History Literature / TheHundredAndOneDalmatians

* AdultFear: Cruella ''purchased'' the majority of her puppies from legitimate breeders who probably assumed she was just a rich, eccentric woman who loved dogs. The idea of unwittingly handing over a puppy to a person who might abuse it -- much less to a person who intends to ''skin it for its pelt'' -- is the ultimate nightmare scenario for many animal lovers.

* LockedIntoStrangeness: Cruella's hair is half black and half white. By the end of the book, the black half has turned white, and the white half turns an unattractive shade of ''green'', apparently from stress.

* MulticoloredHair: Cruella's hair is half black and half white. By the end of the book, the black half has turned white, and the white half turns an unattractive shade of ''green'', apparently from stress.

** The Badduns are both [[ThoseTwoBadGuys bad 'uns]].

* TheMaidenNameDebate: Cruella is the last de Vil and she brings it up as the reason she didn't take up her husband's surname.

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* LikeBrotherAndSister: At one point, Pongo reflects that he does think of Perdita as a second mother to his and Missis' puppies, but loves her like a younger sister rather than a second wife.

-->'''The Staffordshire Terrier''': "Blimey. Who's chasin' you lot, Old Nick?"
--> '''Pongo''': "A close relative of his, I think!"

** "Perdita" means "lost." Mr. Dearly names her after the character in ''Theatre/TheWintersTale''.

* NoNameGiven: The adult couple are simply "Mr. Dearly" and "Mrs. Dearly."
** Several of the dog characters are never named, referred to only as their breed, such as the Collie and the Staffordshire Terrier; though the latter gets many affectionate nicknames from his owners, we never learn his real name and the narrative always refers to him as "the Staffordshire."

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: In-universe example with Lieutenant Willow, who is known only by her nickname, "Tib," which most of her friends think ''is'' her real name. She does, however, introduce herself to Pongo and Missis by her real name and is generally called "Lieutenant Willow" by the narrative. (She also condescends to accept "Puss" in playful moments).

-->'''Cruella''': I don't like her much. I'd drown her if she wasn't so expensive.

* RealityEnsues:
** Perdita joins the family unit to help care for Pongo and Missis' fifteen pups, but they still need supplemental feeding even with her help. Missis is also very weak after giving birth to such a large litter, and the smallest puppy is fragile and needs extra care.
** The dogs try to take every precaution when evacuating Hell Hall, and a lot of time is spent planning and training. Moving a hundred dogs from Suffolk to London is difficult, especially when the majority are puppies.
** When the Splendid Veterinary Surgeon is called out to examine the puppies upon their return, his first reaction is... surliness. The famous dalmatians are back? Great and all, ''but it's four o'clock on Christmas morning!''
** Towards the end, Mr. Dearly tries to find the owners of the other stolen puppies... only to find out that his puppies were the only ones that were actually stolen. The rest were either unwanted or legitimately purchased, and no owners are forthcoming, leaving him with a hundred dogs to care for.

* AscendedExtra: Cruella's white cat and the Staffordshire Terrier are minor (if important) characters in the original novel, but are major characters in the sequel, and quite a bit of the novel is dedicated to the OddFriendship that springs up between them when they realize they are NotSoDifferent.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Missis is a sweet and rather soft-headed dog. But when she hears about Cruella's plans, she says "I will go back! I will go back, and tear Cruella de Ville to pieces!" (Pongo has to talk her into putting that on hold, and later they find a more practical kind of revenge.)

* PimpedOutDress: Cruella always appears wearing [[EverythingsSparklyWithJewelry loads of jewellery]] and "an absolutely simple white mink cloak."

The book was adapted several times by Creator/{{Disney}} into ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians''. Smith also penned a lesser known sequel, ''The Starlight Barking'' (1967).

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Perdita recalls a time, not long after she grew up, when she "felt a great desire to marry". She then met a male dalmatian and they fell in LoveAtFirstSight and began to arrange their marriage, but his people put a stop to it. A few weeks later, she had puppies.
** Cruella, in keeping with her "devil" theme, has an [[PyroManiac above-average]] fascination for heat and fire. At one point in the novel she temporarily drops the chase of the dalmatians and ''stands on the roof of her car'' to watch a bakery burn. Though nothing is ever stated, older readers might note that her glee takes on a tint of sexual excitement and ecstasy.
** This last one was in fact so obvious that at least one audio drama adaptation changed the scene into more of an example of EvilIsPetty. The ecstasy angle with its sexual hints is completely dropped; instead Cruella stops to watch the bakery burn because it's so ''hilarious'' to see the panicked people running back and forth and trying to put it out.

