Oxford University Press's
Academic Insights for the Thinking World

Whose muse mews?

The final, quiet days of summer before the turning of the season and the chill of back-to-work autumn are a perfect time to slow down, turn off the electronics, and refresh the soul by reading poetry. On the other hand, what could be more fun than an internet quiz about cats?

We sat down with Oxford Scholarly Editions Online, and fired up the search, looking for cats stalking the pages of literature. We found some lovely stuff, and something more – a literary reflection of the cat’s unstoppable gambol up the social ladder: a mouser and rat-catcher in the seventeenth century, he springs up the stairs in the eighteenth century to become the plaything of smart young ladies and companion of literary lions such as Cowper, Dr Johnson, and Horace Walpole.

cat oseo

[slickquiz id=55]

Image credit: Cat with OSEO, © Oxford University Press. Do not re-use without permission.

Recent Comments

  1. […] a more light-hearted note, and because this is the internet, Oxford University Press quizzed us on cats in literary […]

Comments are closed.