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Lady into Fox
When Sylvia Tebrick, the 24-year-old wife of Richard Tebrick, suddenly turns into a fox while they are out walking in the woods, Mr. Tebrick sends away all the servants in an attempt to keep Sylvia's new nature a secret. Both then struggle to come to terms with the problems the change brings about.
(Summary by Annise )
(Summary by Annise )
78 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1922
About the author
David Garnett
89 books38 followersDavid Garnett, known as "Bunny", was an English writer and publisher. A prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group, Garnett received literary recognition when his novel Lady into Fox, an allegorical fantasy, was awarded the 1922 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. He ran a bookshop near the British Museum with Francis Birrell during the 1920s. He also founded (with Francis Meynell) the Nonesuch Press. He wrote the novel Aspects of Love (1955), on which the later Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical was based.
He was the son of Richard Garnett. His first wife was the illustrator and author Ray Garnett (née Marshall) with whom he had two sons including Richard Garnett. His second wife was Angelica Bell. His mother was the translator Constance Garnett.
He was the son of Richard Garnett. His first wife was the illustrator and author Ray Garnett (née Marshall) with whom he had two sons including Richard Garnett. His second wife was Angelica Bell. His mother was the translator Constance Garnett.
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June 18, 2020
However you may be changed, my love is not.
When witnessing the expression of traditional wedding vows - the promise to have and to hold, from that day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish till death do us part – one can wonder how many couples will be able to truly live up to this, regardless of the circumstances, and at the same time keep the love alive. Aren’t those vows rather absurd, taking into account the current average life expectancy and hence potential length of a long-term relationship, in which the likelihood of a radical personality change cannot be excluded and we might over time hardly recognise the person we initially loved - and change ourselves as well? Such vows might be lightly taken, but it is largely when affliction enters that we might come to realise what these promises really signify and what almost impossible trial they can imply. And for Richard Tebrick and his wife Sylvia Fox – nomen est omen – this day of ordeal happens to arrive very early in their marriage.
During a walk, Silvia suddenly turns into a fox – yes, that bright, fluffy, reddish creature, which some of the English love to hunt. What should Richard do with this wild beast, in which he – at least at the beginning - still recognises his sophisticated, well-mannered, beloved wife? He sees no other possibility than to smuggle her into his manor house. But how can he hide her metamorphosis from the outside world? There are the servants who might find out and gossip. The furious barking of his dogs does not bode well either. He makes every effort to continue conjugal life with his vixen as if nothing has happened. He feeds his vixen tasty snacks, washes and brushes her, plays card games and drinks tea with her, plays the pianoforte for her – Händel, Mendelssohn. But his wife grows foxier and foxier and less ladylike with the day, ripping her clothes to shreds, wildly chasing ducks, eating up every scrap of a cute little rabbit, so dispiriting her husband who has great trouble to adapt to her new condition:
"Oh Silvia, Silvia, would you had never done this! Would I had never tempted you in a fatal hour! Does not this butchery and eating of raw meat and rabbit's fur disgust you? Are you a monster in your soul as well as in your body? Have you forgotten what it is to be a woman?"
Mr. Tebrick sinks into despair when his vixen undertakes desperate attempts to escape from him, grieving for her change without loving her less for it, fighting his disgust for her feral behaviour and at the same time worried to death about her safety, and overprotecting her. Gradually he realizes that despite all the dangers that threaten her and his sincere wish to stay together, he must let her go and give her the freedom to live along her vixen nature. When he has nearly gone mad from sorrow, she will return to him to proudly show him her cubs…
Wondering why this tale affected me so– save from some soppy fondness of foxes since the moment I attended The cunning little vixen, the opera of Leoš Janáček (and which Janáček started to write in the same year as Garnett published his foxy story, 1922), it might be Mr. Tebrick’s lasting commitment and passionate devotion to his lady, even when her most distinctive features as the woman he loved have disappeared, and his ultimate act of self-sacrifice to set her free and putting her happiness above his, that pulled at my heartstrings.
The afterword suggests that Garnett’s fairy-tale can be read in many ways and basically as a metaphor, be it one which is open to multiple interpretations (indomitable female sexuality , the wildness of das ewig weibliche, marital fidelity ad absurdum, the blindness of love, the longing for freedom which true love doesn’t curb but encourages…). As it is left a mystery why Silvia changes into a fox, one could come up with several explanations (one I read suggesting Silvia has alienated her husband so fundamentally by adultery, she no longer belongs to the same species in his eyes). So it will depend on the reader’s affinities what he or she will find in it. I am inclined to see it as an allegorical ode to unconditional love – however painful and mad such love might be and certainly might appear to outsiders. As Erich Fromm wrote in his The Art of Loving, on unconditional love, There is no misdeed, no crime which could deprive you of my love, of my wish for your life and happiness.
Garnett’s story inspired quite a few others, like a parody by Christopher Ward (Gentleman into Goose), Sylva by Vercors, and recently a short story by Sarah Hall, Mrs Fox. It can be read here, in a version including more of the reproductions of the original woodcuts from Ray (Rachel Alice Marshall), David Garnett’s first wife.
When my thirteen year old daughter had to choose a novel to read for class, I recommended this one. However she is not that fond of animal stories or fables, she read it in one sitting. Although I warned her this was no simple feel good story, she wasn’t up to the (unsurprisingly sad) ending and as one of the school assignments with regard to the reading was to rewrite a scene from the book, she wrote an alternative, happy ending. By doing so she reminded me of what a book lover sometimes like to forget for a moment: admitting there is a difference between real life and books, as it might be slightly more difficult to rewrite your life.
David Garnett’s foxy story, tragic and profoundly sad it might be, to me captures and contains some of the finest delights of love: subtle humour, playfulness, comradeship, tenderness, solidarity and consideration, a need to suspend disbelief and to keep faith, an excellent sense of the absurd. It was a pleasure to revisit this novel to celebrate Valentine’s day, and once residing in the realm of imagination, picturing a day-dream of curling up close and reading this aloud to one’s beloved. This novel might offer you food for thought and something to talk about late at night (at least if you can cope with the truth that all good things can come to an end). Let love rule.
When witnessing the expression of traditional wedding vows - the promise to have and to hold, from that day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish till death do us part – one can wonder how many couples will be able to truly live up to this, regardless of the circumstances, and at the same time keep the love alive. Aren’t those vows rather absurd, taking into account the current average life expectancy and hence potential length of a long-term relationship, in which the likelihood of a radical personality change cannot be excluded and we might over time hardly recognise the person we initially loved - and change ourselves as well? Such vows might be lightly taken, but it is largely when affliction enters that we might come to realise what these promises really signify and what almost impossible trial they can imply. And for Richard Tebrick and his wife Sylvia Fox – nomen est omen – this day of ordeal happens to arrive very early in their marriage.
During a walk, Silvia suddenly turns into a fox – yes, that bright, fluffy, reddish creature, which some of the English love to hunt. What should Richard do with this wild beast, in which he – at least at the beginning - still recognises his sophisticated, well-mannered, beloved wife? He sees no other possibility than to smuggle her into his manor house. But how can he hide her metamorphosis from the outside world? There are the servants who might find out and gossip. The furious barking of his dogs does not bode well either. He makes every effort to continue conjugal life with his vixen as if nothing has happened. He feeds his vixen tasty snacks, washes and brushes her, plays card games and drinks tea with her, plays the pianoforte for her – Händel, Mendelssohn. But his wife grows foxier and foxier and less ladylike with the day, ripping her clothes to shreds, wildly chasing ducks, eating up every scrap of a cute little rabbit, so dispiriting her husband who has great trouble to adapt to her new condition:
"Oh Silvia, Silvia, would you had never done this! Would I had never tempted you in a fatal hour! Does not this butchery and eating of raw meat and rabbit's fur disgust you? Are you a monster in your soul as well as in your body? Have you forgotten what it is to be a woman?"
Mr. Tebrick sinks into despair when his vixen undertakes desperate attempts to escape from him, grieving for her change without loving her less for it, fighting his disgust for her feral behaviour and at the same time worried to death about her safety, and overprotecting her. Gradually he realizes that despite all the dangers that threaten her and his sincere wish to stay together, he must let her go and give her the freedom to live along her vixen nature. When he has nearly gone mad from sorrow, she will return to him to proudly show him her cubs…
Wondering why this tale affected me so– save from some soppy fondness of foxes since the moment I attended The cunning little vixen, the opera of Leoš Janáček (and which Janáček started to write in the same year as Garnett published his foxy story, 1922), it might be Mr. Tebrick’s lasting commitment and passionate devotion to his lady, even when her most distinctive features as the woman he loved have disappeared, and his ultimate act of self-sacrifice to set her free and putting her happiness above his, that pulled at my heartstrings.
The afterword suggests that Garnett’s fairy-tale can be read in many ways and basically as a metaphor, be it one which is open to multiple interpretations (indomitable female sexuality , the wildness of das ewig weibliche, marital fidelity ad absurdum, the blindness of love, the longing for freedom which true love doesn’t curb but encourages…). As it is left a mystery why Silvia changes into a fox, one could come up with several explanations (one I read suggesting Silvia has alienated her husband so fundamentally by adultery, she no longer belongs to the same species in his eyes). So it will depend on the reader’s affinities what he or she will find in it. I am inclined to see it as an allegorical ode to unconditional love – however painful and mad such love might be and certainly might appear to outsiders. As Erich Fromm wrote in his The Art of Loving, on unconditional love, There is no misdeed, no crime which could deprive you of my love, of my wish for your life and happiness.
Garnett’s story inspired quite a few others, like a parody by Christopher Ward (Gentleman into Goose), Sylva by Vercors, and recently a short story by Sarah Hall, Mrs Fox. It can be read here, in a version including more of the reproductions of the original woodcuts from Ray (Rachel Alice Marshall), David Garnett’s first wife.
