rat: A Perverse Miscellany (Paperback)

I admit it, I am facinated by rats. This is due in part to my owning terriers, the ultimate rat-dog (the Norway rat first showed up in the British Isles in 1714, and England is the "mother country" of almost every terrier breed). I enjoyed reading this book and picking up little snippets of information about our ratty friends. The information is presented in an interesting format and if you like rats (even secretly), give the book a read. After all, long after human's are extinct, the rat will still be thriving.