Ludwig Bemelmans (1898–1962)

The is the first book I've read in the series regarding Madeline. I'll be sure to read more. In this rhyming book, Madelne's adventure includes the story of 12 little girls walking the two straight lines, leaving the house at half past nine.

Madeline, living in Paris, France is the smallest, fell from the wall and was rescued by a dog. The dog became part of the every day life of the group of the girls and their Mistress who took care of them. When a huge snow storm occurred, Lord Cucuface that the dog was a perfect disgrace and ushered him out the door into the snow.

The hunt for the dog was fruitless, and at night finally he was found. The 12 girls continued to argue regarding who would have the dog sleep with them. If they did not stop fighting the dog would need to leave. As the Mistress who previously made the dog stay outside discovered, there was a litter of puppies awaiting their dog.

All were more than happy as each little girl had her own dog to walk and pet all day and night long.

I liked the snappy poetic rhyming of the story!… (lisätietoja)

I approached this book with some diffidence, humour, and the appropriate subjects of humour, often being very much of their time. The opening anecdotes were lightheartedly funny sketches of workers and patrons of the hotel, though there were parts that justified my reservations. Then, about ⅓ in, without losing the bantering tone, Bemelmans introduced some darker, even sinister, characters and situations, that might have raised eyebrows in polite society: Professor Gorylescu, the table magician, smoulders with a seedy loucheness that hints of more troubling proclivities.

Kalakobé, the one Black character, could have been a problem, and while Bemelmans does exoticise him somewhat, he presents him with dignity, noting that Kalakobé refuses the description "negro" and insists on his being "African".

There's a nasty incident at the end of the first anecdote which had raised my hackles, however, Bemelmans deftly weaves this into his final story: very satisfying. "Raconteur" fits Bemelmans well, and I had the feeling of hearing these stories in a corner of a dimly-lit dining hall after all the patrons have left, around a littered table with a stained cloth, waiters in shirt sleeves with unbuttoned collars, smoking cigar stubs and finishing off the opened wine and brandy bottles, regaling each other with the petty demands of diners and unwarranted tyrannies of the maître d'hôtel.… (lisätietoja)