Elizabeth von Arnim didn’t write a proper autobiography and All the Dogs of My Life (1936) is not – as she repeatedly states – an autobiography. But it’s the nearest she wrote, and I found it an interesting insight into her life. Perhaps most usefully if you already know the outline of her life.
The book is structured exactly as the title would have you imagine – she traces her life through the fourteen dogs she has had during her life, two of which were still with her at the time of publishing. She almost lost me in the first few pages, where she badmouths cats and says they’re not up to much because they won’t come when you call. I’ve always put that in the ‘pro’ column for pets that feel like friends – I don’t expect my friends to obey me. Anyway. Later on she does mention a cat had, but called her/him ‘it’ and doesn’t give his/her name. I guess not everybody can be right about cats.
I am not particularly fussed one way or the other about dogs, but I did enjoy reading the way von Arnim wrote about them. The ones she has loved most are written about with an affection and poignancy that few romances could equal, and I will admit to crying at the death of one particularly special one.
On the other hand, von Arnim does seem to have been a shockingly bad dog owner – by today’s standards, at least. She has one that chases deer and another that kills sheep, and doesn’t seem to have done much to deter them. She has another dog put down, aged three, because he is fat and lazy. She is forever moving country and leaving dogs behind. Maybe all these things were more acceptable a hundred years ago…
But the real reason All the Dogs of My Life is such an interesting books isn’t the dogs – though the photographs of them are a welcome addition. It’s what we learn about von Arnim’s life – particularly her marriages. She doesn’t say much about the husbands, except that ‘perhaps husbands have never agreed with me very much’, and she draws a veil over her miserable second marriage, purportedly because there were no dogs present and thus is doesn’t fit into the schema of the book. But we can see enough in her dry wit throughout to understand what motivated and hurt her.
Don’t expect much information about her life as a writer. Only one of her books gets a brief mention – Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther, which is very good – but otherwise she could equally have had any other profession. Only the quality of her writing in All the Dogs of My Life would clue a reader into her successes elsewhere.
It’s a short, intriguing book, filled with the range of emotions from joy to melancholy. As a window on her life, it is the most glazed sort of glass – but if you stand close and peer carefully, you can find whatever von Arnim was willing to let on.
As a dog lover, I’m tempted though I’m not convinced from what you say that she was a very good owner of them. It sounds like a fun way to measure out your life though – and I imagine dogs could be much better companions than husbands…
I loved The Enchanted April, and being a dog lover I thought I would love this book, but ended up seriously hating it. As you say, she was a shockingly bad dog owner.
I do wonder if standards have changed, but by any measure some of the things she did were awful.
Certainly she seems to have had a better hit rate with dogs than with husbands!!
Oh my God, I was so heartwarmed by the idea of this book until I got to her putting a dog down for no damn reason. Good LORD, Elizabeth von Armin. (And yes, I have reversed two letters in her name on purpose just there, out of spite.)
That said, I still kind of want to read this because it sounds pretty great. One of my fave memoirists, Jennifer Finney Boylan, recently released a book that’s about her life in dogs, and it would be kind of cool to read the two books in concert.
Haha! Amazingly subtle snub – I heartily approve.
Someone else just told me about the Boylan book this week! Would be really interesting to see them in tandem.
My favourite in this line of memoir, unsurprisingly, is called All the Books of My Life by Sheila Kaye-Smith.
Not sure I would have gotten beyond those early pages of cat dissing – I am always suspect of people who make a virtue of preferring dogs to cats, as if taking a political stance. Here in the States, at present so riven, if you’re not a dog lover you must be a Trumpie. (as I write this my two are both asleep at my feet, curled around each other) MFK Fisher writes wonderfully of her cats, all of whom she seems to have respected as individuals.
Oh it’s the worst! I find so few cat-lovers who hate dogs, and so many dog-lovers who hate cats. Had not heard that about Trump though! How bizarre.
Anyone who can write well about cats is a delight to me, so will have to explore MFK Fisher.
I read this one years ago and felt much the same as you do. I seem to remember that there was one dog that she just couldn’t love and it died, probably from neglect. I love her books but suspect that she was high maintenance and a bit of a nightmare in any relationship.
There were a few she couldn’t love, and one of those she had put down… I don’t doubt that her marriages were awful for her, but I also think she must have been very trying!
Oh dear. This sounds like a terrible book for any animal lover, and I do so love Enchanted April. I fervently hope I will have forgotten about this book if I ever reread April again.
Sorry Penny! Enchanted April can definitely stand on its own wonderful merits.