Flush: A Biography

Flush is placed in a box and taken on a long railway journey. Despite the conditions, he is “not afraid” (72). During one stop, Robert and Elizabeth (now secretly married) baptize him in Petrarch’s fountain. When allowed to run around outside, Flush encounters a very different world. Rather than the crowded streets of London, he is now in the hot streets of Italy. Among the “profound differences” that he notices, he realizes that Italian dogs are different. They are not beholden to the ranks and hierarchies of English dogs. Though he has long considered himself to be an aristocrat among dogs and is something of a snob, he finds that the dogs of Italy think of themselves (and of him) as equals. Flush is changed by his experiences, as is Elizabeth. She seems like “a different person altogether” (75). She is more active, and she seems healthier. In particular, she praises the “freedom and life and the joy” of Italy over England (76). Meanwhile, Wilson has a brief romantic interest in a guardsman named Signor Righi.

The Brownings move to Pisa, and then, in the spring of 1847, they move to Florence. Flush becomes acquainted with this new “canine society” that demands no leashes be placed on dogs.