When my thirteen year old daughter had to choose a novel to read for class, I recommended this one. However she is not that fond of animal stories or fables, she read it in one sitting. Although I warned her this was no simple feel good story, she wasn’t up to the (unsurprisingly sad) ending and as one of the school assignments with regard to the reading was to rewrite a scene from the book, she wrote an alternative, happy ending. By doing so she reminded me of what a book lover sometimes like to forget for a moment: admitting there is a difference between real life and books, as it might be slightly more difficult to rewrite your life.
David Garnett’s foxy story, tragic and profoundly sad it might be, to me captures and contains some of the finest delights of love: subtle humour, playfulness, comradeship, tenderness, solidarity and consideration, a need to suspend disbelief and to keep faith, an excellent sense of the absurd. It was a pleasure to revisit this novel to celebrate Valentine’s day, and once residing in the realm of imagination, picturing a day-dream of curling up close and reading this aloud to one’s beloved. This novel might offer you food for thought and something to talk about late at night (at least if you can cope with the truth that all good things can come to an end). Let love rule.
October 4, 2022
Supernatural phenomena never failed to mesmerize humans…
In the ancient times, one thing changing into another – if one is to believe Ovid – was quite common… Anything could easily turn into something else… In the modern times such transformations are very rare but they still happen…
Lady into Fox is a tale about consequences of this miraculous metamorphosis… Actually it is a fine and subtle parable of married life and power of love… With every new day the nature of vixen was taking over her more and more…
There are plenty of foxy ladies in the world.
Wonderful or supernatural events are not so uncommon, rather they are irregular in their incidence. Thus there may be not one marvel to speak of in a century, and then often enough comes a plentiful crop of them; monsters of all sorts swarm suddenly upon the earth, comets blaze in the sky, eclipses frighten nature, meteors fall in rain, while mermaids and sirens beguile, and sea-serpents engulf every passing ship, and terrible cataclysms beset humanity.
In the ancient times, one thing changing into another – if one is to believe Ovid – was quite common… Anything could easily turn into something else… In the modern times such transformations are very rare but they still happen…
Before they gained the edge of the copse she suddenly snatched her hand away from his very violently and cried out, so that he instantly turned his head.
Where his wife had been the moment before was a small fox, of a very bright red. It looked at him very beseechingly, advanced towards him a pace or two, and he saw at once that his wife was looking at him from the animal’s eyes.
Lady into Fox is a tale about consequences of this miraculous metamorphosis… Actually it is a fine and subtle parable of married life and power of love… With every new day the nature of vixen was taking over her more and more…
She made no pretence now of enjoying the first snowdrops or the view from the terrace. No – there was only one thing for her now – the ducks, and she was off to them before he could stop her.
There are plenty of foxy ladies in the world.
February 15, 2019
A very odd little novella. It was written by David Garnett, part of the Bloomsbury scene as a result of his affair with Duncan Grant. It was written in 1922 after they had broken up and was dedicated to Grant. It won the James Tait Black prize and the Hawthornden prize. The woodcuts in the original were by Garnett’s then wife Rachel. Later in life Garnett married Angelica Bell, daughter of Vanessa Bell.
The story is a simple one; a fable or fairy tale. Richard Tebricks marries Silvia Fox and they are happy. One day whilst walking in the woods Mrs Tebricks turns into a fox. After the initial shock (on both sides!) Mr Tebricks continues to look after and care for his wife. He dismisses the servants and shoots the dogs and devotes his time to his wife. Initially little changes, his wife eats the same things, plays cards; he dresses her in altered clothes and it’s all very odd.
Imperceptibly things begin to change. Mrs Tebricks becomes less comfortable with clothing, chases the ducks near the pond, her eating habits begin to change and she begins to look at their pet dove in a hungry way. All of these changes grieve Mr Tebricks who does not comprehend the growing desire to be wild, but he adapts.
As time goes on, nature takes its course and the fox becomes feral and leaves the home. Mr Tebricks descends into depression, curses God and his fate and searches the countryside for his wife. His wife turns up at the door one day and leads him to an earth where she has cubs. He finds a new lease of life playing with the cubs for some months; despite inevitable jealousy about his wife having found a dog fox. Some time is also spent avoiding the local hunts and the ending is inevitable and tragic.
The novella was written only seven years after Kafka’s Metamorphosis. It lends itself to many interpretations. It could be a paean to the enduring power of love; a fable with the moral being that if you love someone you must set them free; a controlled and rather straightjacketed masculinity trying to cope with a wilder untamed femininity; a tale about how convention can restrict and constrain; a warning about how relationships are never static and subject to change in one of the parties that might mean their destruction; don’t hold onto something when you know it is over. And so on. It may, of course, also be reflection on Garnett’s relationship with Duncan Grant.
The story is a simple one; a fable or fairy tale. Richard Tebricks marries Silvia Fox and they are happy. One day whilst walking in the woods Mrs Tebricks turns into a fox. After the initial shock (on both sides!) Mr Tebricks continues to look after and care for his wife. He dismisses the servants and shoots the dogs and devotes his time to his wife. Initially little changes, his wife eats the same things, plays cards; he dresses her in altered clothes and it’s all very odd.
Imperceptibly things begin to change. Mrs Tebricks becomes less comfortable with clothing, chases the ducks near the pond, her eating habits begin to change and she begins to look at their pet dove in a hungry way. All of these changes grieve Mr Tebricks who does not comprehend the growing desire to be wild, but he adapts.
As time goes on, nature takes its course and the fox becomes feral and leaves the home. Mr Tebricks descends into depression, curses God and his fate and searches the countryside for his wife. His wife turns up at the door one day and leads him to an earth where she has cubs. He finds a new lease of life playing with the cubs for some months; despite inevitable jealousy about his wife having found a dog fox. Some time is also spent avoiding the local hunts and the ending is inevitable and tragic.
The novella was written only seven years after Kafka’s Metamorphosis. It lends itself to many interpretations. It could be a paean to the enduring power of love; a fable with the moral being that if you love someone you must set them free; a controlled and rather straightjacketed masculinity trying to cope with a wilder untamed femininity; a tale about how convention can restrict and constrain; a warning about how relationships are never static and subject to change in one of the parties that might mean their destruction; don’t hold onto something when you know it is over. And so on. It may, of course, also be reflection on Garnett’s relationship with Duncan Grant.
April 11, 2024
The title and first couple of pages state the premise: a tragi-comic magical-realist fable about the consequences of the sudden and unexplained transformation of newlywed Silvia Tebrick (neé Fox), both for her, and her devoted and religiously devout husband, Richard.
“Wonderful or supernatural events are not so uncommon, rather they are irregular in their incidence. Thus there may be not one marvel to speak of in a century, and then often enough comes a plentiful crop of them; monsters of all sorts swarm suddenly upon the earth, comets blaze in the sky, eclipses frighten nature, meteors fall in rain, while mermaids and sirens beguile, and sea-serpents engulf every passing ship, and terrible cataclysms beset humanity.”
Garnett tells his tale almost prosaically and assures readers that it’s a true story, “fully proved”, which leaves sceptical readers with lots of interpretations. The most obvious parallels are caring for a loved-one who has a catastrophic injury of some kind, or a more gradual decline, like Alzheimer’s: how unconditional can love be? Richard tells himself, “memories will not help me here”, but then tells Silvia the opposite, “Try and remember the past, my darling”, as her vulpine nature comes to the fore and he wrestles with the idea of letting go of who he most loves.
Image: “Realising that the silly ducks thought his wife a fox indeed and were alarmed on that account he found painful that spectacle which to others might have been amusing.” Woodcut by Ray Garnett
Lots to ponder
“For when we are overcome with the greatest sorrow we act not like men or women but like children whose comfort in all their troubles is to press themselves against their mother's breast, or if she be not there to hold each other tight in one another's arms.”
Given the Bloomsbury connection (see below), there are animalistic, earthy, and sexual analogies as well as questions about the nature of womanhood:
“‘Are you a monster in your soul as well as in your body? Have you forgotten what it is to be a woman?’...
He could not bear to witness her pain and yet must take pleasure in it as it fed his hopes of her one day returning to be a woman.”
Or it could all be a delusion, born of shock and grief at his wife running off with someone else, as local gossip assumes.
I couldn't quite decide (invariably a good thing, imo) whether Richard's love was extraordinarily noble and unselfish, or a bit kinky - though what consenting adults do in private is a matter only for them.
And of course, it makes a case against fox-hunting (not that I needed persuading).
“‘True happiness,’ he said to himself, ‘is to be found in bestowing love.’”
Bloomsbury Group
Garnett was one of the Bloomsbury Group, who infamously “lived in squares, painted in circles, and loved in triangles”, as well as living at Charleston, Sussex. This novella was illustrated with woodcuts by his wife, Ray (Rachel) and dedicated to his former lover, Duncan Grant. When Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell’s daughter, Angelica, was born, Garnett, then 26, joked about marrying her one day - and he did! When she was around four, he wrote this story, including:
“His favourite was Angelica (who reminded him so much of her mother in her pretty ways). ”
This was published in 1922, but set 1879-1880.
Image: Woodcut of fox and cubs by Ray Garnett
See also
Humans transforming to other creatures, and creatures who seem to have human understanding, feature in folklore, fairytales, through to contemporary fiction. A few examples that I’ve reviewed:
• DH Lawrence was well-known to the Bloomsbury Group, and critical of them. See his story, The Fox, which I reviewed HERE which, like this, uses eyes to tell much of the story.
• Inevitably, one thinks of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, which I reviewed HERE: a similar starting point, but with very different results.
• Ian McEwan’s Brexit-themed inversion of Kafka, The Cockroach, which I reviewed HERE.
• Saki often features magical-realist animals. For example, in Laura, which I reviewed HERE. I’ve reviewed Saki more generally, with links to individual stories, HERE.
• Daisy Johnson's Fen is a collection of mythic, mystical short stories, focused on young women, and set in the Fens of contemporary England. One of the stories there has echoes of this. See my review HERE.
