George Herbert Powell: 2 books

Not exclusively for bibliophiles, this kaleidoscopic 1896 gathering of essays and sketches on books, book-collecting, and literature includes “The Philosophy of Rarity,” “A Gascon Tragedy (14th Century),” “A Shelf of Old Story Books,” “The Pirates’ Paradise (1740),” “A Medley of Memoirs,” “With Rabelais at Rome (1536),” and “The Wit of History.”

In the essay and especially in poetry the cat has become a favourite subject, but in fiction it must be admitted that he lags considerably behind the dog. The reasons for this apparently arbitrary preference on the part of authors are perfectly easy to explain. The instinctive acts of the dog, who is...