Great Cat Tales

by Lesley O'Mara (Editor)

Respected authors, such as James Herriot and Doris Lessing, spin twenty yarns about cats

Genres: Cats, Short Stories, Fiction, Animals, Classics

254 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1989

Reviews

[Stephanie Barko · Rating 4 out of 5]

This hardcover has been in my study for many years. I grabbed it because I felt like fiction in between my usual stack.

[Nightshade · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 by the average of my star ratings for individual stories.

The Cats Paradise- Emile Zola - 4
Lillian- Damon Runyon - 4
Saha- Collette - 3
Childhood of Miss Churt- F.R Buckley-3
The Fat Cat - Q. Patrick- 4
The Undoing of Morning Glory Adolphus- N Margaret Campbell- 4
How a Cat Played Robinson Crusoe- Charles. G.D. Roberts- 5
Ming's Biggest Prey- Patricia Highsmith- 5
Mrs Bonds Cats- James Herriot- 5
Dick Baker's Cat- Mark Twain- 3
A Cat Affair- Derek Tangye- 3
Kym-Joyce Stranger- 5
A Fine Place for the Cat- Margaret Bonham -5
The Blue Flag-Kay Hill -2
The Story of Webster -P.G. Wodehouse- 2
Trouble Everywhere- Doreen Tovey- 3
Heathcliffe - Lloyd Alexander- 5
The Cat That Walked By Himself -Rudyard Kipling- 3
A Ship Of Solace- Eleanor Mordaunt- 3
Particularly Cats- Doris Lessing- 3
The White and Black Dynasties- Theophile Gautier -2
Midshipman, The Cat - John Coleman Adams- 4
The Best Bed- Sylvia Townsend Warner - 4

There is some racist language within 3 of the stories (The Blue Flag, The Story of Webster and, The White and Black Dynasties) and innapropriate humour in Particularly Cats.

[Catsalive · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ★ I enjoyed all these cat stories. I particularly liked:

That Damned Cat by Teresa Crane
The Fat of the Cat by Gottfried Keller
The Suburban Lion by Stella Whitelaw
The Amethyst Cat by Margery Sharp
The Spirit of the Hearth by Ann Granger

The book also includes:

Puss in Boots by Charles Perrault
Olly and Ginny by James Herriot
The Wolf and the Cats by Jane Beeson
Cat Talk by Lynne Bryan
Piccolo Mac by Dinah Lampitt
The Cat that Walked By Himself by Rudyard Kipling
The Cat in the Fig Tree by Charles McPhee
The Nine Lives of Impey by Elisabeth Beresford
The Incomer by Brenda Lacey
Lucky Cat by Charlotte Wallace
The Kitten's Tailor by Peggy Bacon
Dick Baker's Cat by Mark Twain
The Slum Cat by Ernest Thompson Seton
Mildred by Era Zistel

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Attention, all those who worship at the altar of Felis Catus: get your paws on a copy of this book. How refreshing it was to read excellent stories by top flight authors who seem to truly understand what puts this animal in a class by itself. Those of us who are sick and tired of seeing the cat reduced to nothing but a sly, self-serving villain on Saturday morning cartoon shows can enjoy the clear-penned insight of Emile Zola, Damon Runyon, Colette, James Herriot, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling and many more who recognize the cat's talent for both softening and illuminating what is best in the human beings fortunate enough to live with them. Every tail is better than the last. I rate this book five toe-beans.

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heh, I just remembered this book out of the blue, like, and had to go hunt it up on Amazon. I remember enjoying most of the stories in this book intensely, even though I was pretty young when I got this book. This is a good little anthology, with well chosen stories, a mix of practically fantastic tales (like Kipling's nearly mythic 'The Cat Who Walked By Himself') to the more prosaic every day life of a cat owner ('Kym' being my favorite story of that type in the book)

There's a good range of moods and all of the stories are fairly short, so even if you don't like one of them particularly, they don't drag on overmuch.

