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Sirius (Gollancz Collectors' Editions)
 
 
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Sirius (Gollancz Collectors' Editions) (Paperback)

by Olaf Stapledon (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 200 pages
  • Publisher: Gollancz; New edition edition (24 Aug 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0575070579
  • ISBN-13: 978-0575070578
  • Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.6 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 826,175 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

Sirius is Thomas Trelone's great experiment - a huge, handsome dog with the brain and intelligence of a human being. Raised and educated in Trelone's own family alongside Plaxy, his youngest daughter, Sirius is a truly remarkable and gifted creature. His relationship with the Trelones, particularly with Plaxy, is deep and close, and his inquiring mind ranges across the spectrum of human knowledge and experience. But Sirius isn't human and the conflicts and inner turmoil that torture him cannot be resolved.


About the Author

Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950) was born near Liverpool and educated at Balliol College, Oxford and Liverpool University. After spending eighteen months working in a shipping office in Liverpool and Port Said, he lectured extramurally for Liverpool University in English Literature and industrial history. He served in France from 1915 until 1919 with the Friends' Ambulance Unit and then lectured again for Liverpool University in psychology and philosophy. His novels include First and Last Men, Last Men in London, Star Maker and Odd John.
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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Not "Disney", 3 Sep 2003
By A Customer
A story about a superintelligent talking dog? It sounds terrible, like something out of a twee Disney film, but in actual fact Stapledon manages to avoid anything like that, and has written an incredible, touching story. It reminds me of "Call of the Wild" and "White Fang", and doesn't avoid the dark side of Sirius' nature... there are a couple of particularly savage passages where Sirius kills a sadistic farmer, and also "murders" a horse just to indulge his canine instincts.

Sirius ends up seeing the full range of human life, from bad to good, and more. He is also not a true dog, and finds himself not only alienated from human beings who cannot accept him fully (with a handful of exceptions), but other dogs who are like cretins to him especially his "lovers" (as the book puts it). Despite having difficulty speaking and writing (he devises ways to get around that), Sirius has an advantage over other dogs through his intelligence, and over humans in his hearing, sense of smell etc. What we get is not only a satire on English life during WWII, but an almost autistic view of the world, seeing everything but not able to integrate oneself into it.

Of course some of the writing is dated, and Stapledon at times takes a very colonial view of the Welsh and their language (Sirius is originally brought up on a Welsh farm by English academics). Some of the style is very dry and typical of the period (for example when Sirius spots a holy roller farmboy pleasuring himself, Stapledon calls it "something unspeakable". Fortunately Victorian hangovers like these are not common).

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Stranger in a Strange Land!, 1 Oct 2001
By A Customer
More like a conventional novel than either Last and First Men or Star Maker, this deals with some typical Stapledon themes: alien intelligence or spirit, the quasi symbiosis of different species, the age old question of the purpose of existence. It's an interesting study of a creature's relationship with his creator, his difficulties in dealing with his own uniqueness, and with the fact that his own needs do not always coincide with those of the dominant human species. It raises a number of questions about the type of things which might differ between two species of equal intelligence, and how this might cause conflict between them. Well worth reading!

(I didn't find his style to be a problem; it's just different from what we're used to nowadays.)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Miserable but moving, 5 Aug 2001
By Jason Mills "jason10801" (Accrington, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
Somebody else said that this book about a dog is, oddly, Stapledon's most human book. Sirius is a dog with human intelligence, but this is no gift, rather an endless burden of loneliness. This is a strong, cold, dignified book that demands attention. (Also has much in common with the brilliant John Crowley's "Beasts".)
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3.0 out of 5 stars A dog's life
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