Читать книгу The Cat MEGAPACK ® - Andrew Lang - Страница 5

INTRODUCTION: …IN THE DARK, by Robert Reginald

It may be true that all cats are gray in the dark, but the twenty-five stories and two poems in this anthology feature pieces both dark and light, with nary a gray one among them. “Cat” is defined herein in the broadest possible terms, including all feline creatures of whatever size and situation—but mostly, we’re still dealing with the domestic house cat, Felis silvestris catus.

Humans who keep pets tend to fixate either on cats and dogs, but rarely have both. Most folks will at least tolerate dogs, even if they don’t want them sharing their households; but there’s a certain percentage of the population that actively hates cats, often for irrational reasons. You’ll find both cat lovers and haters represented within the virtual pages of this Megapack.

The mysterious, almost indefinable nature of the cat has often intrigued and inspired writers of popular literature. This anthology features cats in science fiction, horror, mystery, young adult, western, and mythological settings, among others. Several of the tales are told from the cat’s point of view. Some of the kitties are agents of good, and others of evil; but most just provide interesting glimpses into the lives of felines and their “owners” (who actually owns whom is one of the enduring [and unaswerable] questions posed by those who choose to share their lives with these mysterious creatures).

Anyone who loves cats and their antics and their natures will find something of interest here. Some of the stories date back 100 years or more; but even most of those are by fairly well-known writers. I’ve also seeded this book with a number of reprinted pieces from current-day authors, one of whom (A. R. Morlan) has recently published a collection of cat stories for Borgo Press.

This is the first of what I hope will become a continuing series of cat story anthologies. If you want to see more of these—if you have story suggestions—please let us know. In the meantime, enjoy!—

—Robert Reginald, 29 June 2013