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Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World

By (author) Kathryn Hughes

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normal price: R 650.95

Price: R 585.95


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*Shortlisted for the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize* A Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year A Wall Street Journal Book of the Year A Spectator Book of the Year A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year A New Yorker Book of the Year Some called it a craze. To others it was a cult. Join prize-winning historian Kathryn Hughes to discover how Britain fell in love with cats and ushered in a new era. 'Smart, gorgeously written cultural history’ TLS ‘Delightful’ Guardian ‘Excellent’ Spectator ‘Joyous cultural history’ The Times ‘He invented a whole cat world’ declared H. G. Wells of Louis Wain, the Edwardian artist whose anthropomorphic kittens made him a household name. His drawings were irresistible but Catland was more than the creation of one eccentric imagination. It was an attitude – a way of being in society while discreetly refusing to follow its rules. As cat capitalism boomed in the spectacular Edwardian age, prized animals changed hands for hundreds of pounds and a new industry sprung up to cater for their every need. Cats were no longer basement-dwelling pest-controllers, but stylish cultural subversives, more likely to flaunt a magnificent ruff and a pedigree from Persia. Wherever you found old conventions breaking down, there was a cat at the centre of the storm. Whether they were flying aeroplanes, sipping champagne or arguing about politics, Wain’s feline cast offered a sly take on the restless and risky culture of the post-Victorian world. No-one experienced these uncertainties more acutely than Wain himself, confined to a mental asylum while creating his most iconic work. Catland is a fascinating and fabulous unravelling of our obsession with cats, and the man dedicated to chronicling them. ‘Through humour, elegance and sheer knowledge, Hughes builds something remarkable’ Literary Review ‘If a Louis Wain cat were reading this book, he would raise his topper in tribute’ The Times ‘Catland is a tour de force of (cat) history: sleek, elegant and razor-sharp when needed’ History Today ‘Excellent … Hughes reveals a fascinating, forgotten aspect of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain: how the British fell in love with felines’ Daily Mail ‘An entertaining and often surprising cultural history … typically delivered in an inviting spirit of delight’ New Yorker

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Normally shipped | Available from overseas. Dispatched in aprox 4-8 weeks as local supplier is out of stock
Publisher | HarperCollins Publishers
Published date | 25 Apr 2024
Language |
Format | Hardback
Pages | 416
Dimensions | 240 x 159 x 40mm (L x W x H)
Weight | 680g
ISBN | 978-0-0083-6510-3
Readership Age |
BISAC |


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Normally shipped | Usually dispatched in 3 to 6 weeks as supplier is out of stock
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Normal Price | R 715.95
Price | R 644.95 | on special |



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