James and Macarthur: A Novel about Two Cats

New York: Longmans, Green and Co.. Very Good+ in Very Good dj. 1951. First American Edition. Hardcover. [a good sound copy, slight bumping to the upper corners, minor soiling to edges of text block, tiny bookseller's name rubber-stamped on front endpaper (Farrow's Bookshop, Waterville, Maine); the jacket shows some wear along the top and bottom edges and the spine folds, and some surface scuffing on the lower right area of the front panel]. (line drawings) The title characters are a pair of brothers, with a quite satisfactory domestic situation -- except that it's taken a markedly unsatisfactory turn, as "their domestic staff, a pair of humans by the name of Thompson, [who] in their humble way were happy and contented, considering themselves fortunate in the service of two such gentlemanly employers as James and Macarthur. Yet, of late, there had been a distinct falling-off in the quality of the service," to which household crisis the feline brothers are discussing possible solutions as the book opens. If that's not enough of a blurb to hook you, then this probably isn't the book for you -- but if it is, what are you waiting for? (The book was published the same year in England, with a somewhat more clever subtitle -- "An Escapist Novel" -- but in my opinion the American edition is preferable due to its illustrations, by the great Peggy Bacon.) .