My Private Menagerie

Théophile Gautier and Frederick Caesar de Sumichrast

Cats first, always: Gautier opens his private menagerie with the white dynasty and the black, then makes room for dogs and horses. Shorter and sharper than his other pet memoir, it is a poet's love letter to the animals who shared his rooms. Charm on every page. Step inside the writer's affectionate, fur-lined world.