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Faces: Profiles of Dogs
‘It must be a nuisance to go through life with a Father Christmas moustache like that, but no doubt the Schnauzer gets used to it.’
In Faces, Vita Sackville-West traces the origins and history of forty-four dog breeds. She reflects on their characteristics with frank humour, from the gentle-eyed Afghan, ‘like somebody’s elderly Aunt Lavinia, who nourishes a secret passion for the Vicar’, to the Labrador Retriever, ‘dear, solid, faithful lump of a dog!’, and that ‘docile minion’ the Corgi.
Each profile is accompanied by Laelia Goehr’s striking black and white photographs. Together, profile and portrait capture these canine characters in their various moods: benevolent, haughty, amused, wistful, or simply a little bit sleepy.
Charming and fascinating in equal measure, Faces is a joyful read for all dog lovers.
- GenresDogsNonfictionEssays
142 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1962
2 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
Vita Sackville-West
130 books479 followersNovels of British writer Victoria Mary Sackville-West, known as Vita, include
The Edwardians
(1930) and
All Passion Spent
(1931).
This prolific English author, poet, and memoirist in the early 20th century lived not so privately.
While married to the diplomat Harold Nicolson, she conducted a series of scandalous amorous liaisons with many women, including the brilliant Virginia Woolf. They had an open marriage. Both Sackville-West and her husband had same-sex relationships. Her exuberant aristocratic life was one of inordinate privilege and way ahead of her time. She frequently traveled to Europe in the company of one or the other of her lovers and often dressed as a man to be able to gain access to places where only the couples could go. Gardening, like writing, was a passion Vita cherished with the certainty of a vocation: she wrote books on the topic and constructed the gardens of the castle of Sissinghurst, one of England's most beautiful gardens at her home.
She published her first book Poems of East and West in 1917. She followed this with a novel, Heritage, in 1919. A second novel, The Heir (1922), dealt with her feelings about her family. Her next book, Knole and the Sackvilles (1922), covered her family history. The Edwardians (1930) and All Passion Spent (1931) are perhaps her best known novels today. In the latter, the elderly Lady Slane courageously embraces a long suppressed sense of freedom and whimsy after a lifetime of convention. In 1948 she was appointed a Companion of Honour for her services to literature. She continued to develop her garden at Sissinghurst Castle and for many years wrote a weekly gardening column for The Observer. In 1955 she was awarded the gold Veitch medal of the Royal Horticultural Society. In her last decade she published a further biography, Daughter of France (1959) and a final novel, No Signposts in the Sea (1961).
She died of cancer on June 2, 1962.
This prolific English author, poet, and memoirist in the early 20th century lived not so privately.
While married to the diplomat Harold Nicolson, she conducted a series of scandalous amorous liaisons with many women, including the brilliant Virginia Woolf. They had an open marriage. Both Sackville-West and her husband had same-sex relationships. Her exuberant aristocratic life was one of inordinate privilege and way ahead of her time. She frequently traveled to Europe in the company of one or the other of her lovers and often dressed as a man to be able to gain access to places where only the couples could go. Gardening, like writing, was a passion Vita cherished with the certainty of a vocation: she wrote books on the topic and constructed the gardens of the castle of Sissinghurst, one of England's most beautiful gardens at her home.
She published her first book Poems of East and West in 1917. She followed this with a novel, Heritage, in 1919. A second novel, The Heir (1922), dealt with her feelings about her family. Her next book, Knole and the Sackvilles (1922), covered her family history. The Edwardians (1930) and All Passion Spent (1931) are perhaps her best known novels today. In the latter, the elderly Lady Slane courageously embraces a long suppressed sense of freedom and whimsy after a lifetime of convention. In 1948 she was appointed a Companion of Honour for her services to literature. She continued to develop her garden at Sissinghurst Castle and for many years wrote a weekly gardening column for The Observer. In 1955 she was awarded the gold Veitch medal of the Royal Horticultural Society. In her last decade she published a further biography, Daughter of France (1959) and a final novel, No Signposts in the Sea (1961).
She died of cancer on June 2, 1962.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 16, 2022
This book from 1961 was very entertaining for me, and surprisingly educational as well. Within its 192 pages the author shares not only her own thoughts on forty-four breeds of dogs, but a bit of history about each breed as well. Specifically inspired by black and white photographs of various dogs, VSW spoke not only about the portraits but about the represented dog breeds in general. Origins, first appearance in Britain's show rings, bits and pieces of historical fact and sometimes fiction, all found in a page or two alongside each photo.
