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Greyfriars Bobby — cover
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Aeneas Press edition 20th Century

Greyfriars Bobby

by Eleanor Atkinson 1863–1942

The book, and the century it came out of.

Edinburgh, 1858: a shepherd’s dog follows his master’s coffin to Greyfriars kirkyard and refuses to leave the grave — for fourteen years, through the dog-licence laws, the Lord Provost, and the whole of the Old Town. Atkinson was an Indiana teacher and journalist who wrote for the Chicago Tribune under a pen name; she came to Edinburgh, and made the tenements and the kirkyard as much the subject as the terrier. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Jones, Sammons and Ince among them.

When the time-gun boomed from Edinburgh Castle, Bobby gave a startled yelp.
The first sentence of Greyfriars Bobby
A note on this edition

Greyfriars Bobby, by Eleanor Atkinson, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 192 pages
Reading time
about 4 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785486713934
The plates

60 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

The Market Place, St Albans, George Jones
The Market Place, St Albans George Jones 1847
Das Ulmer Munster, Max Emanuel Ainmiller
Das Ulmer Munster Max Emanuel Ainmiller 1859
Inside of a Berlin cuisine, Franziska Kobes
Inside of a Berlin cuisine Franziska Kobes 1850
Les Forgerons, Théodore Chassériau
Les Forgerons Théodore Chassériau 1846
A Bay Charger in his Stable, James Loder
A Bay Charger in his Stable James Loder 1846
The inauguration of Robert Burns as Poet Laureate of the Lodge, William Stewart Watson
The inauguration of Robert Burns as Poet Laureate of the Lodge William Stewart Watson 1846
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of Greyfriars Bobby as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of Greyfriars Bobby as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

Greyfriars Bobby, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Literary Classics shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486713934, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of Greyfriars Bobby?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Eleanor Atkinson's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 192 pages, which is roughly about 4 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
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Greyfriars Bobby
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