Fenwick (1767 - 1840) was an English writer, associated early in her career with the radical circle of writers centered on William Godwin and Mary Wollestonecraft Godwin (most famous now for being the parents of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein), though much of her literary output was fiction for younger readers. [ Wikipedia entry ]
The Life of the Famous Dog Carlo (that is how the title reads on the title page; the front cover of the book bears a slightly different title: The Life of Carlo, the Famous Dog of Drury-Lane Theatre) appears to have been first published in 1804, with subsequent editions in 1809 (from which the images below are taken [London: Tabart]) and 1812. The book was an attempt to capitalize on the considerable popularity of Frederick Reynold's 1803 play The Caravan, which gained considerable notoriety for making a Newfoundland one of its important characters and having him jump into a large tank of water onstage to rescue a 'drowning' child. The Caravan (as well as its cultural impact) is treated separately here at The Cultured Newf.
Fenwick, of course, creates a fictional history for Carlo; this "biography" is not of the Newfoundland who played Carlo. One contemporary review of The Caravan remarks that there were actually two dogs used in the play, one a mastiff made up to look like a Newf (this dog was said to belong to the actor who played the dog's owner in the play), and a Newfoundland which was used to jump into the water and rescue the child but could not well tolerate the heat of the theater.
The frontispiece purports to be a "portrait" of "Carlo" that is said to be "taken from the life" — that is, a drawing of the actual Carlo, who of course didn't exist, though it's possible this could be an image of the actual Newf who portrayed Carlo.
(The illustrator/engraver is not credited on the title page of this work, and if he/she is credited on the images themselves, which does not appear to be the case, the quality and resolution of the online images is insufficient to allow that to be determined.)
The only online version of this work that I can find (the link is below) is missing one page and one image, though the third and fourth images in the book are present:
No plain etext of this work exists, apparently, but online page images of the entire book (minus that one page and one illustration) may be found here (opens in new tab/window).