This was a great book, of which I have intensely fond memories.

[Damiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raccolta di storie dedicate al mondo dei gatti: il mondo visto dal loro punto di vista, con le loro scoperte, le loro conquiste e le loro paure. In particolare mi sono piaciute Il grasso del gatto, la celeberrima Il gatto con gli stivali, Le nove vite di Impey, La gatta dei bassifondi e Mildred.
Consigliato a chi ama i gatti, come me!

[Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who has ever shared a home with a cat knows how charming, Lovable they can be in this collection of short stories by Authors such as James Herriot, Mark Twain and many others they give rise to such entertaining antics and adventures, If you love cats you will enjoy this book I did.

[Becky Keeley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed most of these short stories about cats. This book had a good variety! I liked the stories about real cats better than the more fictional ones like the one by James Herriott and "Kym" by Joyce Stranger.

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories were good. Written by mostly British authors. I liked Mrs. Bonds Cats by James Harriot ( one of my favorite vet's ) and Kim by Joyce Stranger. There is also a good one Dick Bakers cat by Mark Twain that I enjoyed/

[Alexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun "All things great and small" series of short stories.

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 3 out of 5]

classic stories collected in one volume

[LibraryCin · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

This is a book of short stories, poetry, and I think some short nonfiction essays by various authors (including Jerome K. Jerome, Rudyard Kipling, Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, and more), all about cats.

I’m just not a fan of short stories. I don’t know why I have the book (my guess is a gift?). Everyone knows I love cats, but short stories just mostly don’t hold my interest much. There were a few that I liked. Overall, though, it may have been that I was trying to read quickly, maybe that I just know I’m not “into” short stories and didn’t give it enough of a chance, via mostly skimming through. Likely if I’d slowed down and taken more time to pay attention, it would have garnered a better rating from me.

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories were not what I expected. The stories were cat sweet cat stories and it was not a quick silly read. They were all stories about cat's but you don't go awwww at the end of the tale. There were many stories about Persian cats, I noticed and they all gave the same feel, so I think Persians have distinct personality. I think my favorite was about some sailors who saved a kitten from some tormenting boys and the kitten stole on the ship. The adventures of the sailing kitten were fun, but at the end they gave the kitten to a lady in a harbor town. The cat stayed two or three months and then disappeared never to be seen again. The sailors all felt that he went of find a new ship because he loved it so.

[Svalbard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Accanto a grandi classici della letteratura gattesca, come il Gattino Specchio di Gottfried Keller (qui tradotto come “Il grasso del gatto”) o la celebre fiaba “Il gatto con gli stivali”, questo libro raccoglie una pletora di raccontini di qualità variabile tra l’insulso e l’appena carino. Particolarmente penosi quelli che cercano di immedesimarsi nella percezione del mondo che dovrebbe essere propria del gatto; meglio i casi in cui i gatti sono umanizzati, parlano e si comportano come esseri umani. Tra questi, spicca, per qualità narrativa e humor, “piccolo Mac” di Dinah Lampitt, dedicato al gatto di Niccolò Machiavelli.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories written by different authors. If you have ever owned a cat you will be able to relate to every story. Some of the stories are sad and many seem to have no closure with their endings, they just stop telling the story. Despite those two issues I did enjoy reading the cat stories.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection with stories by Emile Zola, Damon Runyon, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, 23 authors in all. Unlike my favorite genre, mystery, that I will zip through as fast as I can, these short stories are to be savored one at a time over a period of weeks.

[Rachel Lapidow · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is a lot of outdated language that is racist or sexist in some of these stories. Enjoyed P.G. Wodehouse's and James Herriot's stories.

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

These were OK stories about cats, from some classic authors like Mark Twain, P.G.Wodehouse, and Doris Lessing.

[Nikola Kostadinovová]

I was thinking if a give 4 or 5 stars. But Mildred was so moving and great.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first couple of stories were quite dark. But then it improved. Really nice read