Special Collections
Book of the Month, December 2007
The Cat's Tail: being the history of Childe Merlin: a tale
Baroness de Katzleben, i.e. Caroline Bowles Southey
Edinburgh : W. Blackwood ; London : T. Cadell, 1831
[S.L.] IV [Cruikshank, G. - 1831]
This small illustrated book is a recent addition to the George Cruikshank (1792-1878) holdings of the Sterling Library. Sir Louis Sterling was particularly keen on George Cruikshank who is very well represented in the collection, and a major component of the illustrated books subset of the collection. There are at least sixty books illustrated by George Cruikshank in the Sterling Library. They range from large folio volumes with coloured plates, to small items such as this, with black and white illustrations.
Caroline Bowles Southey (1786-1854) was a poet and writer, who worked in many genres from prose fiction to lyric poetry, much of which was initially published in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine. In 1839 she married the poet Robert Southey (1774-1843) after his first wife died, they had been friends for 19 years. The Cat’s Tail is an example of her verse satire.
All three illustrations from this edition of the book are displayed here, the book itself being only 31 pages.
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