Name: The Hound of Florence
ISBN: 9781442487482

Felix Salten

When Lucas is magically transformed into the canine companion of a Viennese archduke, he learns that the privileged life he dreamed of is not all it is cracked up to be.

The Hound of Florence

Sarah Sammis

My journey towards The Hound of Florence began in late 2019 when I read The Ghost in Apartment 2R by Denis Markell. The book includes a tale of a man being transformed into a dog by his wife. While that story is from One Thousand And One Arabian Nights; Volume 1 of 16 it got me thinking of The Shaggy Dog (1959) film.

It's been about thirty-five years since I last watched the film or its sequel, The Shaggy D.A. (1976). I have not seen the remake. When I was younger I didn't bother with reading the credits. This time I did and saw that The Hound of Florence by Felix Salten was listed as the source material. Salten was also the author of Bambi (which I have neither read nor watched).

The Hound of Florence is historical fiction with a dose of fantasy. It's set, as far as I can, during the Renaissance. It starts in Vienna shortly after the death of Lucas Grassi's father. His father had been artist but now Lucas is an orphan and will be out on the streets soon.

It's while he's out on a walk, lamenting his fate and mourning his father, that Lucas first sees archduke's coach and the beautiful greyhound running alongside. He wishes he could be that dog. The next morning he finds that he is that dog. He's literally inside the mind and body of the dog.

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