• The fact I read of eclipses in the opening paragraph, the day before a major one in north America, when I’m fondly remembering travelling to Oregon for the 2017 one (see my review HERE), was a delightful coincidence - or maybe a “wonderful or supernatural event”?
Short story club
I read this in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 4 September 2023.
You can read this story here.
You can join the group here.
“Wonderful or supernatural events are not so uncommon, rather they are irregular in their incidence. Thus there may be not one marvel to speak of in a century, and then often enough comes a plentiful crop of them; monsters of all sorts swarm suddenly upon the earth, comets blaze in the sky, eclipses frighten nature, meteors fall in rain, while mermaids and sirens beguile, and sea-serpents engulf every passing ship, and terrible cataclysms beset humanity.”
Garnett tells his tale almost prosaically and assures readers that it’s a true story, “fully proved”, which leaves sceptical readers with lots of interpretations. The most obvious parallels are caring for a loved-one who has a catastrophic injury of some kind, or a more gradual decline, like Alzheimer’s: how unconditional can love be? Richard tells himself, “memories will not help me here”, but then tells Silvia the opposite, “Try and remember the past, my darling”, as her vulpine nature comes to the fore and he wrestles with the idea of letting go of who he most loves.
Image: “Realising that the silly ducks thought his wife a fox indeed and were alarmed on that account he found painful that spectacle which to others might have been amusing.” Woodcut by Ray Garnett
Lots to ponder
“For when we are overcome with the greatest sorrow we act not like men or women but like children whose comfort in all their troubles is to press themselves against their mother's breast, or if she be not there to hold each other tight in one another's arms.”
Given the Bloomsbury connection (see below), there are animalistic, earthy, and sexual analogies as well as questions about the nature of womanhood:
“‘Are you a monster in your soul as well as in your body? Have you forgotten what it is to be a woman?’...
He could not bear to witness her pain and yet must take pleasure in it as it fed his hopes of her one day returning to be a woman.”
Or it could all be a delusion, born of shock and grief at his wife running off with someone else, as local gossip assumes.
I couldn't quite decide (invariably a good thing, imo) whether Richard's love was extraordinarily noble and unselfish, or a bit kinky - though what consenting adults do in private is a matter only for them.
And of course, it makes a case against fox-hunting (not that I needed persuading).
“‘True happiness,’ he said to himself, ‘is to be found in bestowing love.’”
Bloomsbury Group
Garnett was one of the Bloomsbury Group, who infamously “lived in squares, painted in circles, and loved in triangles”, as well as living at Charleston, Sussex. This novella was illustrated with woodcuts by his wife, Ray (Rachel) and dedicated to his former lover, Duncan Grant. When Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell’s daughter, Angelica, was born, Garnett, then 26, joked about marrying her one day - and he did! When she was around four, he wrote this story, including:
“His favourite was Angelica (who reminded him so much of her mother in her pretty ways). ”
This was published in 1922, but set 1879-1880.
Image: Woodcut of fox and cubs by Ray Garnett
See also
Humans transforming to other creatures, and creatures who seem to have human understanding, feature in folklore, fairytales, through to contemporary fiction. A few examples that I’ve reviewed:
• DH Lawrence was well-known to the Bloomsbury Group, and critical of them. See his story, The Fox, which I reviewed HERE which, like this, uses eyes to tell much of the story.
• Inevitably, one thinks of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, which I reviewed HERE: a similar starting point, but with very different results.
• Ian McEwan’s Brexit-themed inversion of Kafka, The Cockroach, which I reviewed HERE.
• Saki often features magical-realist animals. For example, in Laura, which I reviewed HERE. I’ve reviewed Saki more generally, with links to individual stories, HERE.
• Daisy Johnson's Fen is a collection of mythic, mystical short stories, focused on young women, and set in the Fens of contemporary England. One of the stories there has echoes of this. See my review HERE.
• The fact I read of eclipses in the opening paragraph, the day before a major one in north America, when I’m fondly remembering travelling to Oregon for the 2017 one (see my review HERE), was a delightful coincidence - or maybe a “wonderful or supernatural event”?
Short story club
I read this in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 4 September 2023.
You can read this story here.
You can join the group here.
Read
April 3, 2024Slippery and unsettling, David aka Bunny Garnett’s novella first appeared in 1922. Hugely successful, it won two literary awards and captured the public’s imagination kick-starting a fashion for similar books: novels mingling the mundane with the fantastical like the marvellous Lolly Willowes. Garnett’s story of metamorphosis is set in the late nineteenth century. It’s an account by a narrator, also called David Garnett, of an apparently miraculous occurrence. It centres on newly-weds Silvia and Richard Tebrick who live in the English countryside, they appear to be almost blissfully happy then one day without warning, Silvia turns into a fox. One second human, the next fox. Garnett’s narrative focuses on Richard’s reaction to Silvia’s transformation. At first, he attempts to mimic normality, made possible because Silvia retains familiar traits in keeping with her genteel upbringing, drinking daintily from saucers, preferring to wear clothes than be seen “naked,” even using her paws to play card games. But as time passes Silvia becomes increasingly feral, resisting Richard’s desperate attempts to domesticate and rein her in, eventually escaping him altogether.
Garnett seems to be drawing on a mish-mash of influences for his fable-like tale with its deliberately archaic style. The most obvious is Ovid and the classics that formed the basis of a solidly middle-class education for men like Garnett. There’s a hint too of the animal brides found in fairy tales suggesting that Silvia may be revealing her true self – despite her training as a lady, Silvia’s childhood nurse maintains her charge was always a ‘little wild.’ Garnett was acquainted too with Arthur Waley’s work, the prolific translator of Chinese and Japanese literature, so it’s possible Garnett was influenced by mythical creatures like the kitsune and the legendary fox wives. Garnett himself said he was inspired by his relationship with his wife Rachel aka Ray, someone he often teased during "love-making" by calling her wild and animal-like.
Relationships between married men and women are foremost here. The middle to upper-class, Victorian setting highlights traditional concepts of how marriage should work, ones associated with Garnett’s parents’ generation. There’s an emphasis on propriety, in men and women assuming roles in which men have the upper hand and the ideal woman is both submissive and modest. The interaction between Richard and fox Silvia seems to challenge and, at the same time, reinforce these kinds of social and cultural expectations. Garnett’s choice of animal also seems significant, foxes were commonly associated with cunning and duplicity so that traditional husband and wife roles are reversed with Richard the innocent and Silvia possessor of knowledge. Something D. H. Lawrence had recently explored in “The Fox.” Lawrence was also fascinated by the threat that queer identities posed to heteronormativity, his lesbian characters are swiftly forced back into the heterosexual fold. Queerness seems significant in Garnett’s narrative too but it figures very differently.
Both Garnett and Ray were queer, one of artist Duncan Grant’s lovers Garnett had strong ties to the Bloomsbury Group. Garnett’s book’s dedicated to Grant, and when Silvia has cubs, it’s notable that the one Richard finds particularly attractive is the one he dubs Angelica – Grant and Vanessa Bell’s daughter Angelica was a small child at the time, Garnett had been around her since birth. He later, and controversially, married her. One of the things Richard finds most appealing about cub Angelica is her striking resemblance to her mother hinting at possible links to Bell and Grant’s life at Charleston. The Charleston crowd famously rejected conventional family relationships, queer, polyamorous, their communal lifestyle flouted earlier Victorian notions of how men and women should co-exist. In Garnett’s story, Richard’s values gradually begin to shift, he starts to admire Silvia’s animal existence, her embrace of a state of nature, her beast-like instincts and her freedom.
It's an admiration that can be read as feminist but I think there’s a conservative edge here too. There’s something uncomfortably voyeuristic about Richard’s obsession with fox Silvia. And there’s something suspect too in Garnett’s underlying framing of women as somehow closer to nature, resistant to social control. There’s a sense that female sexuality’s as repulsive as it is alluring, Richard finds fox Silvia beautiful but he’s horrified by her pungent, animal scent, how swiftly she throws off the shackles of shame. Silvia is also depicted as a destructive force, as Richard becomes more and more seduced by the liberation she seems to represent, he becomes more and more abject. I found the ending both fascinating and disturbing, without giving too much away, Garnett’s conclusion reinforced my impression of an ambivalence running through his text. It could be interpreted as the backlash of a troubled social order but equally as a more personal form of necessary corrective or retribution for female transgression - or even as the female as dispensable once she’s exhausted her potential for male enlightenment. Puzzling and thought-provoking, my edition was illustrated with a series of Ray Garnett’s disarming, arresting woodcuts.
Garnett seems to be drawing on a mish-mash of influences for his fable-like tale with its deliberately archaic style. The most obvious is Ovid and the classics that formed the basis of a solidly middle-class education for men like Garnett. There’s a hint too of the animal brides found in fairy tales suggesting that Silvia may be revealing her true self – despite her training as a lady, Silvia’s childhood nurse maintains her charge was always a ‘little wild.’ Garnett was acquainted too with Arthur Waley’s work, the prolific translator of Chinese and Japanese literature, so it’s possible Garnett was influenced by mythical creatures like the kitsune and the legendary fox wives. Garnett himself said he was inspired by his relationship with his wife Rachel aka Ray, someone he often teased during "love-making" by calling her wild and animal-like.
Relationships between married men and women are foremost here. The middle to upper-class, Victorian setting highlights traditional concepts of how marriage should work, ones associated with Garnett’s parents’ generation. There’s an emphasis on propriety, in men and women assuming roles in which men have the upper hand and the ideal woman is both submissive and modest. The interaction between Richard and fox Silvia seems to challenge and, at the same time, reinforce these kinds of social and cultural expectations. Garnett’s choice of animal also seems significant, foxes were commonly associated with cunning and duplicity so that traditional husband and wife roles are reversed with Richard the innocent and Silvia possessor of knowledge. Something D. H. Lawrence had recently explored in “The Fox.” Lawrence was also fascinated by the threat that queer identities posed to heteronormativity, his lesbian characters are swiftly forced back into the heterosexual fold. Queerness seems significant in Garnett’s narrative too but it figures very differently.