* BeyondRedemption: Missus claims that a dog biting a human is this. She is perfectly willing to bite Cruella or the Badduns, but she justifies that on the grounds that they aren't really human (and in Cruella's case, at least, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane she may be right]]).

* GoldDigger: Cruella married a furrier for his money and, of course, all the furs he could give her. She even insists he keep his stock at the house so she can wear anything she likes. [[spoiler:This comes back to bite her on the arse, hard, when Pongo and Missis break into her house and rip the whole lot to shreds.]]

* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: Cruella's husband. The dalmatians initially pity him, but the cat tells them that he's just as evil as his wife, but he's weak and bad, whereas she is strong and bad.

* MulticoloredHair: Cruella. Even more spectacularly by the end of the book; the black half turns white, and the white half turns an unattractive shade of ''green'', apparently from stress.

* OldDarkHouse: Hell Hall is this in its phases between being a BigFancyHouse. Some of this seems to be thanks to Cruella not living in it and the Badduns barely keeping it maintained while hoarding the puppies. Missis has a scared reaction upon first setting eyes on the property at night time.

* PrematurelyGreyHaired: Cruella's hair is half white and has been since girlhood. At the end of the book, the shock of financial ruin turns the other half of her hair white -- and the white half ''green''.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: At the end of the novel, when trying to find the owners of the other 82 puppies, the Dearlys are surprised to find that no one is looking for them...because they're not stolen. Cruella simply purchased them legally. It's even mentioned that Cruella paid more to hire professionals to steal the Dearly's puppies than she paid for any litter she outright purchased[[note]]Unlike the Disney adaptation, her bungling minions had no involvement and only showed up much later[[/note]], meaning [[ForTheEvulz the theft was motivated by pure spite]].

* TorchesAndPitchforks: The Colonel tells Pongo and Missus about a time people surrounded Hell Hall with pitchforks but a thunderstorm put the torches out. The de Vil who lived there back then left on his own accord and Hell Hall stayed empty for the next 30 years.

* {{Xenofiction}}: Although for the most part a fantasy story, there are shades of this, as it's made clear that dogs think ''very'' differently from humans. Missus may not know right from left, but the fact that Pongo ''does'' know right from left is treated as rather remarkable and proof of his advanced intelligence.

* AuthorTract: ''101 Dalmatians'' is not Dodie Smith's only work with a strong pro-animal, anti-fur message, only the one that features both subjects as major themes. Most of her other works usually manage a sly jab about the author's opinion on furs, but tend to handle the anti-fur message more subtly, usually by pointing out how ridiculous people look in fur (famously in ''Literature/ICaptureTheCastle'', Rose--who acquires her coat by pure happenstance and who doesn't even ''like'' furs--ends up in a humiliating predicament after being mistaken for a live bear) or by making the antagonist a fur-wearer. Many of her other works also feature at least one notable canine companion.

* BeyondRedemption: Missus claims that a dog biting a human is this. She is perfectly willing to bite Cruella or the Badduns, but she justifies that on the grounds that they aren't really human (and in Cruella's case, at least, she may be right, as the book and a deleted song take the liberty to imply [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane that her last name might just be meant literally....]])

** Hell Hall, the country manor belonging to Cruella's family where the puppies are kept.

* BizarreTasteInFood: Cruella eats food in bizarre colors, all of which taste of pepper -- even the ice cream, which was ''black'') could very well be that. She got expelled from school for drinking ink. And during the Dearlys' dinner party, she grinds huge amounts of pepper over everything before eating it, including the fruit salad.

* BrainlessBeauty: Missis is described as very pretty and brave but also somewhat silly, vain, selfish, and baffled by abstract concepts such as "left". Then again, many dogs are -- and Pongo is very aware that while Missis may not be as clever as he is, she has better instincts. [[CharacterDevelopment She's a lot hardier and more down-to-earth by the end of the book.]]

* DisneyDeath: Cadpig, who was born nearly dead and was revived by Mr Dearly.
* TheDogBitesBack: The Cat in this case; Cruella's white Persian reveals that Cruella keeps her husband's stock of fur in the house, and she lets the Dalmatians in so they can destroy it.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Perdita recalls a time, not long after she grew up, when she "felt a great desire to marry". She then met a male dalmatian and they fell in LoveAtFirstSight, and began to arrange their marriage, but his people put a stop to it. A few weeks later, she had a litter...
** Cruella, in keeping with her "devil" theme, has an [[PyroManiac above-average]] fascination for fire. At one point in the novel she stops her car and temporarily drops the chase of the dalmatians in order to watch a bakery burn. Though nothing is ever stated, older readers might note that her glee at seeing the fire burning takes on a tint of sexual excitement and ecstasy.

