Eustace is the undisputed patriarch of the Farquhar family--that is, he would be if everyone left him alone so he could get on with things, like shaving, and finding his way downstairs.
It's not Henry's fault that he snores and that his marriage has collapsed. Or that he failed to get into the cricket team. But he has made up for it and is now a faster motorist than ever he was a bowler. He is a good father too, and one day, when he wakes up from day-dreaming, his son Kenneth will thank him.
It is good that Anne sleeps with a whistle in her mouth--how else could she terrify the burglars? As for Mathilda, she wold love to like her mother, but prefers going for long walks with the dog. But what will happen to them all if the dog dies?
The story is followed by a devastating postscript. Placing this eccentric family in isolation after two world wars and at the beginning of our aggressive financial culture, it turns comedy into tragedy. A Dog's Life marked a very personal addition to Michael Holroyd's remarkable career.
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“A writer who can do with English what his forbears so signally could not do with money; keep its value up.”
—
London Evening Standard