I must admit, I was less impressed with the photos. Laelia Goehr, the photographer, seemed to have caught the majority of the dogs on off-days. Some look grumpy, others bored, more than a few have bared teeth and threatening expressions as if caught in the split second before biting. And more than once VSW refers to a particular feature of a breed that is not visible in its portrait, as she does with the Boxer ("....it is not very apparent in the photograph...") and the Samoyed ("...the photograph is somewhat misleading....") so she was aware of the less than ideal portraits she was working with, even though in her foreword she calls them "magnificent and imaginative".
But what made this book work for me was the personal thoughts VSW shared. Everyone who loves dogs has their favorite and less-then-favorite breeds. The author goes on to say:
"All I have tried to do was to give some sort of personal interpretation about the dog under consideration, and I have not hesitated to say whether I disliked or admired the dog I was writing about."
She did this beautifully with her piece on the Yorkshire Terrier, in which she imagines the character elements one would need in order to revel in the life of a show 'Yorkie'. And the beginning of her essay on the Pug made me laugh:
"To be honest, I do not like pugs. I cannot abide the snuffle, nor do I care for faces that look as though they had collided with a wall at speed. This personal distaste, however, should not admit prejudice against a breed which some people find attractive, and whose name at one time could be bestowed on a favourite person: he, or she, is my pug. I doubt if it would be taken as a compliment today."
Altogether a charming little book; anyone with an interest in dogs should enjoy it.
I must admit, I was less impressed with the photos. Laelia Goehr, the photographer, seemed to have caught the majority of the dogs on off-days. Some look grumpy, others bored, more than a few have bared teeth and threatening expressions as if caught in the split second before biting. And more than once VSW refers to a particular feature of a breed that is not visible in its portrait, as she does with the Boxer ("....it is not very apparent in the photograph...") and the Samoyed ("...the photograph is somewhat misleading....") so she was aware of the less than ideal portraits she was working with, even though in her foreword she calls them "magnificent and imaginative".
But what made this book work for me was the personal thoughts VSW shared. Everyone who loves dogs has their favorite and less-then-favorite breeds. The author goes on to say:
"All I have tried to do was to give some sort of personal interpretation about the dog under consideration, and I have not hesitated to say whether I disliked or admired the dog I was writing about."
She did this beautifully with her piece on the Yorkshire Terrier, in which she imagines the character elements one would need in order to revel in the life of a show 'Yorkie'. And the beginning of her essay on the Pug made me laugh:
"To be honest, I do not like pugs. I cannot abide the snuffle, nor do I care for faces that look as though they had collided with a wall at speed. This personal distaste, however, should not admit prejudice against a breed which some people find attractive, and whose name at one time could be bestowed on a favourite person: he, or she, is my pug. I doubt if it would be taken as a compliment today."
Altogether a charming little book; anyone with an interest in dogs should enjoy it.
October 26, 2019
Originally published in 1961, this new edition is the perfect gift for dog lovers. Vita Sackville-West’s writing is charming and funny, as she captures each breed as a character all of their own. And Laelia Goehr’s photographs are so soulful, each subject’s eyes engaging with the camera each time.
Some of the descriptions are just so wonderful and quotable... the gentle-eyed Afghan 'like somebody's elderly Aunt Lavinia, who nourishes a secret passion for the Vicar', or the Labrador Retriever, 'dear, solid, faithful lump of a dog!', and that 'docile minion' the Corgi.
Some of the descriptions are just so wonderful and quotable... the gentle-eyed Afghan 'like somebody's elderly Aunt Lavinia, who nourishes a secret passion for the Vicar', or the Labrador Retriever, 'dear, solid, faithful lump of a dog!', and that 'docile minion' the Corgi.
October 18, 2020
Vita-Sackville-West fällt in Deutschland leider ein bißchen dem Vergessen anheim. Verheiratet mit dem britischen Diplomaten und Autor Harold Nicolson, in Liebe befreundet mit Virginia Woolf, der sie als Vorbild zum Roman Orlando diente, hat sie viele Gedichte, Gartenbücher und vor allem erfolgreiche Romane veröffentlicht. Kurz vor ihrem Tod erschien 1961 das vorliegende Buch, das jetzt unter dem Titel "Gesichter: Portraits einiger Hunde" vom Verlag Blumenbar in der Übersetzung von Helmut Ettinger veröffentlicht wurde.