Both Garnett and Ray were queer, one of artist Duncan Grant’s lovers Garnett had strong ties to the Bloomsbury Group. Garnett’s book’s dedicated to Grant, and when Silvia has cubs, it’s notable that the one Richard finds particularly attractive is the one he dubs Angelica – Grant and Vanessa Bell’s daughter Angelica was a small child at the time, Garnett had been around her since birth. He later, and controversially, married her. One of the things Richard finds most appealing about cub Angelica is her striking resemblance to her mother hinting at possible links to Bell and Grant’s life at Charleston. The Charleston crowd famously rejected conventional family relationships, queer, polyamorous, their communal lifestyle flouted earlier Victorian notions of how men and women should co-exist. In Garnett’s story, Richard’s values gradually begin to shift, he starts to admire Silvia’s animal existence, her embrace of a state of nature, her beast-like instincts and her freedom.
It's an admiration that can be read as feminist but I think there’s a conservative edge here too. There’s something uncomfortably voyeuristic about Richard’s obsession with fox Silvia. And there’s something suspect too in Garnett’s underlying framing of women as somehow closer to nature, resistant to social control. There’s a sense that female sexuality’s as repulsive as it is alluring, Richard finds fox Silvia beautiful but he’s horrified by her pungent, animal scent, how swiftly she throws off the shackles of shame. Silvia is also depicted as a destructive force, as Richard becomes more and more seduced by the liberation she seems to represent, he becomes more and more abject. I found the ending both fascinating and disturbing, without giving too much away, Garnett’s conclusion reinforced my impression of an ambivalence running through his text. It could be interpreted as the backlash of a troubled social order but equally as a more personal form of necessary corrective or retribution for female transgression - or even as the female as dispensable once she’s exhausted her potential for male enlightenment. Puzzling and thought-provoking, my edition was illustrated with a series of Ray Garnett’s disarming, arresting woodcuts.
July 16, 2015
His vixen had at once sprung into Mr Tebrick’s arms, and before he could turn back the hounds were upon them, and had pulled them down. Then at that moment there was a scream of despair heard by all the field that had come up, which they declared afterwards was more like a woman’s voice than a man’s. But there was no clear proof whether it was Mr Tebrick or his wife who had suddenly regained her voice. When the huntsman who had leapt the wall got to them and had whipped off the hounds, Mr Tebrick had been terribly mauled and was bleeding from twenty wounds...
As soon as I saw Paul’s review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..., I knew that I had to read this book. Why you may ask? Well I am an avid Bloomsbury Group lover and have been for over two decades. We are dealing with a group of individuals here who were quite unique to our life on earth, be it as novelists, painters, economists, etc. They had it all – they were avant-garde; the forerunners of our modern society today! These individuals were dreamers, romantics, they lived for the present, they saw a world that they could change and they did try. The paintings of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant continue to this effect, as do the literary works of Virginia Wolf, Lytton Strachey, the economist Maynard Keynes and the outsiders in the group such as Aldous Huxley. A world that I wish I could have been a part of. A truly golden era and one that I’m so proud that I stumbled across through a rather erudite friend. He didn’t think that I would take to all of these works but I did indeed like a duck to water. I have read so many biographies on these iconic and yet mesmerizing individuals. Never to be forgotten in fact. They lived for their beliefs, be it as conscientious objectors after the First World War but also they created a remarkable, invigorating presence that lives on today.
As for this work. Well how does one interpret it? It is dedicated to David Garnett’s former lover Duncan Grant who had shared a house with Vanessa Bell for many years, in fact until her death. She knew Duncan’s sexual inclinations, was prepared to put up with it, she even had a child by him called Angelica, who subsequently married David (Bunny) Garnett. Duncan Grant being the father. All very convoluted I must confess but it appeared to suit them. The value of love has different levels with certain individuals and Vanessa was known as the mother figure, very wise and with a sister, Virginia, who had a very nervous disposition. They all got on very well indeed!
I really cannot imagine why Bunny dedicated this book to Duncan. It was a very strange relationship. Bunny was heterosexual but felt sorry for Duncan and so went along with his sexual proclivities. He was also really taken with Vanessa too, even though she was older than him and so it was a rather strange relationship but everyone was (apparently) quite happy to participate in it. It was the norm for them. The love that Vanessa had for Duncan never disappeared until her death and she was prepared to put up with his infidelities. The fact that Bunny married Angelia when he prophesized many years before that he would marry her at twenty rather unnerved me, I must confess.
As for the book I believe it is a tribute not only to Duncan but also to Bunny’s life with Vanessa, and latterly Angelica.
The plot - Richard Tebrick had married Silvia (née Fox – bizarre) in 1879. They were recently married and all was well and then one day she was transformed into a fox in front of his eyes. Imagine that! What a shock. He cared for her as a loving husband even while she slowly transformed into a fox of the wild, eventually giving birth to five foxes in her earth and Mr Tebrick more or less adopted them even though he had met the male fox. Now that to me is true love. His favourite fox was Angelica (his future wife) and life continued in this rather odd vein. All the neighbours thought that he was quite mad as he had withdrawn so much from society.
A beautiful book which resonates within one’s soul.
As an added note, my delicious little hardback is a sixth impression published in 1923, after the first publication in October 1922. It makes one wonder how many copies were in each print-run? The wood engravings by R. A. Garnett are an added bonus but the true beauty of this book is that handwritten note on the frontispiece with L.M.H. which I understand stands for Lady Margaret Hall, one of the Oxford colleges. It seemed right to read that, I don’t know why! A true social document.
These old books have such a sense of age about them…
As soon as I saw Paul’s review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..., I knew that I had to read this book. Why you may ask? Well I am an avid Bloomsbury Group lover and have been for over two decades. We are dealing with a group of individuals here who were quite unique to our life on earth, be it as novelists, painters, economists, etc. They had it all – they were avant-garde; the forerunners of our modern society today! These individuals were dreamers, romantics, they lived for the present, they saw a world that they could change and they did try. The paintings of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant continue to this effect, as do the literary works of Virginia Wolf, Lytton Strachey, the economist Maynard Keynes and the outsiders in the group such as Aldous Huxley. A world that I wish I could have been a part of. A truly golden era and one that I’m so proud that I stumbled across through a rather erudite friend. He didn’t think that I would take to all of these works but I did indeed like a duck to water. I have read so many biographies on these iconic and yet mesmerizing individuals. Never to be forgotten in fact. They lived for their beliefs, be it as conscientious objectors after the First World War but also they created a remarkable, invigorating presence that lives on today.
As for this work. Well how does one interpret it? It is dedicated to David Garnett’s former lover Duncan Grant who had shared a house with Vanessa Bell for many years, in fact until her death. She knew Duncan’s sexual inclinations, was prepared to put up with it, she even had a child by him called Angelica, who subsequently married David (Bunny) Garnett. Duncan Grant being the father. All very convoluted I must confess but it appeared to suit them. The value of love has different levels with certain individuals and Vanessa was known as the mother figure, very wise and with a sister, Virginia, who had a very nervous disposition. They all got on very well indeed!
I really cannot imagine why Bunny dedicated this book to Duncan. It was a very strange relationship. Bunny was heterosexual but felt sorry for Duncan and so went along with his sexual proclivities. He was also really taken with Vanessa too, even though she was older than him and so it was a rather strange relationship but everyone was (apparently) quite happy to participate in it. It was the norm for them. The love that Vanessa had for Duncan never disappeared until her death and she was prepared to put up with his infidelities. The fact that Bunny married Angelia when he prophesized many years before that he would marry her at twenty rather unnerved me, I must confess.
As for the book I believe it is a tribute not only to Duncan but also to Bunny’s life with Vanessa, and latterly Angelica.
The plot - Richard Tebrick had married Silvia (née Fox – bizarre) in 1879. They were recently married and all was well and then one day she was transformed into a fox in front of his eyes. Imagine that! What a shock. He cared for her as a loving husband even while she slowly transformed into a fox of the wild, eventually giving birth to five foxes in her earth and Mr Tebrick more or less adopted them even though he had met the male fox. Now that to me is true love. His favourite fox was Angelica (his future wife) and life continued in this rather odd vein. All the neighbours thought that he was quite mad as he had withdrawn so much from society.
A beautiful book which resonates within one’s soul.
As an added note, my delicious little hardback is a sixth impression published in 1923, after the first publication in October 1922. It makes one wonder how many copies were in each print-run? The wood engravings by R. A. Garnett are an added bonus but the true beauty of this book is that handwritten note on the frontispiece with L.M.H. which I understand stands for Lady Margaret Hall, one of the Oxford colleges. It seemed right to read that, I don’t know why! A true social document.
These old books have such a sense of age about them…
April 6, 2024
"Lady Into Fox" is a novella about a woman who undergoes an instant metamorphosis into a fox while she was walking with her husband. Richard Tebrick and Sylvia Fox Tebrick were newlyweds in love when this supernatural event occurred. To protect the transformed Sylvia from unwanted gossip, Richard fired the staff at his manor house. At first, Sylvia retained some of her human qualities wanting to dress up, play cards, and listen to music. But she became more and more foxlike, running after ducks and wanting to go out into the wild. Richard still loved his vixen wife. He wanted to protect her from the fox hunters in 1880s England, but she resented his control when she wanted her freedom. To find out more about what happened to Sylvia, the book can be read on Project Gutenberg.
I enjoyed reading "Lady Into Fox," and felt that it could be looked at in several different ways. The story has beautiful themes of loyalty, love, and marriage. There is also the issue of control of one's life, and a woman's desire for freedom since Sylvia wants her freedom when she became more foxlike. It was written in 1922 around the time of the fight for women's rights.
