This was such a fun read, as well as informative and at times very touching. Loving our pets isn't new, and through original sources this book shares a wonderful collection of amusing, entertaining, heart warming and delightful stories of people and their pets, some famous some completely ordinary.

Amazing book! As always with Ms Matthews you are engrossed, it's educational and fun and for those that love their history and the history of animals then this is the book to read. To me it's flawless!!

The Pug Who Bit Napoleon provides anecdotes about animals, particularly ones of historical figures. The stories themselves were generally interesting, more so when the owner was somebody well-known, like the Empress Josephine or the Hanoverians, which may make some of these stories less interesting if you do not know who these people are. These short stories (in a relatively short book) were obtained from credible sources, so they are not rumourmongering or lore. However, it seemed that some of these stories were not really too special, like the one about the cat ladies, because they were just ordinary people with no funny or intriguing new things to see. The last story about flea circuses was phenomenal, showing an unusual side to entertainment of the time and explaining it beautifully. I was also a big fan of Alexander Pope's dogs and the goat in London.

A digital copy of this book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I am really sorry that due to some technical difficulties I was not able to read and review this book. Specifically, even after the publisher's approval, I was unable to download a document that contains the book. Since I've read Mimi Matthews earlier, I'm really sorry I can not share my thoughts about this book.

The Pug who Bit Napoleon presents history in a lighthearted an interesting way. The author, Mimi Matthews, takes the reader on a historical tour of famous people who owned dogs, cats, birds and other assorted pets. Of course the book takes its title from the wedding night between Napoleon and Josephine. It seems Joesphine's pug did not want to share the marital bed with Napoleon and bit Napoleon in his calf while Napoleon was attempting to fulfill his marital duties. You will also read about how ravens inspired Charles Dicken's writing. Throughout Matthew's book you will find period artwork illustrating her book.

Recommend.

Review written after downloading a galley from Net Galley.

The Pug Who Bit Napoleon is a collection of anecdotes and lore about animals and their humans in the 1700-1800's. Many of them encountered (or occasionally bit) famous people, were immortalized by poets or artists or otherwise found their ways into the annals of history.

The book has a chapter/story format with different animals separated into different categories. There are categories for dogs and cats of course, but also for farm animals, birds, rodents (and rabbits), reptiles and fish and a couple of stories about exotic animals (foxes) and a final weirdly endearing chapter about flea circuses of the Victorian era (odd and silly in about equal measures).

The book is lavishly illustrated with beautiful paintings and illustrations from the period. The stories themselves are well written and (mostly) historically sound, and when there are discrepancies, they're clearly noted. The book also includes a useful index and a sources list as well as a bibliography which provides a good resource list for further reading.

I enjoyed this book a lot and found the author's informal style both accessible and fun to read.

Stats: The Pug Who Bit Napoleon; Animal Tales of the 18th&19th Centuries
192 pages, Kindle & Paperback format,
Anticipated pub. date: 30 Nov, 2017
Author: Mimi Matthews
Publisher: Pen & Sword UK

Four stars

This book is a collection of animal stories from the 1700s & 1800s. The author went back to the original sources of the stories (letters, newspaper and magazine articles, and poems) and included quotes from those sources. Many of the stories were about favorite pets owned by famous people. There were 9 dog stories (including stories about animals grieving the death of their person), 4 cat chapters (including information about the first cat show in England and pet funerals), a chapter each on horses, a pony, a donkey, a famous goat, a monkey and a parrot, two ravens, two military hens, an inspiring wild field mouse, pet rabbits, several shark sightings in the Thames, an "alligator" in the Thames, two foxes as pets (bad idea), and flea circuses. There were also pictures of the animal (in the case of famous pets) or of animals like the one described. The book is a quick, fun read. I'd recommend this enjoyable book to fans of animal stories.

The Pug Who Bit Napoleon takes a unique look into 18th and 19th century European history, by looking at the pets and other animals associated with the people of the time. From Fortune, the pug belonging to Napoleon's new bride, to Looty, the stolen Pekingese presented to Victoria on the sacking of China.

As I may have mentioned once (or twice), I'm the proud owner of a miniature dachshund named Monty. Because of this, I have a keen interest at the moment in anything dog related - and I really enjoyed the sections relating to dogs in this. Relatively short, I managed to read it in one afternoon, I particularly enjoyed reading about the different personalities of the dogs and the fondness often (although not always) shown by their owners. Dog really has been man's best friend for a long time.

The chapters on Fortune were my favorite. I'm a sucker for French history, and I'd never heard of Fortune's tale before and how he was used as a 'spy' during the revolution. The research was well thought thought in this regard, and I could tell that Mimi Matthews really enjoyed regaling Fortune's exploits with Napoleon. I also enjoyed the sections on the bloodhounds used in the Jack the Ripper case and the introduction to rabies that's mentioned near the end when discussing foxes as pets. It's actually got me interested in researching more on the rabies virus.

I was less enthralled by the later sections of the book, which featured birds, horses and smaller mammals (and rather randomly, sharks). I would have preferred more time with the various dogs and their owners as I felt the research done here was not as strong, and it just wasn't as interesting.

I also wasn't fond of the authors use of other writers texts that make up good chunks of the chapters. I felt it took away some of the author's credibility by using up half of the book with other people's work - especially as it was so short.

Started strong, but too short and not enough dog content for my liking. However, a rather unique look at an area of history I like to read about.

This book is so wonderful and a must-read for any pet and history lovers! Honestly this book had me at first glance - my favorite historical figure AND my favorite dog breed, how could this possibly go wrong? And each of the entries and profiles was more charming than the last. The Homeric dedication of Lord Byron to his dearly departed Boatswain and the rumors of Emily Brontë's bulldog being her witch familiar & being the first in line in her funeral procession were my two favorite anecdotes, but truly the entire work is a gift.