Our Friend the Dog

Belgian playwright and poet Maurice Maeterlinck is best known for his Symbolist dramas, but in this 1905 volume, the Nobel Laureate gives what might be one of the most endearing and thought-provoking tributes to a dog in 20th-century literature. Upon the passing of his beloved French Bulldog, Pelléas, Maeterlinck reflects upon the relationship of man to dog and ponders the dog's instinctive understanding of and love for his master. Perhaps most touching, though, are Maeterlinck's remembrances of Pelléas himself. After all, what dedicated dog owner cannot relate to the "smile of attentive obligingness, of incorruptible innocence, of affectionate submission, of boundless gratitude and total self-abandonment" that lights up a dog's face when his owner comes home?