Google Books offers a blast from the printed past. Books that are available as full view books are in the public domain, and Google says that when it comes to reusing them, "Your imagination is the limit. We hope that people of all ages read these books and find other creative uses for them." These out-of-print books are time capsules that show modern readers what people were reading in the 19th century. Clearly, the Victorians loved reading about animals, because Google Books has some interesting (and free) public domain books about pets.
Free eBooks about Cats
The Cat, a Guide to the Classification and Varieties of Cats and a Short Treatise Upon Their Care, Diseases, and Treatment by Rush Shippen Huidekoper is worth downloading for the section on Manx cats alone. "The Manx Cat really can be classed as a monstrosity," wrote Huidekoper in 1895, because the manx cat was "developed probably by the interbreeding of some freak of nature in the form of a cat which inhabited the Island of Man at an early period." The Cat was originally published by D. Appleton and Company.
Cats: Their Points and Characteristics, with Curiosities of Cat Life, and a Chapter on Feline Ailments by Gordon Stables includes a fascinating look at a society that classified cats as pests. Stables writes a persuasive chapter about the need to protect cats and argues for legislation protecting animals. In his 1876 book, he proposes "a cat licence. This licence, of course, should cost a mere nominal sum, what indeed even the poorest man who was able to afford food for a cat, could easily pay...I hope to see every town in the United Kingdom holding its annual show of cats." Cats was first published by Dean & Son.
Free eBooks about Dogs
All About Dogs: a Book for Doggy People by Charles Henry Lane has glorious descriptions of Victorian dog shows, and his descriptions show that although times have changed, dogs have not. "Poodles are curled and shaven and shorn, and decked out with top-knots of coloured ribbons... Two Poodle puppies, not yet shorn, looked refreshingly unkempt by the side of these ultra-respectable Uncles and Aunts. A litter of Dachshunds resembled lion cubs asleep." All About Dogs was published by J. Lane in 1900.
Dogs, Jackals, Wolves, and Foxes: a Monograph of the Canidae shows how far thinking has come in terms of how people appreciate animals. Just as many of George Stable's thoughts on respecting cats as pets are now culturally common, some of the misconceptions in from George Jackson Mivart and John Gerrard Keuleman are surprising. Although there is no record of wolves attacking humans, Mivart and Keuleman write that wolves "devour cattle and man." They also demonstrate the geographical range that wolves and foxes enjoyed when the book was written in the 19th century. That range which has been substantially decreased since the book's initial 1890 publication by R.H. Porter.
To download these books, click on the top right hand section of the Google Books page. PDF files will work find on Kindle 3, and EPUB works on the Sony Reader, the Kobo ereader, and the Nook. To convert EPUB files for early generation Kindles, use download the EPUB files and use the open source powerhouse Calibre to make the books into mobi files, which can then be read on Kindles.
Sources
- All books were accessed on Google Books. Due to their age, none of the books have ISBN or ASIN numbers.
- Google Books explains their public domain policy in "How can I Reuse Public Domain Books?" which was accessed on September 25, 2010.
Alex Sharp - Alex Sharp is a teacher who has been keeping Suite101 readers up to date with the latest in audio- and e-book gadgetry since 2008.
