Jim: The Story of a Backwoods Police Dog

by Charles G.D. Roberts

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1921

About the author

Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts, was a Canadian poet and prose writer who is known as the Father of Canadian Poetry. He was almost the first Canadian author to obtain worldwide reputation and influence; he was also a tireless promoter and encourager of Canadian literature. He published numerous works on Canadian exploration and natural history, verse, travel books, and fiction. At his death he was regarded as Canada's leading man of letters.

Besides his own body of work, Roberts served as an inspiration and a source of assistance for other Canadian poets of his time.

Roberts, his cousin Bliss Carman, Archibald Lampman, and Duncan Campbell Scott are known as the Confederation Poets.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have had this Canadian author on my Someday lists for awhile, but this was the first title of his that I have managed to read.

From what I learned at wiki about Roberts, he was "almost the first Canadian author to obtain worldwide reputation and influence". Wiki also quotes The Canadian Encyclopedia as saying that "Roberts is remembered for creating in the animal story, along with Ernest Thompson Seton, the one native Canadian art form." I read a lot of Seton when I was younger, but had never heard of Roberts. The animal stories both men wrote are told from the point of view of the animal, and reflect (in my opinion) a great knowledge of the animals concerned: their behavior is not 'humanized' but rather as if a naturalist had made field notes by observing, and then transformed those notes into fascinating sketches of their subjects.

This book is not just the six chapters of the title story. I hadn't really paid attention to the contents page, so when I reached what turned out to be the end of Jim's book and started on The Eagle I was confused for a bit. Did a Canadian backwoods police dog somehow end up in London?! But no, The Eagle turned out to be the first of three short sketches. This one was set in London, in the middle of a WWI bombing raid. The bald eagle was in a small zoo in one of the city parks this told what happened to him during the raid and after. I thought it was quite good, and I was impressed with the way the author got inside the head of the eagle. He created some intense images in this little piece.

But the next sketch was even more impressive. The Mule told about an Army mule at Aveluy France, in the Somme. That name alone says volumes. This was one of the most terrifyingly realistic WWI pieces I have read. Roberts was living in London from 1912 to 1925 and enlisted in the British Army. He must have been in the trenches, must have seen or experienced everything he wrote about here. I was almost afraid to keep reading at one point: my heart was stopping from my concern for Sonny the mule and his driver Jimmy. Odd, isn't it, when you know you are reading 'just' a story, and yet from the way that story is told, you can see and hear it happening. This is the piece that earned the entire book that fourth star.

The final short sketch was about a skunk. Not in the War, merely in the Canadian woods. It was fascinating, and would be a wonderful cautionary tale for baby skunks to read if they could. They should know that sometimes not even a skunk's secret weapon is foolproof!

And no, I haven't forgotten about the title story. It's just that I liked all of the other pieces in this book better. Jim felt disconnected, as if its six chapters were written separately and then hooked together later. I couldn't find out if this had been published in magazines serially before getting printed in this edition or what. (The Gutenberg edition I read was published in 1931 but original copyright dates were 1918 and 1919). Each separate chapter in Jim flowed smoothly, but as a whole they felt clunky. Still, the backwoods lore and the tracking sections were great. I've always thought how cool it would be to read trail sign like Jim's master the deputy sheriff could do. And then of course with the help of Jim and his nose, there weren't too many criminals that could escape the long arm of the law around the Brine's Rip, the sawmill town.

I liked Jim the dog, but he did not seem to be the real title character, even though he was one of the most important. Imagine, if you can, a dog whose mother was half Newfoundland and half bloodhound. His father was purebred Old English Sheepdog. (I had to give Roberts tons of brownie points just for dreaming up this bizarre combination!) Throw in an orphaned little boy, a petty thief here and a murderer there, and then there was that lady who came to town. I liked the story to a point, except for its clunky flow and that ending. I don't believe the deputy sheriff would have made the decision he seems to make. If he did, what would he do with Jim?!

So as an introduction to this author, this book was a mixed bag. I want to read more, but I hope his other books are more like books and less like somewhat connected stories. Still, I am very much looking forward to sampling at least a couple more titles from the Charles G. D. Roberts author page at Gutenberg!