Sylvia loved both her husband and her fox family, and Richard loved her in all her forms. This may be influenced by the author's own life. David Garnett was married to artist Rachel Garnett who did the beautiful woodcut illustrations for the book. But he was bisexual and was part of the Bloomsbury Group who often had open relationships.
It's also interesting to compare the story to Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" whose family had a different reaction to Gregor's change into a new form. Is "Lady Into Fox" a horror story like Kafka's, an allegorical fantasy about love, or a reflection on the social climate at the time when it was written? It was a delightful story from any of these views. I read this with The Short Story Club from the collection "Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature."
I enjoyed reading "Lady Into Fox," and felt that it could be looked at in several different ways. The story has beautiful themes of loyalty, love, and marriage. There is also the issue of control of one's life, and a woman's desire for freedom since Sylvia wants her freedom when she became more foxlike. It was written in 1922 around the time of the fight for women's rights.
Sylvia loved both her husband and her fox family, and Richard loved her in all her forms. This may be influenced by the author's own life. David Garnett was married to artist Rachel Garnett who did the beautiful woodcut illustrations for the book. But he was bisexual and was part of the Bloomsbury Group who often had open relationships.
It's also interesting to compare the story to Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" whose family had a different reaction to Gregor's change into a new form. Is "Lady Into Fox" a horror story like Kafka's, an allegorical fantasy about love, or a reflection on the social climate at the time when it was written? It was a delightful story from any of these views. I read this with The Short Story Club from the collection "Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature."
November 4, 2023
Za knjigu sam čuo od Borhesa, a za autora sam saznao u vreme moje srednjoškolske opsesije Virdžinijom Vulf i blumsberijevcima. Prišiveni slogan blumsberijevaca tvrdi da se procvetale bobice “živele u kvartovima, stvarale u krugovima i volele se u trouglovima”. Nešto od tih ljubavnih trouglova boji paratekst ove novele: Prelepe ilustracije u knjizi je nacrtala Garnetova tadašnja supruga Rejčel Maršal, dok je knjiga posvećena njegovom ljubavniku britanskom slikaru Dankanu Grantu.
Na imaginarnim policama “Lady into Fox” bi stajala negde blizu “Orlanda” Vulfove, ako računamo da su obe knjige fantazmagorijska ljubavna pisma u čijem središtu se nalazi metamorfoza. Glavni junaci novele su mladi viktorijanski bračni par Tebrik, a priča se zapliće kada se gospođa Tebrik, bez jasnog razloga, pretvori u pravu pravcatu lisicu. Dinamika priče se gradi na tenziji između pokušaja da se održi jedan građanski brak sa svojim konvencijama i činjenice da jedna od osoba, vezanih bračnim zavetom, više nije homo sapiens već krznena životinja glamuroznog repa. A to je sve teže sakriti, posebno što lisičarstvo sve više obuzima transformisanu gospođu. Gospodin Tebrik želi da čita svojoj supruzi Ričardsonovu “Klarisu”, ali posle nekoliko stranica podiže glavu sa knjige te sa užasom primećuje da njegova supruga lisica ne sluša već oblizuje njušku ne skidajući pogled sa kaveza sa ukrasnim golubovima. Kao i svim lisicama na svetu i gospođi Tebrik “kad bi gusku pojela, lakše bi joj bilo”, ali šta da se radi sa osećanjima gospodina Tebrika? Zbog šaškastog zapleta novela jeste duhovita, ali se i ne stidi da zađe duboko u polje bizarnog, s time što je ona tako elegantno ispripovedana kao da ste na vrlo otmenoj večeri sa nekim ko sedi naopačke i vrlo ljupko i slatko pripoveda kroz nos a vi se pravite da ne reagujete na nasilne preokrete, internalizovanu sramotu i najnajnajdublji očaj.
Pošto narativ uključuje životinju oblikovanu donekle antropomorfno, “Lady into fox” se ne može čitati bez pokušaja da se priča interpertira alegorijski. Ali na pitanje šta stoji iza priče nije lako odgovoriti jer se u nju mogu učitati dijametralno suprotna tumačenja. Feminizam? Mizoginija? Heteroseksualna bračna zajednica? Gej odnos? Ljubav? Cinizam? Biografija? Civilizacija uvek nadvala prirodu? Priroda uvek nadvlada civilizaciju? Otprilke šta god. Pretpostavimo da je to Garnetu uspelo jer, kako je i sam tvrdio, nije želeo da ispriča alegoriju, te da novela nema nikakvo preneseno značenje, osim onog koji je na površini u vidu fabule o ženi koja se iz neobjašnjivih razloga preobrazila u lisicu i muškarcu koji ne prestaje da je voli. I kao takva super funkcioniše.
Na imaginarnim policama “Lady into Fox” bi stajala negde blizu “Orlanda” Vulfove, ako računamo da su obe knjige fantazmagorijska ljubavna pisma u čijem središtu se nalazi metamorfoza. Glavni junaci novele su mladi viktorijanski bračni par Tebrik, a priča se zapliće kada se gospođa Tebrik, bez jasnog razloga, pretvori u pravu pravcatu lisicu. Dinamika priče se gradi na tenziji između pokušaja da se održi jedan građanski brak sa svojim konvencijama i činjenice da jedna od osoba, vezanih bračnim zavetom, više nije homo sapiens već krznena životinja glamuroznog repa. A to je sve teže sakriti, posebno što lisičarstvo sve više obuzima transformisanu gospođu. Gospodin Tebrik želi da čita svojoj supruzi Ričardsonovu “Klarisu”, ali posle nekoliko stranica podiže glavu sa knjige te sa užasom primećuje da njegova supruga lisica ne sluša već oblizuje njušku ne skidajući pogled sa kaveza sa ukrasnim golubovima. Kao i svim lisicama na svetu i gospođi Tebrik “kad bi gusku pojela, lakše bi joj bilo”, ali šta da se radi sa osećanjima gospodina Tebrika? Zbog šaškastog zapleta novela jeste duhovita, ali se i ne stidi da zađe duboko u polje bizarnog, s time što je ona tako elegantno ispripovedana kao da ste na vrlo otmenoj večeri sa nekim ko sedi naopačke i vrlo ljupko i slatko pripoveda kroz nos a vi se pravite da ne reagujete na nasilne preokrete, internalizovanu sramotu i najnajnajdublji očaj.
Pošto narativ uključuje životinju oblikovanu donekle antropomorfno, “Lady into fox” se ne može čitati bez pokušaja da se priča interpertira alegorijski. Ali na pitanje šta stoji iza priče nije lako odgovoriti jer se u nju mogu učitati dijametralno suprotna tumačenja. Feminizam? Mizoginija? Heteroseksualna bračna zajednica? Gej odnos? Ljubav? Cinizam? Biografija? Civilizacija uvek nadvala prirodu? Priroda uvek nadvlada civilizaciju? Otprilke šta god. Pretpostavimo da je to Garnetu uspelo jer, kako je i sam tvrdio, nije želeo da ispriča alegoriju, te da novela nema nikakvo preneseno značenje, osim onog koji je na površini u vidu fabule o ženi koja se iz neobjašnjivih razloga preobrazila u lisicu i muškarcu koji ne prestaje da je voli. I kao takva super funkcioniše.
April 14, 2024
“But perhaps living in so wild a place gave her some disposition to wildness, even in spite of her religious upbringing. Her old nurse said: ‘Miss Silvia was always a little wild at heart,’ though if this was true it was never seen by anyone else except her husband.”
What a unique and wonderful novella. I have a soft spot for any story that could have been told on Fractured Fairy Tales. I could certainly hear Edward Everett Horton’s voice telling this one, something like this:
The moral of the story might be that you love who you love, no matter how difficult the relationship may become. Garnett, whose wife R.A. Garnett did beautiful woodcut illustrations for this book, was supposedly bisexual and a member of the fascinating Bloomsbury group.
On the other hand, I liked thinking about this as a wild woman story, a wife bound by the chains of respectable human life who finally gives up security and frees herself to live as she pleases.
And then there’s also the fun idea that at any moment we might actually turn into our spirit animal.
However you look at it, I enjoyed this unusual story very much.
What a unique and wonderful novella. I have a soft spot for any story that could have been told on Fractured Fairy Tales. I could certainly hear Edward Everett Horton’s voice telling this one, something like this:
Once upon a time a very happily married man and woman (smooch) were walking together in the woods when she turned into a fox. “Silvia, my love,” he said, “what will we do now?” And the man gathered his wife in her fox form into his arms and took her back to their home, where he put a little jacket on her to hide her nakedness, and proceeded to encourage her to play cribbage with him and sip tea from cups. Time went by. The couple experienced the ups and downs of human and fox-like living, including the ever-present fox hunts going on in the region. As you might guess,
The moral of the story might be that you love who you love, no matter how difficult the relationship may become. Garnett, whose wife R.A. Garnett did beautiful woodcut illustrations for this book, was supposedly bisexual and a member of the fascinating Bloomsbury group.
On the other hand, I liked thinking about this as a wild woman story, a wife bound by the chains of respectable human life who finally gives up security and frees herself to live as she pleases.
And then there’s also the fun idea that at any moment we might actually turn into our spirit animal.
However you look at it, I enjoyed this unusual story very much.
May 7, 2017
It’s hard to say too much about Lady into Fox – it’s a short novella, and very simple. Indeed, I didn’t really feel that I was reading the work of an author – more just hearing an articulate, literate man tell me a story. The prose isn’t always polished – and is speckled with little oddities from the common speech of the era – and the story is straightforward and unadorned. Put bluntly, it’s about an English gentleman whose wife one day turns into a fox, and the difficulties that are posed by this unexpected turn of events.
That’s a potentially rich – incredibly rich – scenario for a story, and there were many ways the story could have gone. Garnett for the most part chose the most obvious and the least memorable path. But that’s not necessarily a criticism. I was expecting a story that perhaps leant more heavily into social satire, or brought out the comic absurdities more greatly – I suppose I was thinking of how this might go if the story were by Saki, or indeed by Cabell, whose almost exactly contemporaneous own novel, Jurgen, I’ve only just read.
