The Starlight Barking (101 Dalmatians)

£9.9
FREE Shipping

The Starlight Barking (101 Dalmatians)

The Starlight Barking (101 Dalmatians)

RRP: £99
Price: £9.9
£9.9 FREE Shipping

In stock

We accept the following payment methods

Description

Right from the outset the reader is presented with a mystery as to why all humans, birds, insects, horses, mice, pigs, cows, cats … etc have fallen into a deep sleep. But not, of course, dogs, and oddly one child and one cat. Missis Pongo - known as "Missis" to most. She is more intuitive but less practical than her husband, but just as famous and admired. She grasps the concepts of "magic" and "metaphysical" far better than her husband when the strange happenings occur. Patch - Pongo and Missis' son, who was the largest of the puppies and devoted to Cadpig. He refuses to marry as an adult because he does not want to pass on his patched-ear-and-eye fault. He is happily reunited with Cadpig and made her temporary Private Secretary in London. Xtreme Kool Letterz: Kloes That Klank, Cruella's second business venture after the dalmations destroy her fur business, involving plastic raincoats that make clanking noises.

Brainless Beauty: Missis is described as very pretty and brave but also somewhat silly, vain, selfish, and baffled by abstract concepts such as "left". Then again, many dogs are — and Pongo is very aware that while Missis may not be as clever as he is, she has better instincts. She has become a lot hardier and more down-to-earth by the end of the book. Malaproper: Missis isn't good with large words. For example, she gets offended when she learns the Dearlys will found a "nasty din" of dalmatians, only for Pongo to explain what a "dynasty" is. Impoverished Patrician: Cruella De Vil. Her family's ancestral home is in disrepair, the servants working there receive no pay other than the right to live there and say the TV must be kept on at night because they don't have light bulbs. Most of her jewels are fake. When the furs her furrier husband keeps at home are destroyed by the dalmatians, it's revealed most of them aren't paid for and the De Vils must sell their ancestral home to pay their debts. Cruella also has to sell their real jewels to be able to start a new business.Better the Devil You Know: Upon learning Cruella isn't the sequel antagonist, Pongo "almost wished she were" since she's "the devil he knew" and he felt someone unknown and more powerful was in charge. Flipping further I found a visit to a sleeping Cruella de Vil, and a pseudo-religious Voice (Sirius Lord of the the Dog Star) entering the storyline, to warn the ‘caninecade’ that he can save them from the destructive nuclear forces about to be unleashed by humans. It would appear that the book then rapidly descends into farce as a number of ownerless dogs instead opt to seek a life at Battersea Dogs Home (a highly reputable establishment in real life). Hmm.

The premise of the plot of this book is decidedly bizarre; as if Mrs Smith was on an acid high at the time (1967). However, in the light of the wonderful “One Hundred and One Dalmatians,” I prefer to think (delude myself?) that fault lies with the erring and unnamed editor at William Heinemann whose imagination was no doubt entirely caught up in the Space Race, science fiction, and should instead have taken out and shot at dawn as a lesson to prevent Penguin from later adding the title to their Puffin range. The Starlight Barking is a 1967 children's novel by Dodie Smith. It is a sequel to the 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians. [1] Plot [ edit ] The anxious parents find that Cruella has imprisoned their puppies in her country estate (along with 82 she had previously acquired), with intent to make Dalmatian-skin coats. Pongo and Missis rescue them all and return triumphant with 97 puppies in tow. A rescued nurse-dog named Perdita and her long-lost beau round out their numbers to 101, Cruella and her husband end up financially ruined, and the Dearlys buy the same country estate where the pups were originally held prisoner. Villain Ball: There was no reason at all for Cruella to kidnap the Dearly puppies. She already owned 82 dalmatian puppies, which should have been plenty to start her fur farm. The only thing that taking the Dearly puppies accomplished was 1) wasting money (she paid more to the dog thieves than she had for any litter), 2) bringing unwanted police attention (nothing she'd done before was illegal), 3) causing her husband's business to be destroyed by 99 extremely irate Dalmatians. All because she couldn't take "no" for an answer.Roly Poly - a fat and accident-prone Dalmatian, one of Pongo and Missis' adult sons. He teaches George how to swim, and the two of them soon discover they have a lot in common and spend the day of magic visiting Paris together.

The Three Strays - a deputation sent to Pongo on behalf of all the lost, stray, abused, and homeless dogs in England. It is their undying hope and desire to one day find loving owners which convinces Pongo and the other dogs to stay with their own masters. Smith’s Cruella is, by the way, married. Her husband is a nonentity who barely speaks, which is perhaps why he doesn’t appear in any of the Disney adaptations. Such is Cruella’s commitment to her vibe that she made him take her name instead of the other way around. (Cruella Smith simply wouldn’t have had the same ring to it.)It's well known that Dodie Smith is a wonderful children's author and this book just adds to her repatoir. I loved the way she created her characters and gave them all different personalities and quirks to go along with them as well and I thought it was one of the most heartwarming novels with a great amount of adventure that I've read in a long and I think this is one along with the preceding book that should be in every child's library.

The White Persian Cat - Formerly owned and abused by Cruella de Vil, she ran away to live with the Dalmatians and was made an honorary dog, thus making her immune to the "mysterious sleep". She becomes friends with The Staffordshire and also dislikes Sirius. The Dearlys' home isn't described much but presumably also qualifies, as it's in the Outer Circle which was (and is) one of the most prestigious locations in London. The Spaniel who helps Pongo and Missis on their journey. He's ancient in dog years, and one of the most friendly, generous souls in the book. The Starlight Barking is not really about Cruella, who appears in only a single scene for a glorified cameo. ( What the book is actually about is bonkers, by the way, and I don’t think I could spoil it if I tried.) Still, she makes every moment of it count.Regardless, by the end of The Hundred and One Dalmatians, the Dearlys and their dogs do defeat Cruella, leading her to flee England in disgrace. But Cruella makes a triumphant return in the sequel, 1967’s The Starlight Barking. The Colonel. He's getting on in years, but he's got skills and knowledge beyond pretty much any other dog in the book. Only Pongo is more intelligent, but even Pongo doesn't have the Colonel's years of experience. Served with this utter look, our ostensible hero Mr. Dearly, whose dogs Cruella will shortly steal, peers down his nose and says, “Isn’t she a bit showy?” and truly, I don’t see how Smith could have expected anyone to root for him after that. A day of enchantments for the Dalmatians of the first book begins when the Dalmatians wake up and find all the humans and other animals in an unnaturally deep sleep. They hear the barking of Cadpig, carrying all the way from London, where she has become the prime minister's pet. She informs them reports from all over the country reveal the same phenomenon, and summons delegate dogs to London. They travel to London by "swooshing", described as gliding just off the ground.



  • Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
  • EAN: 764486781913
  • Sold by: Fruugo

Delivery & Returns

Fruugo

Address: UK
All products: Visit Fruugo Shop