“A god, a companion to sorceresses at the Witches’ Sabbath, a beast who is royal in Siam, who in Japan is called ‘the tiger that eats from the hand,’ the adored of Mohammed, Laura’s rival with Petrarch, the friend of Richelieu, the favorite of poets”—such are just a few of the feline distinctions that Carl Van Vechten records in this glorious historical overview of humanity’s long love affair with the cat. As delightful as it is learned, Tiger in the House explores science, art, and history to assemble a treasury of cat lore, while Van Vechten’s sumptuous baroque prose
makes the book’s every page an inexhaustible pleasure.
"Every lover of cats should own this book...the best single treatise on the cat, spiritually rather than biologically considered, that we have ever seen."--Chicago Evening Post
"The Tiger in the House is absolutely fascinating. As a matter of fact, it is a treasure house. The little scraps of literary gossip in it alone make it absolutely indispensable for anyone who likes to explore the hedgy bypaths of an author's life and thoughts. I wouldn't be without it for anything."--Chicago Tribune
"At last the cat has a book worthy of him...luxurious, regal, self-certain, and complete."--New York Evening Post
Carl Van Vechten wrote "what many think the two best books about cats ever published, Lords of the Housetops and The Tiger in the House."--The Chicago Daily Tribune