And indeed, there is satire here, and there is absurdity, and wit. But for the most part, Garnett focuses on the pathos, and he does it through precise, transparent realism, avoiding excesses of style or content that might distract from the basic humanity at the core of his story. His style is casual, in the formal manner in which an English gentleman of the era might be casual, and despite the strikingly modern moment of surrealism at the story’s core (Lady into Fox was published only a few years after Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” was published, and long before it became famous), his approach is largely conservative. The fantasy, like most earlier but little later fantasy, is shrouded in a dislocating frame, in this case the conventional, by then perhaps even traditional, Victorian ghost story declaimer, an entire page spent stressing how the author has heard this from unimpeachable sources and is otherwise a skeptical man not prone to believing fanciful stories etc etc. This frame is made a little more personal by the fact that the author does not overtly divide himself from the narrator, happy even to identify himself by name at one point. There’s something of a newspaperman’s approach here, a plainspoken verity that has no time for artistic airs and pretences. I wonder whether even that title, the oddly curt ‘Lady into Fox’, may be intended to suggest the clipped headline of a newspaper report or magazine article.
Yet despite the pretence of unpretentiousness, Lady into Fox is a piece of art, and not only because of the implausible central conceit, that of a lady transformed into a fox – and not, Garnett take pains to stress, in a believable, piece-by-piece, drawn-out, organic manner, but in a flash, as a fait accompli, the way that Gregor Samsa simply wakes up one morning to discover himself the victim of a metamorphosis. No, the true metamorphosis here is the way that what is presented as a story is really a political position paper.
Of course, all stories are symbolic, particularly those involving elements of fantasy. “The Metamorphosis” is symbolic. But Lady into Fox is symbolic in a much more all-encompassing, more honest, way. It is, quite plainly, a fable, and there is no doubt here that we are to consider what may be the Moral of the Tale. It is perhaps precisely because of the author’s political intent that he so eschews overt manipulations and authorial cadenzas: he is trying to show us the case as it is, matters as they are, to point us to a conclusion – for all that he is doing so through symbols and analogy. Anything that instead called attention to the work as a work of art, or worse as a work of craft, would detract from its objective.
But it’s not quite so simple. On the surface, Lady into Fox is a direct analogy for...
...the rest of the review you can read on my blog.
Short version? It's a small and simple, but very attractive little fable that undisguisedly, but lightly, presents the Bloomsbury worldview, but in a way that relies on the strength of the story itself, rather than distracting from it. It's too slight to really consider a masterpiece, and it's a little roughhewn around the edges (Garnett is an articulate and literate writer, but not an exceptional stylist), but it's a beautiful book that is well worth the hour or two required to read it.
[This edition bears original illustrations by the author's wife - these are pretty, but inessential]
That’s a potentially rich – incredibly rich – scenario for a story, and there were many ways the story could have gone. Garnett for the most part chose the most obvious and the least memorable path. But that’s not necessarily a criticism. I was expecting a story that perhaps leant more heavily into social satire, or brought out the comic absurdities more greatly – I suppose I was thinking of how this might go if the story were by Saki, or indeed by Cabell, whose almost exactly contemporaneous own novel, Jurgen, I’ve only just read.
And indeed, there is satire here, and there is absurdity, and wit. But for the most part, Garnett focuses on the pathos, and he does it through precise, transparent realism, avoiding excesses of style or content that might distract from the basic humanity at the core of his story. His style is casual, in the formal manner in which an English gentleman of the era might be casual, and despite the strikingly modern moment of surrealism at the story’s core (Lady into Fox was published only a few years after Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” was published, and long before it became famous), his approach is largely conservative. The fantasy, like most earlier but little later fantasy, is shrouded in a dislocating frame, in this case the conventional, by then perhaps even traditional, Victorian ghost story declaimer, an entire page spent stressing how the author has heard this from unimpeachable sources and is otherwise a skeptical man not prone to believing fanciful stories etc etc. This frame is made a little more personal by the fact that the author does not overtly divide himself from the narrator, happy even to identify himself by name at one point. There’s something of a newspaperman’s approach here, a plainspoken verity that has no time for artistic airs and pretences. I wonder whether even that title, the oddly curt ‘Lady into Fox’, may be intended to suggest the clipped headline of a newspaper report or magazine article.
Yet despite the pretence of unpretentiousness, Lady into Fox is a piece of art, and not only because of the implausible central conceit, that of a lady transformed into a fox – and not, Garnett take pains to stress, in a believable, piece-by-piece, drawn-out, organic manner, but in a flash, as a fait accompli, the way that Gregor Samsa simply wakes up one morning to discover himself the victim of a metamorphosis. No, the true metamorphosis here is the way that what is presented as a story is really a political position paper.
Of course, all stories are symbolic, particularly those involving elements of fantasy. “The Metamorphosis” is symbolic. But Lady into Fox is symbolic in a much more all-encompassing, more honest, way. It is, quite plainly, a fable, and there is no doubt here that we are to consider what may be the Moral of the Tale. It is perhaps precisely because of the author’s political intent that he so eschews overt manipulations and authorial cadenzas: he is trying to show us the case as it is, matters as they are, to point us to a conclusion – for all that he is doing so through symbols and analogy. Anything that instead called attention to the work as a work of art, or worse as a work of craft, would detract from its objective.
But it’s not quite so simple. On the surface, Lady into Fox is a direct analogy for...
...the rest of the review you can read on my blog.
Short version? It's a small and simple, but very attractive little fable that undisguisedly, but lightly, presents the Bloomsbury worldview, but in a way that relies on the strength of the story itself, rather than distracting from it. It's too slight to really consider a masterpiece, and it's a little roughhewn around the edges (Garnett is an articulate and literate writer, but not an exceptional stylist), but it's a beautiful book that is well worth the hour or two required to read it.
[This edition bears original illustrations by the author's wife - these are pretty, but inessential]
August 8, 2015
Strikingly short, clear as clear water, and none of the above, all at once. Garnett's book conjures old-style fairy tales or bedtime stories, where simple elements resonate, and even the inevitable outcome is also a little confounding, a little mysterious.
Short version, 1922, English dude's wife turns into a fox one day, flips him right out.
In the tradition of the truly chilling ghost story, however, we're not done there. Somehow we're kept in a kind of trance, along with the protagonist, who just cannot fathom what he's going to do about this soul-shattering development. But as with everything else in life as we know it, little things accompany big things, night follows day, and no crying over spilled milk. We as readers are led into the surreal assurance that a logical investigation, an explanation, will only naturally follow, and it never does.
One night long into the predicament of his wife having changed, the narrator dreams that she is a human woman once again. But the price of this return is incalculable :
After an hour or two the procession of confused and jumbled images which first assailed him passed away and subsided into one clear and powerful dream. His wife was with him in her own proper shape, walking as they had been on that fatal day before her transformation. Yet she was changed too, for in her face there were visible tokens of unhappiness, her face swollen with crying, pale and downcast, her hair hanging in disorder, her damp hands wringing a small handkerchief into a ball, her whole body shaken with sobs, and an air of long neglect about her person. Between her sobs, she was confessing to him some crime she had committed but he did not catch the broken words, nor did he wish to hear them, for he was dulled by his sorrow..
That the story is an allegory of anything in particular, the author disputes; that it may touch chords of fidelity and abandonment-- he will allow.
Where the reader is led, on this obvious/ unsettling trail, is down the same paths as other deeply-sorrowful torch songs in literature: of Tam-Lin, whose true love must hold him fast as the witches transform him into beast, serpent and flame; of Kwaidan, where the faint touch of fingertips from the next world is always present; and of Poe's Annabel Lee, whose dark seaside spirits infuse their author with infinite, rueful sadness ...
One of the simplest, saddest things I've ever read.
Short version, 1922, English dude's wife turns into a fox one day, flips him right out.
In the tradition of the truly chilling ghost story, however, we're not done there. Somehow we're kept in a kind of trance, along with the protagonist, who just cannot fathom what he's going to do about this soul-shattering development. But as with everything else in life as we know it, little things accompany big things, night follows day, and no crying over spilled milk. We as readers are led into the surreal assurance that a logical investigation, an explanation, will only naturally follow, and it never does.
One night long into the predicament of his wife having changed, the narrator dreams that she is a human woman once again. But the price of this return is incalculable :
After an hour or two the procession of confused and jumbled images which first assailed him passed away and subsided into one clear and powerful dream. His wife was with him in her own proper shape, walking as they had been on that fatal day before her transformation. Yet she was changed too, for in her face there were visible tokens of unhappiness, her face swollen with crying, pale and downcast, her hair hanging in disorder, her damp hands wringing a small handkerchief into a ball, her whole body shaken with sobs, and an air of long neglect about her person. Between her sobs, she was confessing to him some crime she had committed but he did not catch the broken words, nor did he wish to hear them, for he was dulled by his sorrow..
That the story is an allegory of anything in particular, the author disputes; that it may touch chords of fidelity and abandonment-- he will allow.
Where the reader is led, on this obvious/ unsettling trail, is down the same paths as other deeply-sorrowful torch songs in literature: of Tam-Lin, whose true love must hold him fast as the witches transform him into beast, serpent and flame; of Kwaidan, where the faint touch of fingertips from the next world is always present; and of Poe's Annabel Lee, whose dark seaside spirits infuse their author with infinite, rueful sadness ...
One of the simplest, saddest things I've ever read.
November 18, 2017
David Garnett: Picture this, a lady... turns into a fox! Isn't that the wildest thing you've ever read?!
Me: *having read his bio and knowing he was sleeping with a married man, decided to be present at the birth of that man's daughter, jokingly wrote to a friend, "I think of marrying it. When she is 20, I shall be 46 – will it be scandalous?", and later on actually married her*: Not really...
Me: *having read his bio and knowing he was sleeping with a married man, decided to be present at the birth of that man's daughter, jokingly wrote to a friend, "I think of marrying it. When she is 20, I shall be 46 – will it be scandalous?", and later on actually married her*: Not really...
