Speaking of Books

I was walking up Glebe Pnt Rd to meet a student the other day stopped at Sapphy's second hand bookshop, because I was early. They have a discount table out the front of the store that's usually full of 80s self help books that aren't worth the paper they're printed on. BUT... one book, caught my eye.

It was a delicate pink book with a green binding. It had no title, just a picture of a cat dressed in ornamental garb. How peculiar, I thought. I turned the spine round and read "POOR MINETTE: The letters of two cats, by P.J Stahl."



I opened it up and it had a beautiful inscription.



and title page



But the real surprise came when I read a little bit, and saw the beautiful illustrations throughout of these cats dressed as humans, with completely human personalities!



Here is an example of the text:

Brisquet is one of those candid egoists who are quite willing to admit that they are far fonder of themselves than of anybody else, and whose only passions are those aroused by theier vanity. Tomcats like Brisquet invented the art of philandering to make themselves attractive to our sex without being obliged to fall in love with us.

I just love it! So applicable to so many rogues out there...

So anyway, I bought it, because it was only $3. I took it into the shop and the woman behind the counter was shocked how cheap it was and said it was a good find.

As I was walking away from the shop I looked further inside the book, and discovered it was published in 1954 and was a first edition, printed in London! Crazy times... So I did a bit of a google search. The first thing that came up was a copy on Amazon for over US $100... but then I looked further, and it's more reasonbly listed around US$15 in other places.

But I didn't buy it to sell it. Poor Minette is stuck with me!