Dodie Smith - The Hundred and One Dalmatians Modern Classic

First published in Great Britain 1956 by William Heinemann Ltd

This edition published 2018 by Egmont UK Limited

The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN

www.egmont.co.uk

Text copyright © 1956 The Estate of Dodie Smith

Cover and inside illustrations copyright © Alex T. Smith

Design by Mike Jolley

The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted

First e-book edition 2018

ISBN 978 1 4052 8875 0

Ebook ISBN 978 1 4052 9515 4

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Egmont takes its responsibility to the planet and its inhabitants very seriously. We aim to use papers from well-managed forests run by responsible suppliers.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

The Hundred and One Dalmatians

Copyright First published in Great Britain 1956 by William Heinemann Ltd This edition published 2018 by Egmont UK Limited The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN www.egmont.co.uk Text copyright © 1956 The Estate of Dodie Smith Cover and inside illustrations copyright © Alex T. Smith Design by Mike Jolley The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted First e-book edition 2018 ISBN 978 1 4052 8875 0 Ebook ISBN 978 1 4052 9515 4 A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Egmont takes its responsibility to the planet and its inhabitants very seriously. We aim to use papers from well-managed forests run by responsible suppliers.

The Happy Couples

The Puppies Arrive

Perdita

Cruella de Vil Pays Two Calls

Hark, Hark, the Dogs do Bark!

To the Rescue!

At the Old Inn

Cross Country

Hot Buttered Toast

What They Saw from the Folly

In the Enemy’s Camp

Sudden Danger

The Little Blue Cart

Christmas Eve

Miracle Needed

The White Cat’s Revenge

Who are These Strange Black Dogs?

The Hundred and Oneth Dalmatian

About the Author

Back series promotional page

NOT LONG AGO, there lived in London a young married couple of Dalmatian dogs named Pongo and Missis Pongo. (Missis had added Pongo’s name to her own on their marriage, but was still called Missis by most people.) They were lucky enough to own a young married couple of humans named Mr and Mrs Dearly, who were gentle, obedient and unusually intelligent – almost canine at times. They understood quite a number of barks: the barks for ‘Out, please!’, ‘In, please!’, ‘Hurry up with my dinner!’ and ‘What about a walk?’ And even when they could not understand, they could often guess – if looked at soulfully or scratched by an eager paw. Like many other much-loved humans, they believed that they owned their dogs, instead of realising that their dogs owned them. Pongo and Missis found this touching and amusing, and let their pets think it was true.

Mr Dearly, who had an office in the City, was particularly good at arithmetic. Many people called him a wizard of finance – which is not the same thing as a wizard of magic, though sometimes fairly similar. At the time when this story starts he was rather unusually rich for a rather unusual reason. He had done the Government a great service (something to do with getting rid of the National Debt) and, as a reward, had been let off his Income Tax for life. Also the Government had lent him a small house on the Outer Circle of Regent’s Park – just the right house for a man with a wife and dogs.

Before their marriages, Mr Dearly and Pongo had lived in a bachelor flat, where they were looked after by Mr Dearly’s old nurse, Nanny Butler. Mrs Dearly and Missis had also lived in a bachelor flat (there are no such things as spinster flats) where they were looked after by Mrs Dearly’s old nurse, Nanny Cook. The dogs and their pets met at the same time and shared a wonderfully happy double engagement, but they were all a little worried about what was to happen to Nanny Cook and Nanny Butler. It would be all right when the Dearlys started a family, particularly if it could be twins, with one twin for each Nanny, but, until then, what were the Nannies going to do? For though they could cook breakfast and provide meals on trays (meals called ‘A nice egg by the fire’) neither of them was capable of running a smart little house in Regent’s Park, where the Dearlys hoped to invite their friends to dinner.

And then something happened. Nanny Cook and Nanny Butler met and, after a few minutes of deep suspicion, took a great liking to each other. And they had a good laugh about their names.

‘What a pity we’re not a real cook and butler,’ said Nanny Cook.

‘Yes, that’s what’s needed now,’ said Nanny Butler.

And then they both together had the Great Idea: Nanny Cook would train to be a real cook and Nanny Butler would train to be a real butler. They would start the very next day and be fully trained by the wedding.

‘But you’ll have to be a parlour maid, really,’ said Nanny Cook.

‘Certainly not,’ said Nanny Butler. ‘I haven’t the figure for it. I shall be a real butler – and I shall valet Mr Dearly, which will need no training as I’ve done it since the day he was born.’

And so when the Dearlys and the Pongos got back from their joint honeymoon, there were Nanny Cook and Nanny Butler, fully trained, ready to welcome them into the little house facing Regent’s Park.

It came as something of a shock that Nanny Butler was wearing trousers.

‘Wouldn’t a black dress, with a nice, frilly apron be better?’ suggested Mrs Dearly – rather nervously, because Nanny Butler had never been her Nanny.

‘You can’t be a butler without trousers,’ said Nanny Butler, firmly. ‘But I’ll get a frilly apron tomorrow. It will add a note of originality.’ It did.

The Nannies said they no longer expected to be called Nanny, and were now prepared to be called by their surnames, in the correct way. But though you can call a cook ‘Cook’, the one thing you cannot call a butler is ‘Butler’, so in the end both Nannies were just called ‘Nanny, darling’, as they always had been.

After the dogs and the Dearlys had been back from their honeymoons for several happy weeks, something even happier happened. Mrs Dearly took Pongo and Missis across the park to St John’s Wood, where they called on their good friend, the Splendid Veterinary Surgeon. She came back with the wonderful news that the Pongos were shortly to become parents. Puppies were due in a month.