Hard cover book, A Dog of Flanders Author: Ouida (Maria Louise Ramé) Publisher: George Robertson Date: 1873 Further Information: Blue cloth hardcover and spine with spine lettering in black texter. The spine has a Library label with inscription. fictionA Dog of Flanders (originally published in 1872) is a deeply moving, bittersweet story set in Belgium. It follows Nello, an impoverished orphan boy with a passion for art, and Patrasche a loyal, cart-pulling, abandoned, and abused draft dog whom Nello and his gentle grandfather, Jehan Daas, rescue and nurse back to health. The story focuses on the bond between Nello and Patrasche as they become inseparable, helping the aging Jehan pull a milk cart into Antwerp each day to earn a meagre living. Nello longs to become a great painter like the Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens. His only hope is to win a prestigious local drawing contest with a portrait he has laboured over. After a series of devastating setbacks his grandfather passes away, they are evicted, and Nello loses the drawing competition he and Patrasche his cart pulling dog seek shelter from a freezing Christmas Eve blizzard inside the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp. There, Nello finally gazes upon Rubens’s shielded masterpieces, The Descent from the Cross and The Elevation of the Cross. The story ends sadly as, the next morning, the loyal dog and the young boy are found frozen to death, locked in a final embrace in front of the altar.flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked coast, flagstaff hill maritime museum, maritime museum, shipwreck coast, flagstaff hill maritime village, great ocean road, book, pattison collection, warrnambool library, warrnambool mechanics’ institute, ralph eric pattison, corangamite regional library service, warrnambool city librarian, mechanics’ institute library, victorian library board, warrnambool books and records, warrnambool children’s library, a dog of flanders, ouida, maria louise ramé, marie louise de la ramée