Snoopy Around the World

``Bon vivant, philosopher, and idealist, Snoopy brings good cheer and glad tidings to all his fans the world over.'' Amazingly, these studied shots of Schulz's Peanuts comic strip character Snoopy (here a stuffed animal model) and his sister Belle got up in designer garb and photographed against the world capitals, is not all waggish fluff. As dressed by Fendi in brown-and-black-striped beach togs, for instance, Snoopy and Belle are redoubtably, somberly elegant. So are they when Alicia Herrera zaps them with black polka dots on a red shirt and skirt, cheerfully playing off their classic black (ears, noses) markings. Purists will observe that the dogs' pudgy paws and blunt snouts work against the illusion of beauty; Belle, for example, looks frumpy in Carolina Herrera's otherwise gorgeous wedding gown. But clotheshorses will enjoy this rare spectacle of canine couture, as often eye-catching as it is ticklishly absurd. The book coincides with the 40th anniversary of Peanuts and a traveling exhibit of the dogs and their costumes; Rizzo is a New York-based photographer. (Sept.)