Thursday, March 20, 2014

Nine notable literary talking animals

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Joel Cunningham tagged several favorite talking animals in fiction, including:
Behemoth (The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov)

Speaking of felines, it’s pretty hard to compete with Behemoth, a massive, demonic black cat who arrives in 1930s Moscow on the coattails of none other than Satan himself, looking to stir up trouble. Behemoth loves guns, vodka, and chess, in that order, but most of all, he loves a perfectly timed sarcastic remark. If you substitute “food, naps, and naps,” that probably pretty much describes my cat, too.
Read about another entry on the list.

The Master and Margarita is among Josh Ritter's six favorite books that invoke the supernatural, Cornelius Medvei's's top ten talking animals in literature, Joseph Fiennes' six best books, and Daniel Johnson's five best books about Cold War culture. It's also a book that English actor and writer Stephen Fry tries to read as often as he can.

--Marshal Zeringue