Engländer lieben Hunde und dieses Buch mit den ausdrucksvollen schwarz-weiß Hundegesichtern der Fotografin Laelia Goehr unterstreicht das deutlich. 44 Hundeportraits finden sich hier, und diese wunderbaren Fotos mit den ganz individuellen Hundegesichtern - mal melancholisch, mal aufmerksam, mal unbeteiligt, mal frech – bewirken zusammen mit den Texten der Vita Sackville-West, ihren charmanten Anekdoten und liebevollen Rasse-Charakterisierungen, ein intelligentes und ganz bezauberndes Leseerlebnis für alle Hundefreunde.
Engländer lieben Hunde und dieses Buch mit den ausdrucksvollen schwarz-weiß Hundegesichtern der Fotografin Laelia Goehr unterstreicht das deutlich. 44 Hundeportraits finden sich hier, und diese wunderbaren Fotos mit den ganz individuellen Hundegesichtern - mal melancholisch, mal aufmerksam, mal unbeteiligt, mal frech – bewirken zusammen mit den Texten der Vita Sackville-West, ihren charmanten Anekdoten und liebevollen Rasse-Charakterisierungen, ein intelligentes und ganz bezauberndes Leseerlebnis für alle Hundefreunde.
March 6, 2023
Vita Sackville-West and her writing remind me of - and make me miss - someone I once knew and still love. However, unlike Vita, this person dislikes dogs. I don’t understand how it is possible to dislike dogs (and that would forever be a disagreement in a, despite that, very agreeable relationship), but I’m really glad Vita didn’t: this is the most charming and wittiest dog-loving book I’ve ever read.
“One can’t explain these things. It is just that way, and if one is writing about dogs or about anything else for that matter, one must express what one feels or else what one writes becomes flat and meaningless and without any more life or colour to it than a telephone directory.” (page 74)
“One can’t explain these things. It is just that way, and if one is writing about dogs or about anything else for that matter, one must express what one feels or else what one writes becomes flat and meaningless and without any more life or colour to it than a telephone directory.” (page 74)
January 6, 2020
(1988) Brief, entertaining, descriptions of 44 breeds of dogs. Author is obviously a dog-lover as well as a brilliant writer. Lab is a "Dear, solid, faithful lump of a dog!"
January 18, 2023
The Miniature Poodle: "In justice to these little clowns..." "Comic they are, even to their name. One cannot take them seriously, and to my mind, a dog that cannot be taken seriously is not a dog at all."
The Afghan Hound: "I cannot get it out of my head that the dog in the photograph is like somebody's elderly spinster aunt. A little untidy, perhaps, and badly in need of a hair-trim, but how gentle the eyes are, and the whole expression pleading for affection. A sweet old lady, providing crumpets for tea. Aunt Lavinia, who nourishes a secret passion for the Vicar."
The Old English or Bobtail Sheepdog: "Who so hard-hearted as to resist the nose and paws in the illustration? The subject is obviously a darling."
The Chihuahua: "They must not be confused with the Mexican hairless dog, a freak of which I know nothing except that I have no desire to see one, let alone own one. I would as soon own a rat."
Oh, Vita ...
The Afghan Hound: "I cannot get it out of my head that the dog in the photograph is like somebody's elderly spinster aunt. A little untidy, perhaps, and badly in need of a hair-trim, but how gentle the eyes are, and the whole expression pleading for affection. A sweet old lady, providing crumpets for tea. Aunt Lavinia, who nourishes a secret passion for the Vicar."
The Old English or Bobtail Sheepdog: "Who so hard-hearted as to resist the nose and paws in the illustration? The subject is obviously a darling."
The Chihuahua: "They must not be confused with the Mexican hairless dog, a freak of which I know nothing except that I have no desire to see one, let alone own one. I would as soon own a rat."
Oh, Vita ...
October 27, 2021
Literally just Vita Sackville-West's comments on various dog breeds (photographed by Goehr). Rather enjoyable. "One cannot take them seriously, and to my mind a dog that cannot be taken seriously is not a dog at all."
March 22, 2021
I love Vita Sackville West’s writing and I also love dogs, a perfect combination. If she had included the Scottish Terrier this review would be 5 stars 🐾🐾
November 28, 2023
aw man, looked like a charming book, 0% charm. written in 1961.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews