Pretzel (short story)

Pretzel

Author	Margret Rey
Illustrator	H.A. Rey
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Children's story
Publisher	Harper & Brothers
Publication date	1944
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
ISBN	978-0-395-83737-5
OCLC	438436384
Dewey Decimal	[E] 20
LC Class	PZ7.R3302 Pr 1997

Pretzel is a children's short story written in 1944 by Margret Rey, illustrated by H.A. Rey and first published by Harper & Brothers.

Synopsis

The story begins with the line, "One morning in May, five little dachshunds were born." ^[1] Among the five puppies was a male dachshund dubbed Pretzel. Though unremarkable at first and virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the litter, Pretzel soon to be extraordinarily long, much longer than his brothers and sisters. He grew to be the longest dachshund in the world, earning a blue ribbon at a dog show. Pretzel was so long that he could in fact twist his body into the shape of his namesake.^[2]

His length and physical prowess drew attention and praise from humans and dogs alike, save for one female dachshund named Greta. Pretzel was smitten by Greta who lived just across the street and who was unimpressed by Pretzel's length; she claimed that she "didn't like long dogs." ^[3] Despite Pretzel's efforts to woo her with gifts, she continued to snub his affections.

While watching Greta from afar, Pretzel witnessed Greta's accidental fall into a dry water well. The well was too deep for Greta to escape on her own, but not so deep to keep Pretzel from digging into the rim of the well with his hindquarters, lowering his body into the well and extracting her with his teeth via the scruff of her neck. It is after her rescue that Greta returns Pretzel's affections, agrees to marry him despite his length and the story ends with the same line and much the same illustration which opened the story, except the "five little dachshunds" in this case belonged to Pretzel and Greta.

The story was republished in 1997 by Houghton Mifflin.^[4]

References