Pekingese

The Pekingese is an ancient toy dog breed, originating in China, where for centuries it was kept exclusively by members of the imperial court. In the novel, Pippa Blackwell demonstrates her encyclopedic knowledge of dog breeds by mentioning the Pekingese as one of the breeds she admires. She describes a "really great Pekingese" she met recently, noting that it was "really really tiny and really intelligent" and that "only royalty could have them in China," calling them "a very ancient breed." This conversation occurs during Theo's first morning back at Hobart and Blackwell after his return from Las Vegas, as Pippa plays with Popchik, the Maltese Theo brought with him. The Pekingese serves as a contrast to the Maltese, another ancient breed, and underscores Pippa's deep, almost scholarly interest in dogs, which she has cultivated since childhood. She mentions having a dog book and having memorized every breed, a hobby that connects her to a world of order and knowledge separate from the trauma of the museum bombing. The breed's association with Chinese imperial history also resonates with the novel's broader themes of rarity, value, and the passage of time, as the Pekingese, like the Fabritius painting, is a precious object from a vanished world. The breed appears again in the novel's final section, when Mrs. Barbour's Yorkshire terriers, Ting-a-Ling and Clementine, are described as tiny dogs, echoing the small, precious, and somewhat neurotic qualities of the toy breeds that populate the story. The Pekingese, though only mentioned briefly, functions as a marker of Pippa's character—her intelligence, her love of animals, and her connection to a world of beauty and history that exists apart from the chaos of Theo's life.