The Hundred and One Dalmatians
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| The Hundred and One Dalmatians | |
 First edition cover |
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| Author | Dodie Smith |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone |
| Cover artist | Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Children's novel |
| Publisher | Heinemann |
| Publication date | 1956 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
| Followed by | 'The Starlight Barking (1967) |
The Hundred and One Dalmatians, or the Great Dog Robbery is a 1956 children's novel by Dodie Smith. A sequel entitled The Starlight Barking continues from the end of the first novel.
After being invited to a dinner party by the Dearly couple, where Cruella de Vil expresses her dislike for animals, the family's new Dalmatian puppies disappear. The Dearly dogs are added to 97 puppies who are kidnapped or legally purchased from various owners, all of which have been gathered with the intent of skinning them for their fur, to make a coat. Through a fellowship of animals and the "Twilight Barking", the dogs are identified as being in Suffolk, England, and a rescue ensues.
[edit] Plot
Pongo and Missis Pongo (or just Missis) are a pair of Dalmatians. They live with the newly married Mr and Mrs Dearly (their "pets"; dogs allow humans to think they are the owners when it is really the other way round) and their two nannies, Nanny Cook and Nanny Butler. Mr Dearly is a "financial wizard" who has been granted exemption from income tax for life and lent a house by the Outer Circle of Regent's Park as a favour for wiping out the government's national debt. Before marrying, the Dearlys lived in bachelor flats with their nannies. After marriage, they all move in together and the nannies decide to train as a cook and a butler to match their surnames.
Missis gives birth to a litter of 15 puppies, including the Cadpig, Lucky and Patch. The Dearlys are concerned that Missis will not be able to feed them all and the humans join in to feed them. Mrs Dearly looks for another dog to act as a wet nurse and by chance finds an abandoned Dalmatian mother in the middle of the road in the pouring rain. She has the dog treated by a vet and gives her the name Perdita, from the Latin for "lost". Later Perdita tells Pongo about her lost love and the circumstances that led to her being abandoned in the middle of the road.
Mr and Mrs Dearly are invited to a dinner party hosted by Cruella de Vil, an intimidating and very wealthy woman with one side of her hair coloured white and the other side coloured black. They meet her furrier husband and her abused cat, and discover her love of pepper, very high temperatures, and fixation with furs. They are disconcerted by her suggestion that animals which are not valuable should be drowned, including her own cat's kittens.
Shortly after the dinner party the puppies disappear. The humans fail to trace them but through the "Twilight Barking", a form of communication by which dogs can relay messages to each other across the country, the dogs manage to track them down to Hell Hall, the ancestral home of the de Vil family in Suffolk.
Pongo and Missis try to explain to the Dearlys where the puppies are but fails. The dogs then take the decision to run away and find them. They explain to Perdita that she should stay behind and look after the Dearlys.
After a journey cross country, they are met by the Colonel, an Old English Sheepdog who shows them Hell Hall and tells them its history. He tells them to rest overnight and that they will see their puppies the next day. They then discover there are 97 puppies including their own 15 and many others who later turn out to have been legally bought. They also discover Cadpig's love of television.
Cruella de Vil appears and tells the crooks in charge of Hell Hall that the dogs must be slaughtered and skinned as soon as possible because of the publicity surrounding the theft of the Dearlys' pups. Pongo and Missis devise an escape plan and agree that they must take all the puppies with them, not just their own 15. They escape on the day before Christmas Eve.
Cadpig is too weak to walk the long distance from Suffolk to London so she is lent a toy carriage by Tommy, the Colonel's 2 year old "pet". When the cart loses a wheel, they have a rest on the hassocks of a country church to escape the cold. The group almost meet Cruella as she drives towards a burning building; Pongo says that they need a miracle and find one when they are offered a lift in a removal van. Having previously rolled in soot to disguise their white hair, they are able to hide in the darkness of the removal van with the help of a Staffordshire terrier whose pets are the movers.
When they arrive back in London they find Cruella's (empty) house. Her cat is still there and invites them in to destroy Cruella's collection of animal skins and fur coats. She gladly joins in as revenge for her lost kittens.
The Dalmatians then return to the Dearlys' house where they are not recognised due to being covered in soot. They try again, bursting through the door and rolling around on the floor to get rid of the soot. Mr Dearly then recognises them and sends out for steaks to feed them.
Later the cat drops by to tell them Cruella has fled. The shock of discovering her furs have been destroyed has turned the black side of her hair white and the white side green. She has also abandoned Hell Hall. It has been put up for sale and Mr Dearly buys it with a sum of money he has been given by the government for sorting out another tax problem. He renames it to Hill Hall and intends to use it to start a "dynasty of Dalmatians" (and a "dynasty of Dearlys" to take care of them).
Finally, Perdita's lost love, Prince (the one hundred and first Dalmatian) visits. His "pets" can clearly see that the two wish to be together and allow him to stay with the Dearlys.
[edit] Adaptations
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This section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (March 2008) |
The novel was made into a Disney animated film in 1961, under the title One Hundred and One Dalmatians. In this film the four adult dalmatians were compressed into two, with Missis being named "Perdita" and Prince being omitted totally. There is only one Nanny, who in personality and appearance resembles Nanny Cook. Patch and Lucky are present, but the Cadpig is not, though she is included in the Disney Channel tv series. (She also appears in this film in cameo, in the scene in which Roger and Pongo are sitting in their kitchen, anxiously awaiting news as Perdita gives birth to her puppies. Nanny, who has been overseeing the birthing process, enters the kitchen carrying a small bundle wrapped in a towel, and sadly announces, "We've lost one." In an excruciatingly tense scene filmed in absolute silence, Roger attempts to revive the stillborn puppy by massaging it, as Pongo watches, spellbound. Finally, the puppy gives a feeble cry and begins to stir, its life saved. A very similar scene, excluding Pongo's presence, occurs in the book; in the following chapter, "the puppy whose life Mr. Dearly had saved" is revealed to be the Cadpig.) Mr. Dearly, here named Roger Radcliffe, is a musician and composer, rather than a financial wizard like in the book. Saul Baddun is renamed Horace, and Cruella appears to be single. The villains discover the Dalmatians have stowed away on the moving truck, leading to a climactic car chase.
Because of the films' popularity, the Smith book has been released under the title 101 Dalmatians, at least as far back as a 1989 Egmont UK Ltd release.[1][improper synthesis?]
[edit] References
- ^ Dodie Smith, "101 Dalmatians", Egmont UK Ltd, 1989, ISBN 0140340343.
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