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A review by gremily
Lady into Fox by David Garnett, Paul Collins
4.0
I’m not prone to going and looking up the lives of authors, but something about this brief novella seemed to encourage it. An allegorical fantasy, but of what, exactly? A man whose wife turns into a fox, and who continues to love her as she grows progressively more wild. An early twentieth century man who comes to terms with becoming a housewife of sorts, to a fox. Who is able to look past infidelity and raise another man’s (fox’s) cubs. There had to be a good story here.
Well, for a start, the story itself is good. It is as long as it needs to be, and no longer. It is accompanied by pretty woodcut illustrations by the author’s (non-fox) wife. It is engagingly written. A few years ago I noticed how well all the early twentieth century writers write, and since then I haven’t been able to un-notice it. I imagine it’s because they were writing letters all day long; they were constantly in practice.
So this was an effortless four stars for me anyway. But then there’s the author’s story. A Bloomsbury member and unreformed womanizer, who wonders mildly why his wife seemed unhappy! Upon observing the newborn daughter of his former male lover (illegitimate and unacknowledged, adopted by the woman’s husband) he thinks it might be nice to marry her when she’s old enough. And then he does, despite a 25-year age gap. That woman’s name was Angelica, and one of the fox cubs in this story is also called Angelica (his future wife would have been four when this was published). Hmmm, curiouser and curiouser.
I’m not prepared to do the kind of research to get to the bottom of this allegory, if there is a bottom to be gotten to, but even the hint of the man’s life story added a nice frisson to the experience.
Well, for a start, the story itself is good. It is as long as it needs to be, and no longer. It is accompanied by pretty woodcut illustrations by the author’s (non-fox) wife. It is engagingly written. A few years ago I noticed how well all the early twentieth century writers write, and since then I haven’t been able to un-notice it. I imagine it’s because they were writing letters all day long; they were constantly in practice.
So this was an effortless four stars for me anyway. But then there’s the author’s story. A Bloomsbury member and unreformed womanizer, who wonders mildly why his wife seemed unhappy! Upon observing the newborn daughter of his former male lover (illegitimate and unacknowledged, adopted by the woman’s husband) he thinks it might be nice to marry her when she’s old enough. And then he does, despite a 25-year age gap. That woman’s name was Angelica, and one of the fox cubs in this story is also called Angelica (his future wife would have been four when this was published). Hmmm, curiouser and curiouser.
I’m not prepared to do the kind of research to get to the bottom of this allegory, if there is a bottom to be gotten to, but even the hint of the man’s life story added a nice frisson to the experience.