August 6, 2007
Magical and sad. Great wood-cuts illustrate the story throughout. Yay foxes!!
June 27, 2023
I read this primarily to fulfill a 'Read Harder' Challenge in one of my GR groups - but also because I had just reread Garnett's Aspects of Love and wanted to sample something else by him. This is a very odd little book, barely 90 pages, which he dedicated to his former lover, Duncan Grant, and which was illustrated with woodcarvings by his wife, Rachel (nicknamed Ray).
As the title indicates, it's about a couple in which the wife inexplicably turns into a fox one day, and how that complicates their relationship (ya think?!). Eventually the wife scampers away and returns several months later with a litter of five fox cubs, so some have presumed that it's an allegory about infidelity. That's certainly one possible interpretation, but there can be a multitude of others.
It's also interesting to note that Grant fathered a daughter with Vanessa Bell (Virginia Woolf's sister, married to another at the time) that was named Angelica, and when she was 23 and Garnett was 50, they got married (his 1st wife having died of breast cancer) - she never knew till years later that her husband was a former lover of her father. The most beautiful of the cubs in the story is also named - you guessed it - Angelica!
As the title indicates, it's about a couple in which the wife inexplicably turns into a fox one day, and how that complicates their relationship (ya think?!). Eventually the wife scampers away and returns several months later with a litter of five fox cubs, so some have presumed that it's an allegory about infidelity. That's certainly one possible interpretation, but there can be a multitude of others.
It's also interesting to note that Grant fathered a daughter with Vanessa Bell (Virginia Woolf's sister, married to another at the time) that was named Angelica, and when she was 23 and Garnett was 50, they got married (his 1st wife having died of breast cancer) - she never knew till years later that her husband was a former lover of her father. The most beautiful of the cubs in the story is also named - you guessed it - Angelica!
November 12, 2018
(3.5) I accidentally did things the wrong way round: a few months back I read Sarah Hall’s Madame Zero, which includes the BBC National Short Story Prize 2013 winner “Mrs Fox,” clearly modeled on Garnett’s half-charming, half-horrible fable. In both, an upper-middle-class marriage is derailed when the wife turns into a fox. Here Mr. Tebrick sends away the servants and retreats from the world to look after Silvia, who grows increasingly feral. To start with the vixen will wear clothing, sleep in a bed, play cards and eat table scraps, but soon she’s hunting birds outdoors. Before long she’s effectively a wild creature, though she still shows affection to Tebrick when he comes to visit her den.
Anyone in a partnership will experience a bittersweet sense of recognition at how Tebrick and Silvia try to accommodate each other’s differences and make compromises to maintain a relationship in defiance of the world’s disapproval and danger. Beware unsentimental animal peril throughout.
Anyone in a partnership will experience a bittersweet sense of recognition at how Tebrick and Silvia try to accommodate each other’s differences and make compromises to maintain a relationship in defiance of the world’s disapproval and danger. Beware unsentimental animal peril throughout.
February 19, 2017
I debated my rating on this book long and hard. I eventually decided on a one-star rating in the best possible sense. Like the kind of one-star rating that will motivate me to invite my friends over to watch some wondrously terrible piece of crap on Netflix and laugh out loud through the whole thing.
****SPOILERS TO FOLLOW****
Sylvia is a ridiculously perfect heroine in the spirit of Elsie Dinsmore. She grew up in the country, so she's innocent, but she was raised by a Protestant governess, so she's not tomboyish and received a classical education.
One day while Sylvia and her husband are out for a walk in the woods, Sylvia turns into a fox. We don't know how or why. She just does. She can't speak, but she is still sentient, still modest (she insists on wearing clothes), still pious (she makes the sign of the cross with her paws to remind her husband it's time for prayers, but she's not *Catholic* because she disapproves of playing cards on the Sabbath), and still refined and cultured (her husband plays classical music on the piano and reads books to her).
The next couple of chapters go into great detail about Sylvia's husband taking care of his fox wife. Bathing her, brushing her, dressing her, making all major decisions for her because he has to do it for her own good, obvs. We're reminded that she's still more intelligent and more equal of a companion than "Oriental women" who are kept in such seclusion that they could never have the kind of conversations with their "masters" that Sylvia the nonverbal fox has with hers. (Incidentally, yes, "Civilized Western women have it so much better than savage Asian and Middle Eastern women and should be grateful" is a very old trope. I've seen it in books from the early 1800s, none of which actually have anything to do with Asia or the Middle East.)
But eventually, dear Sylvia the fox-wife starts going feral. She doesn't say her prayers. She doesn't want to wear clothes. She doesn't keep the Sabbath anymore. When her magnanimous husband concedes to take her outside, she runs wherever she wants and doesn't come when she's called. She starts hunting rabbits and eating them raw which is THE WORST because omg you're supposed to cook them in between hunting and eating them! (I feel the need to state once again that THIS IS A FOX.) Her husband berates her for her savage, "hoydenish" (that means tomboyish, btw) behavior, and he gets really excited when she acts ashamed and penitent, because obviously that means she's still a woman inside.
Somewhere around this point, the husband gets hammered while he and Sylvia are playing together. If you are thinking, as did I, that there's no way they'd go there, you would be wrong.
So. Wrong.
HE FUCKS THE FOX.
Thankfully, the act is not described in explicit detail, but the morning after narration makes it abundantly clear what happened. Which is that he fucked the fox.
Sylvia becomes more and more feral. Eventually she runs away, is gone for about a year, and comes back with a litter of baby foxes. Husband is delighted with this. He names and christens all of them (like, he holds a christening ceremony in the woods and sprinkle-baptizes them). Then the father fox shows up and the husband realizes, "Oh, yeah, I guess she had to fuck a fox for this to happen. WTF, that bitch cheated on me after everything I've done for her???" But then he comes to accept his metamour as part of their blended family. This acceptance is accompanied by musings about how it's impossible for animals to sin because they're innocent.
They all live happily ever after until a hunt kills Sylvia. The end.
I still cannot stop laughing, or saying "Dafuq did I just read? DID I ACTUALLY JUST FUCKING READ THAT??" I really hope I did, because I don't want to believe I'm capable of imagining this glorious shitshow on my own.
****SPOILERS TO FOLLOW****
Sylvia is a ridiculously perfect heroine in the spirit of Elsie Dinsmore. She grew up in the country, so she's innocent, but she was raised by a Protestant governess, so she's not tomboyish and received a classical education.
One day while Sylvia and her husband are out for a walk in the woods, Sylvia turns into a fox. We don't know how or why. She just does. She can't speak, but she is still sentient, still modest (she insists on wearing clothes), still pious (she makes the sign of the cross with her paws to remind her husband it's time for prayers, but she's not *Catholic* because she disapproves of playing cards on the Sabbath), and still refined and cultured (her husband plays classical music on the piano and reads books to her).
The next couple of chapters go into great detail about Sylvia's husband taking care of his fox wife. Bathing her, brushing her, dressing her, making all major decisions for her because he has to do it for her own good, obvs. We're reminded that she's still more intelligent and more equal of a companion than "Oriental women" who are kept in such seclusion that they could never have the kind of conversations with their "masters" that Sylvia the nonverbal fox has with hers. (Incidentally, yes, "Civilized Western women have it so much better than savage Asian and Middle Eastern women and should be grateful" is a very old trope. I've seen it in books from the early 1800s, none of which actually have anything to do with Asia or the Middle East.)
But eventually, dear Sylvia the fox-wife starts going feral. She doesn't say her prayers. She doesn't want to wear clothes. She doesn't keep the Sabbath anymore. When her magnanimous husband concedes to take her outside, she runs wherever she wants and doesn't come when she's called. She starts hunting rabbits and eating them raw which is THE WORST because omg you're supposed to cook them in between hunting and eating them! (I feel the need to state once again that THIS IS A FOX.) Her husband berates her for her savage, "hoydenish" (that means tomboyish, btw) behavior, and he gets really excited when she acts ashamed and penitent, because obviously that means she's still a woman inside.
Somewhere around this point, the husband gets hammered while he and Sylvia are playing together. If you are thinking, as did I, that there's no way they'd go there, you would be wrong.
So. Wrong.
HE FUCKS THE FOX.
Thankfully, the act is not described in explicit detail, but the morning after narration makes it abundantly clear what happened. Which is that he fucked the fox.
Sylvia becomes more and more feral. Eventually she runs away, is gone for about a year, and comes back with a litter of baby foxes. Husband is delighted with this. He names and christens all of them (like, he holds a christening ceremony in the woods and sprinkle-baptizes them). Then the father fox shows up and the husband realizes, "Oh, yeah, I guess she had to fuck a fox for this to happen. WTF, that bitch cheated on me after everything I've done for her???" But then he comes to accept his metamour as part of their blended family. This acceptance is accompanied by musings about how it's impossible for animals to sin because they're innocent.
They all live happily ever after until a hunt kills Sylvia. The end.
I still cannot stop laughing, or saying "Dafuq did I just read? DID I ACTUALLY JUST FUCKING READ THAT??" I really hope I did, because I don't want to believe I'm capable of imagining this glorious shitshow on my own.
July 22, 2020
Richard Tebrick e Sylvia Fox sono una coppia di sposi, che terranno fede alle loro promesse matrimoniali, anche quando la moglie si trasformerà in volpe.
"Il nome da nubile di Mrs Tebrick era proprio Fox, ed è possibile che un precedente, analogo miracolo abbia fruttato alla famiglia quel soprannome. Era una famiglia di antico lignaggio, che risiedeva a Tangley Hall da tempo immemorabile.
Si era sposata nel 1879 con Mr Richard Tebrick dopo un breve fidanzamento, e al termine della luna di miele la coppia si era stabilita a Rylands, vicino a Stokoe, nell’Oxfordshire."
