Customer Reviews

Lady into Fox (Collins Library)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is astonishing, and I do not believe I've ever read anything quite like it.

By some strange accident, Mr. Tebrick's beloved wife is transformed into a fox, yet with her intelligence and personality intact. Garnett depicts the reactions of husband and wife to this event with incredible psychological depth and realism. The husband is beside himself, but is primarily concerned for his wife's safety, shooting his furious dogs and sending away the servants. His wife is heartbroken, and desperately tries to avoid walking on all fours or appearing unclothed, and the couple attempt to live their lives as normally as possible; the husband plays waltzes for his vixen, they take tea together, and even play cards!

As time passes, Mrs. Tebrick becomes more at home in the body and mind of a fox, and her husband's whole concept of the boundaries between man and nature is repeatedly shattered as his beloved wife devours her pet dove, runs and plays like a normal fox, and yearns to kiss him with her muzzle still stained with blood from a "savagely" killed small animal.

Mr. Tebrick is trapped in an excruciating tug of war between the world of men and nature as he confronts his wife's "adultery" and "bestiality" with a dog-fox, yet finds his greatest happiness in playing with his wife's kits, and his wife, who delights in his company and his attention to her offspring, even though she now prefers to chew playing cards rather than use then in human fashion.

Sadly, Mr. Tebrick's unshakable love for his wife and his litter of godchildren causes even greater suffering, since as a human he is hideously aware of the dangers that await his family during the coming hunting season, and how tenuous their short moments of happiness are.

Truly a remarkable study of the close kinship we have with animals, and the ways our abstract intelligence and imagination will always keep us at a distance from their world. It is also an incredibly moving love story.

Lady Into Fox, by David Garnett, harkens back to the early Twentieth Century when book covers (one of the best things about this book) were deliciously simple and the real treat was contained in the pagese between them. Also enchanting are the wood engravings that illustrate the book. Originally published in 1922 and out of print since 1966, McSweeney's brings this classic tale of transformation and unrecognizable self back to the forefront of literature. This opulent tale will surely be talked about and enjoyed for years to come. This is a great gift.

So I just stumbled upon this bizarre and delightful work: Lady into Fox by David Garnett (available for free at Project Guttenburg), written in 1922 and it's exactly what the title would have you believe, a story about a lady who is transformed into a fox. It's a short read and I finished the novel (novella?) in a day. The love that the married couple has for each other despite the difficult situation they find themselves in is something to behold, but I can't help but notice the somewhat antiquated ideals about marriage and gender that are emphasized in a book about a female who is turned into an animal. Especially when there are passages like this peppered throughout the story:

"Now he had many little things which busied him in the house- getting his meals, setting the room straight, making the bed and so forth. When he was doing this housework it was comical to watch his vixen. Often she was as it were beside herself with vexation and distress to see him in his clumsy way doing what she could have done so much better had she been able to. Then, forgetful of the decency and the decorum which she had at first imposed upon herself never to run upon all fours, she followed him everywhere, and if he did one thing wrong she stopped him and showed him the way of it. When he had forgot the hour for his meal she would come and tug his sleeve and tell him as if she spoke: "Husband, are we to have no luncheon to-day?" This womanliness in her never failed to delight him, for it showed she was still his wife, buried as it were in the carcase of a beast but with a woman's soul."

As you can see there are some definite social assumptions about the place of men and women and their role in society. I guess one could argue this about most any novel, but it is interesting to reflect on the social attitudes that were being espoused during the time of this book's release, it's just that much more apparent because of how long ago this book was written.

It's not all gender and sexual commentary though. As I said earlier, there is a bittersweet relationship at the heart of this story, the devotion that a man has for his wife. And the struggle of a woman fighting to retain her humanity in a beast form.

David Garnett (1892-1981) was a British writer and publisher who received literary recognition when his novel Lady into Fox was awarded the 1922 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.

This particular work is as enigmatic as its writer and this particular reviewer failed to understand the work. The plot is simple enough: Sylvia, the 24-year-old wife of Richard Tebrick, suddenly turns into a fox while they are out walking in the woods. The rest of the story is the tale of Richard dealing with the transformation and his struggle to accept his wife's ego as she slowly loses her humanity to the fox form she inhabits.

Is the story a morality play? Fictional essay? Eccentric novella? The last gasp of scandalous English yellow literature? Each reader will have to judge for his or her own.

Originally published in 1922 and out of print for years, *Lady into Fox* by David Garnett has recently been republished by McSweeneys in a beautiful jacket-less hardcover. It is illustrated with wonderful woodcuts by R.A. Garnett. It is a well written novella with a fanciful tone.

This is the story of Mr. Tebrick and his wife who, in the first few pages, turns into a fox. Mr. Tebrick, though taken aback by his wife's new condition, still loves his wife even through her adulterous affair with another fox and her [...] kits from this affair. Even more complicating the story is that they live an area of England where fox hunting is a daily pastime - one that Mr. Tebrick has enjoyed on many an occasion in the past.

So, why, you ask, did I only give this book 3 stars? Unfortunately, I knew exactly where the book was going and exactly how it was going to end within a few pages of Mrs. Tebrick's transformation into a fox; and, the story played out as I expected leaving me no joy in the discovery, no surprises, no pleasure in the reading.

This doesn't mean that others won't enjoy *Lady into Fox*, only that I didn't even though this a nicely packaged and well written book.

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A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.

2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.

3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.

4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.

5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.