Creatures Great and Small

by Colette, Enid MacLeod (Translator)

Creatures Great and Small consists of three books that were originally published separately and contain the imagined conversations that go on between Colette's bulldog and Angora cat. Whether Colette is describing a goldfish, snake, or bear, she is perceptive and loving.

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Colette was the pen name of the French novelist and actress Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette. She is best known, at least in the English-speaking world, for her novella Gigi, which provided the plot for a famous Lerner & Loewe musical film and stage musical. She started her writing career penning the influential Claudine novels of books. The novel Chéri is often cited as her masterpiece.

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Composed of three separate books, this is very light reading by Colette. Some of the vignettes are brilliantly observed, some are toss away. The fact that the collection is themed makes a cover-to-cover read something of a slog. The books decline in quality from first to last, though the publisher cleverly stuck the last and least one in the middle so that it ends on a pleasurable sensation.

In my recent reading, Colette seems bent on proving the rule that the sequel always pales in comparison to the original. It was just as true in the earliest years of the 20th century as it is a hundred years later.

[Dvora Treisman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably the fourth time I've read this over a period of many years. I always enjoy it. The first volume, Creature Conversations, is very charming. Colette has a feel for animals and portrays them and their thoughts sympathically and beautifully. What I noticed this time that I didn't the others is that there is a lot of her own autobiography in many of these short stories. In fact, that is true in much of her writing.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a charming book, with the majority of the pieces told from the point of view of the various animals under consideration. It is interesting to see the relationships of the pets to their "owners" told by the pets themselves. The dialogues are smartly written. And there is one rather unforgettable piece that is the nightmare of an English sheep dog trying to nap while her "two-legged one" is away for the day; in the dream, the dog re-lives her participation in a terrible battle in WWI. Her distress is only assuaged when her "two-legged one" returns and calmly informs her, "That's all over now, remember, it's all over?".

[Albert Moreno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it’s not a 5 star book it is one that I will cherish forever and place on my shelf with my favorites! It started off so well and it hit so hard with all the humor and emotions and imagination and this and that until it just started to feel a tad bit too long!!!! The last 20ish pages felt like a drag and I just wanted to be done with it!!! So for that I can’t give to 5 stars! That just wouldn’t make sense right? But everything else was most definitely a 5! 4.5 if I could give it that without rounding up or down!