My Dog Tulip (New York Review Books Classics) [Paperback]

J.R. Ackerley (Author), Elizabeth Marshall Thomas (Introduction)

Book Description

Release date: September 30, 1999 | Series: New York Review Books Classics

J.R. Ackerley's German shepherd Tulip was skittish, possessive, and wild, but he loved her deeply. This clear-eyed and wondering, humorous and moving book, described by Christopher Isherwood as one of the "greatest masterpieces of animal literature," is her biography, a work of faultless and respectful observation that transcends the seeming modesty of its subject. In telling the story of his beloved Tulip, Ackerley has written a book that is a profound and subtle meditation on the strangeness abiding at the heart of all relationships.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

My Dog Tulip is the ultimate bitch session--in the canine sense of the phrase, of course. In 1947, J.R. Ackerley rescued an 18-month-old German shepherd, and from the start her every look and move were to undo him. "Tulip never let me down. She is nothing if not consistent. She knows where to draw the line, and it is always in the same place, a circle around us both. Indeed, she is a good girl, but--and this is the point--she would not care for it to be generally known." As he anatomizes her from head to toe with the awe-struck precision of a medieval courtier, Ackerley instantly turns us into Tulipomanes. Alas, many of the mere mortals she encounters feel differently, for there are indeed two Tulips. One is highly strung but heroic, flirtatious but true. The other is a four-legged rejoinder to authority: a biter, a barker, and a dab hand at defecating her way around London. Not that any of these are her fault. "You're the trouble," Tulip's one good vet tells Ackerley as she banishes him from the surgery. "She's in love with you, that's obvious. And so life's full of worries for her."

In many ways this 1956 memoir is an intimate saga of human idealism and doggish realism. Or is it the other way around? In any case, this odd couple undertakes a series of adventures, which bring them into contact with a gallery of strange, mostly martial players. There's the taunting Colonel Finch, owner of Gunner, an Alsatian suitor that Tulip finds wanting--and Captain Pugh, who had served with Ackerley in World War I and who even then was a bizarre mixture of efficiency and indolence. Decades later, in "those rare moments when he was not horizontal he would stalk about the farm buildings with great vigor, making pertinent remarks in his military voice and spreading consternation among the cows."

Ackerley stints no detail when it comes to the varieties of Tulip's urinary and anal experience. But he is concerned above all with the canine heart, and the perils of conception and whelping are at his book's center. Tulip's vita amorosa truly is a via dolorosa as she scorns and scants her aristocratic paramours. Finally, "this exquisite creature in the midst of her desire" hears of the call of-- But we shall reveal no more! My Dog Tulip should instantly make its way onto the shelves of lovers of fine dogs (of whichever bloodlines) and finer literature--and doesn't that cover most of humanity? --Kerry Fried

From Library Journal

Ackerly's is one of the first titles in the New York Review of Books' new line of fiction and nonfiction paperbacks. Most pet lovers are suckers for stories about peoples' relationships with dogs and cats. Those stories, however, are usually awful. Printed in a small run in 1956, this book has developed a good reputation as a dog story that captures the way people feel about their pets without being overly mawkish.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: NYRB Classics; 4th edition (September 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0940322110
• ISBN-13: 978-0940322110
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,027,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 75 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I laughed--I cried August 21, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

So much more than a book about a man and his dog--I laughed, I cried. I laughed more than I cried as the author's way with words grew on me. Several months ago I heard about this book and author for the first time. The book was out of print and I could not find a copy online. I stumbled upon this new edition while browsing online and am so glad that I "waited" for this new version. The book is very attractive and unusual and I enjoyed the introduction which is new too. I'm now reading another book in this same new collection about the author's life--My Father and Myself--it puts My Dog Tulip into a new perspective and I may have to re-read it and if I do, I think I might cry more than I laugh this time around. Although when I looked again at the cover I had a private laugh. I'd recommend this book to almost anyone of any age. Parental guidance perhaps for My Father and Myself.

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "a marvel of brilliance and shockingness" May 29, 2001

By T. Gadd

Format:Paperback

In fact that was from a review of some 45 years ago, but it will do for a title.

I think My Dog Tulip is possibly the best book about dogs I have ever read. It doesn't suprise me to see that Elizabeth Marshall Thomas (The Hidden Life of Dogs) has written the introduction to the current edition, as Ackerley opened up some of the territory she was to explore. They remind me of each other quite a lot.

In the first scene of My Dog Tulip, Ackerley meets a little old lady wheeling a little dog around the park in a pram. The dog is dressed up in a blanket and she is cooing to him like an invalid. It's obvious that this highly anthropomorphised canine is the sort of dog Ackerley wants NOT to portray. He commented at the time that he wanted to restore beastliness to beasts, and as E.M. Forster put it, Tulip is 'a dog of dogdom', not just 'an appendage of man.'

My Dog Tulip lampoons the British middle class as well as human anthropocentrism in general. Ackerley's technique of combining shocking subject matter with a genteel, decorous prose style is always a joy to read. It's also definately the main reason he managed to get away with publishing this book in 1956. It's no small measure of the success of this balancing act, that a book which still manages to upset a minority of readers in 2001 was published in 1956 to general critical acclaim.

What you get, if you buy My Dog Tulip, is a very detailed account of Ackerley's life with his dog Queenie (he changed the name to Tulip, only after it was suggested to him that 'Queenie' might cause some tittilation, as Ackerley had been a somewhat outspoken member of London's gay community for some time). At times it is hilarious - never more so than when he's poking fun at English propriety. At other times it is very touching, and at others there is a barely concealed anger against human arrogance. Yes, there are many, detailed descriptions of canine bodily functions - one chapter is titled 'Liquids and solids'. In my view Ackerley pulls this off with complete dignitiy, even if I'm reminded of Salvador Dali explaining to a shocked society lady how he covers himself with filth when he paints, but in order to attract "only the cleanest flies."

When the real Queenie died, Ackerley was devestated, and never really recovered. The greatest achievement of My Dog Tulip is its final chapter 'The Turn of the Screw', where suddenly the style of the writing changes; the comic veneer is dropped, and suddenly all the imagery about life, death and reproduction make sense. Tulip is still with him, but time is against them. It is one of the most beautiful and moving ruminations on mortality that I've read.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious and Touching June 4, 2000

By Beth Johnston

Format:Paperback

It's hard for me to understand how some of the reviewers could have failed to appreciate Ackerley. If you've ever owned any kind of pet at all, this book is a must. To be sure, it's not for the squeamish--Tulip's romantic life is the one of the chief topics, and the author minces no words describing the tactics deployed by Tulip, her many canine suitors, and even her owner himself in his attempts to produce true-blooded offspring. But Ackerley approaches even this sensitive subject with both humor and a strange sweetness. He once wrote that Tulip was his true love, the only creature who loved him and whom he could love unconditionally, and after you read the book, you understand why. Tulip's character--defensive, offensive, protective, delicate, beautiful, affectionate, and ever-so-vital--is as moving as any portrayal of a mere human. Unmissable.