* HalfHumanHybrid: Discussed. Lucky suspects the Badduns are this because they never change or wash their clothes. Seeing the Badduns does make Pongo believe half-humans exist even if he has no clue to what their non-human half could be.

* NoNameGiven: The adult couple are simply "Mr Dearly" and "Mrs Dearly."

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: In-universe example with Lieutenant Willow, who is known only by her nickname, "Tib," which most of her friends think ''is'' her real name. She does, however, introduce herself to Pongo and Missis by her real name and is generally called "Lieutenant Willow" by the narrative.

* AdultFear: Remember, Cruella didn't ''steal'' the majority of those puppies; she purchased them from legitimate breeders who probably assumed she was just a rich, eccentric woman who loved dogs. The idea of unwittingly handing over a puppy to a person who might abuse it--much less to a person who intends to ''kill it and skin it''--is the ultimate nightmare scenario for many animal lovers.

* ACatInAGangOfDogs: Lt. Tib and to a lesser degree Cruella's cat are the only felines that help the puppies.
* CatsAreMean: Zigzagged and averted for the most part. They are only mean to those who deserve it. The cats are friendly to the dogs, but Cruella's cat commits a vicious act that is directly responsible for her downfall (she lets the dalmatians into the house to destroy the De Vil stock of furs in retaliation for all the kittens Cruella drowned). She later confides that she could foresee Cruella heading for a bad end and wanted to be there to witness it.

** The book's Perdita is a stray; Mr. Dearly names her Perdita after the character in ''Theatre/TheWintersTale'' who was also lost (and the name itself means "lost").

** Perdita joins the family unit to help care for Pongo and Missis' fifteen pups. It turns out that even story dogs can't produce enough milk for fifteen puppies. Missis is also very weak after giving birth, as fifteen puppies is a ''gargantuan'' litter.
*** In related events, Mr. Dearly spends a lot of time hand-feeding the puppies before Perdita is found.

** When the Splendid Veterinary Surgeon is called out to examine the puppies upon their return, his first reaction is... surliness. Dogs back? Great and all, ''but it's four o'clock in the morning!''

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: After rescuing the puppies, the dalmatians break into Cruella's house and destroy every fur that she owns. This wasn't just about revenge, though: Pongo was trying to put the de Vils out of business so that they couldn't try again with another group of dalmatian puppies. (Missis, understandably, was happy to do it for any reason).

* SpellMyNameWithAThe: Cadpig is almost always called "the Cadpig" as a nod to her name (a cadpig is the smallest of the litter).

* VillainBall: There was no reason at all for Cruella to kidnap the Dearly puppies. She already owned 82 dalmatian puppies, which should have been plenty to start her fur farm. The only thing that taking the Dearly puppies accomplished was 1) wasting money (she paid more to the dog thieves than she had for any litter), 2) bringing unwanted police attention (nothing she'd done before was illegal), 3) causing her husband's business to be destroyed by 99 extremely irate Dalmatians. All because she couldn't take "no" for an answer.

* AscendedExtra: Cruella's white cat and the Staffordshire Terrier are minor (if important) characters in the original novel, but are major characters in the sequel, and quite a bit of the novel is dedicated to the OddFriendship that springs up between them when they realise they are NotSoDifferent.

** The book's Perdita is a stray; Mr. Dearly names her Perdita after the character in ''Theatre/TheWintersTale'' who was also lost.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: At the end of the novel, when trying to find the owners of the other 82 puppies, the Dearlys are surprised to find that no one is looking for them...because they're not stolen. Cruella simply purchased them legally. This was apparently a lot less expensive than hiring a couple of heavies to steal the last fifteen of them[[note]]Unlike the Disney adaptation, her bungling minions had no involvement only showed up much later[[/note]], meaning [[ForTheEvulz the theft was motivated by pure spite]].

The book was adapted several times by Creator/{{Disney}} into ''Disney/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians''. Smith also penned a lesser known sequel, ''The Starlight Barking'' (1967).

* TheMusical: Surprisingly followed the ''book'', rather than [[Disney/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians the Disney versions]].

* TookALevelInDumbass: The Colonel in the sequel. In the original book, Pongo mistakes him for a bumbler at first but he soon reveals himself as a very smart and competent dog. In the sequel, he's become a genuine bumbler and far less smart than he himself thinks, needing Captain (formerly Lieutenant) Willow to explain things when he misunderstands them -- a very clear ShoutOut to their characterisations in the [[Disney/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians Disney movie]].