Shaggy muses : the dogs who inspired Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edith Wharton, and Emily Brontë /

"Adams takes a fascinating look at the private lives of five women writers through their relationships with their dogs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was in deep mourning for the death of her brother when a friend sent her Flush, a lively little cocker spaniel that brightened her days and drew her out of her isolation. Emily Brontë scorned lapdogs but would roam the moors of Haworth with her ferocious mastiff, Keeper. Emily Dickinson shared her poems and her thoughts with Carlo, her Newfoundland, while Edith Wharton had a succession of small dogs, such as Chihuahuas and Pekingese, throughout her life, and they became her constant companions in old age. Virginia Woolf and her husband, Leonard, both loved dogs, and Virginia even penned a novel about Elizabeth Barrett Browning's dog, Flush, who was abducted several times by nefarious dognappers. Adams elucidates each woman's emotional connection to the dogs in her life and also shows how each canine made it into a great authoress' writing. Written in lively, accessible prose, this absorbing, wholly unique book is a must-read for literature- and dog-lovers alike."--"Huntley, Kristine" Copyright 2007 Booklist

Coaxed through a depression by her golden retriever, Adams, a psychologist and former English professor, was drawn to five exceptional women writers who relied on their loyal dogs for emotional support. Flush distracted Elizabeth Barrett after her favorite brother's death, and the poet wrote about "the unsettling similarity between lapdogs and women in Victorian England": both powerless and needing to please others. Formidable, eccentric Emily Bronte, who once savagely beat her fierce mastiff, Keeper, for sleeping on her bed, refused to sentimentalize the human-dog bond in Wuthering Heights, which depicts innocent pets being hung. Carlo, a Newfoundland, comforted Emily Dickinson in a dark time-when she may have been in love with a married man-and Edith Wharton mourned the death of one of her pooches more than the death of her mother. And Adams suggests that Virginia Woolf, depicting a dog's trauma in her biography of Flush, who was dognapped for ransom, dealt with her own childhood molestation (a picture of Woolf's dog, Pinka, appeared on the cover of Flush's biography). Although Adams's knowledgeable minibiographies are necessarily skewed toward a specialized subject matter, lovers of both dogs and classic writers will identify with this sweet, quirky book. Illus. (July 31) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Clinical psychologist and former English professor Adams wrote this book examining the intense emotional attachment felt by the five titular women writers toward their dogs after the death of her own dog. Despite their different personalities and backgrounds, these writers all had in common dogs that provided stability and consistency in their lives. Each chapter is a minibiography of an author emphasizing and offering anecdotes about the deep bond she shared with her dog. By using diaries, letters, illustrations, and sometimes passages from these women's writings, Adams provides a unique perspective of her subjects as pet owners. A recurrent theme is the comfort the dogs provided. Often, they kept these writers grounded during times of intense creativity and deep psychological distress-e.g., Dickinson viewed her dog as a protector, while Barrett Browning's dog helped lift her out of depression. From this unusual vantage point, Adams succeeds in linking these writers' lives in various ways. Recommended for public and academic libraries.-Erica Swenson Danowitz, Delaware Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Media, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Drawing on letters, memoirs and unpublished writings, Adams (Psychology/Univ. of San Francisco) highlights the attachment between five great writers and their canine companions. The book begins with the cocker spaniel Flush, given to Elizabeth Barrett when she was 35, isolated and bedridden. Flush coaxed the poet out of her depression, gave her someone to care for and even lessened her father's control over her. Their 13-year companionship endured into Barrett's marriage to Robert Browning, and the poet kept her promise to Flush: "my perpetual society in exchange for his devotion." Moving on to Emily Bront"'s formidable mastiff, Keeper, the author doesn't romanticize the pair's relationship. Keeper may well have served as a reflection of Bront"'s own tempestuous nature, and she did not always treat him with loving kindness. Once, after finding the dog sleeping on a bed, she dragged him downstairs and repeatedly beat him about the face. Adams speculates that Bront" may have vented her frustrations on her pet, bolstering this convincing thesis with selections from Wuthering Heights. On a happier note, Emily Dickinson's Newfoundland, Carlo, helped keep the poet grounded during her productive years. After his death, she told a friend, "Do you know that I believe that the first to come and greet me when I go to heaven will be this dear, faithful, old friend Carlo?" Subsequent chapters focus on Edith Wharton's many dogs and Virginia Woolf's scruffy canine companions. The concept is lightweight, but these concise biographies are affecting and engaging. Only the tacked-on afterword seems extraneous. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.