Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

T.S. Eliot

ISBN 10: 0140864121 / ISBN 13: 9780140864120

Published by Penguin, 1997

About this Item

Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Audio book. Seller Inventory # mon0023468827

Bibliographic Details

Title: Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Publisher: Penguin

Publication Date: 1997

Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis:

T.S. Eliot’s famous cats are brought to mewling, hissing, purring life in this enchanting recording featuring Richard Briers, Alan Cumming, Nigel Davenport, Andrew Sachs and Juliet Stevenson.

Meet Mr Mistoffelees, the magical cat who can perform an astonishing array of tricks; Old Deuteronomy, the most placid cat in his village; the Rum Tum Tugger, a most contrary and difficult cat; and of course Macavity, the celebrated master criminal.

A delight from the first minute to the last, 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats' deserves a place in every feline-loving home.

Review:

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter, it isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.

The phenomenal worldwide success in the 1980s of the musical Cats refuelled interest in T.S. Eliot's classic Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats on which the stage extravaganza was based. Old Possum's Book, originally published in 1939 and dedicated to Eliot's godchildren, contains a delightful rogues' gallery of felines, including the Rum Tum Tugger cat whose "disobliging ways are a matter of habit", Mr Mistoffelees "The Original Conjuring Cat" and Macavity: The Mystery Cat "the master criminal who can defy the law". Loved by generations of children and adults alike, Old Possum is perhaps most remarkable for having been written almost as an aside, a plaything, by Eliot, as a distraction from the internal religious and philosophical wranglings he charted in Four Quartets.

A warm and witty collection of free-verse poems, which demand to be read aloud and given full dramatic import, this edition of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats has been reissued by Faber and Faber Limited in a slim pocket-sized edition, with original tongue-in-cheek illustrations by Nicolas Bentley. --Catherine Taylor