I due continueranno a stare insieme anche se appartengono a specie diverse, adesso, e più il comportamento della volpe si discostava da quello che Mr Tebrick si aspettava da sua moglie, più "si sentiva, per così dire, punto sul vivo, e nessun tormento poteva essere più grande che vederla lasciarsi andare in quel modo."
La crisi tra i due aumenta quando viene meno la fiducia di Mr Tebrick nei confronti di Silvia. L'amore però avrà la meglio sulla gelosia, la voglia del marito di soffocare la natura selvaggia della moglie: e questa è un po' una metafora di ciò che avviene nelle normali relazioni di coppia.
"Infine, dopo averla insultata e scacciata per più di mezz’ora, riconobbe dentro di sé che le voleva ancora bene, anzi, che l’amava profondamente malgrado tutto, al di là dell’atteggiamento che poteva fingere nei suoi confronti."
Questa fiaba di Garnett altro non è che questo: una metafora ad ampio spettro.
Una metafora della sessualità femminile indomita, della natura selvaggia femminile, della fedeltà coniugale, dell'amore e della sua cecità, del desiderio di libertà che il vero amore non limita ma incoraggia.
L'insegnamento che si può trarre, anzi che ho tratto è questo: l'amore rende liberi, non può essere soffocante. Se l'amante (nel senso di colui che ama) non accetta l'amata (nel senso di colei che è amata) in tutta la sua complessità (e questo vale anche al contrario, l'amante verso l'amato), ma la costringe a ridursi ai suoi schemi mentali e alle sue aspettative infondate, alla fine il rapporto non sarà che una delle tante forme dell'alienazione dell'amore: e sarà solo follia e morte.
Tra 3 e 4 stelle
"Il nome da nubile di Mrs Tebrick era proprio Fox, ed è possibile che un precedente, analogo miracolo abbia fruttato alla famiglia quel soprannome. Era una famiglia di antico lignaggio, che risiedeva a Tangley Hall da tempo immemorabile.
Si era sposata nel 1879 con Mr Richard Tebrick dopo un breve fidanzamento, e al termine della luna di miele la coppia si era stabilita a Rylands, vicino a Stokoe, nell’Oxfordshire."
I due continueranno a stare insieme anche se appartengono a specie diverse, adesso, e più il comportamento della volpe si discostava da quello che Mr Tebrick si aspettava da sua moglie, più "si sentiva, per così dire, punto sul vivo, e nessun tormento poteva essere più grande che vederla lasciarsi andare in quel modo."
La crisi tra i due aumenta quando viene meno la fiducia di Mr Tebrick nei confronti di Silvia. L'amore però avrà la meglio sulla gelosia, la voglia del marito di soffocare la natura selvaggia della moglie: e questa è un po' una metafora di ciò che avviene nelle normali relazioni di coppia.
"Infine, dopo averla insultata e scacciata per più di mezz’ora, riconobbe dentro di sé che le voleva ancora bene, anzi, che l’amava profondamente malgrado tutto, al di là dell’atteggiamento che poteva fingere nei suoi confronti."
Questa fiaba di Garnett altro non è che questo: una metafora ad ampio spettro.
Una metafora della sessualità femminile indomita, della natura selvaggia femminile, della fedeltà coniugale, dell'amore e della sua cecità, del desiderio di libertà che il vero amore non limita ma incoraggia.
L'insegnamento che si può trarre, anzi che ho tratto è questo: l'amore rende liberi, non può essere soffocante. Se l'amante (nel senso di colui che ama) non accetta l'amata (nel senso di colei che è amata) in tutta la sua complessità (e questo vale anche al contrario, l'amante verso l'amato), ma la costringe a ridursi ai suoi schemi mentali e alle sue aspettative infondate, alla fine il rapporto non sarà che una delle tante forme dell'alienazione dell'amore: e sarà solo follia e morte.
Tra 3 e 4 stelle
March 9, 2019
"But the strange event which I shall here relate came alone, without companions into a hostile world, and for that very reason claimed little of the general attention of mankind. For the sudden changing of Mrs. Tebrick into a vixen is an established fact which we may attempt to account for as we will."
What happens when partners in a love relationship are faced with a shocking event that has no explanation or remedy? Do they continue as man and wife considering the core changes that now separate their lifestyles, preferences, and needs? Their life story, now between different species is unheard of and unbelievable.
It is also dangerous.
This is an engaging tale of choices, commitments, and intimacy between a man and his wife who has been transformed into a fox. Outwardly, when disorder is everywhere, can internal feelings come to rule?
What happens when partners in a love relationship are faced with a shocking event that has no explanation or remedy? Do they continue as man and wife considering the core changes that now separate their lifestyles, preferences, and needs? Their life story, now between different species is unheard of and unbelievable.
It is also dangerous.
This is an engaging tale of choices, commitments, and intimacy between a man and his wife who has been transformed into a fox. Outwardly, when disorder is everywhere, can internal feelings come to rule?
April 10, 2018
Er worden tegenwoordig meer vergeten boeken (her)ontdekt dan er schatten op oude zolders worden aangetroffen, maar ook bij het in 1922 geschreven Lady into fox is de vondst goud waard.
Tijdens een wandeling met haar echtgenoot verandert een vrouw abrupt in een vos. Wat volgt is een betoverende parabel waarin een harmonisch natuurbeeld, de hardnekkigheid van ware liefde en het overlappende grensgebied tussen gedeelde innigheid en individuele vrijheid op tedere, nooit melige wijze wordt verbeeld. Reinaert krijgt concurrentie.
Tijdens een wandeling met haar echtgenoot verandert een vrouw abrupt in een vos. Wat volgt is een betoverende parabel waarin een harmonisch natuurbeeld, de hardnekkigheid van ware liefde en het overlappende grensgebied tussen gedeelde innigheid en individuele vrijheid op tedere, nooit melige wijze wordt verbeeld. Reinaert krijgt concurrentie.
January 18, 2024
A very short novella about a woman who, without warning, transforms into a fox before her husband's very eyes. He asks his servants to leave their home and chooses to look after his vixen alone. She cannot speak, but, to begin with, she maintains various human-like qualities such as eating at the table, playing cards, and dressing in clothes. But as time goes on, she increasingly loses interest in these things and begins to exhibit a more animal-like behaviour. Eventually, she digs a hole to escape the garden and her husband, initially angry, agrees to let her leave. Months later she returns with a series of cubs and appears to have settled into her life as a fox.
Where to begin with this? It's very easy to read and agreeably short. The writing is very good and it goes along at a fine pace. There is a slow build which provides all the information you need including a somewhat vague moment of drunkeness where the husband admits he behaved inappropriately with the fox (but let's say no more about that). The only issue here is how to interpret the text overall. I'm sure there are many theories and ideas regarding the underlying themes, all of which probably work and make sense. For me, there are two possibilities.
One, it is an allegory for change within relationships, the way human beings (especially in long-term relationships) will become different people as the years go by and how this will impact upon the other participant. In this case, her husband must come to terms with the fact he cannot continue forcing her to live with him. They may still care for each other but they have entirely different goals, dreams, desires, etc. The second is more complex. Throughout the text, he is understandably referred to as a madman; neighbours speak of his malaise and the fact that his wife has gone away. Is it possible that she literally left him for another man and, in his despair and anguish, he conjured up a delusional narrative which reduced her (the whore vixen) to that of a base animal? Who knows, but like I said, you can play with the hidden meanings of this book until the sun goes down.
And that's what makes it so great.
Where to begin with this? It's very easy to read and agreeably short. The writing is very good and it goes along at a fine pace. There is a slow build which provides all the information you need including a somewhat vague moment of drunkeness where the husband admits he behaved inappropriately with the fox (but let's say no more about that). The only issue here is how to interpret the text overall. I'm sure there are many theories and ideas regarding the underlying themes, all of which probably work and make sense. For me, there are two possibilities.
One, it is an allegory for change within relationships, the way human beings (especially in long-term relationships) will become different people as the years go by and how this will impact upon the other participant. In this case, her husband must come to terms with the fact he cannot continue forcing her to live with him. They may still care for each other but they have entirely different goals, dreams, desires, etc. The second is more complex. Throughout the text, he is understandably referred to as a madman; neighbours speak of his malaise and the fact that his wife has gone away. Is it possible that she literally left him for another man and, in his despair and anguish, he conjured up a delusional narrative which reduced her (the whore vixen) to that of a base animal? Who knows, but like I said, you can play with the hidden meanings of this book until the sun goes down.
And that's what makes it so great.
April 9, 2018
Om nog lang over na te denken
July 14, 2018
Een sprookje, een liefdesgeschiedenis, een psychologisch verhaal? Misschien wel alledrie. Het is in ieder geval een boek van bijna 100 jaar oud dat mij weet te boeien en aanzet tot nadenken.
November 13, 2020
נובלה בריטית קצרה ומיוחדת מאוד. ריצ'רד וסילביה טבריק הם זוג נשוי, החיים יחדיו בבית כפרי, כאשר יום אחד, לפתע, סילביה הופכת לנגד עיניו של טבריק לשועלה. טבריק מקדיש את חייו לטפל, לדאוג ולשמור על סילביה השועלה. אם בהתחלה סילביה עוד מצליחה לשמור על מידה מסוימת של אנושיות, הרי שבהמשך טבעה של חיית הבר משתלט עליה יותר ויותר, והטרנפורמציה לשועלה מושלמת. ריצ'רד מקדיש את חייו לשועלה (כמה בריטי מצידו!) מה שגורם לשפיותו להתדרדר, עד הסוף הבלתי נמנע, שמציב אותנו הקוראים על פרשת דרכים - האם מדובר בסוף טרגי, או דווקא להפך?
הנובלה היא מן הסתם אלגוריה, וניתן לפרשה בכמה דרכים. באחרית הדבר מוצגת הפרשנות של אישה נואפת, שכדי להתמודד עם חטאה, בעלה מדמה שהיא הפכה לחיה, ולמרות בגידתה, בעלה התמים עדיין מציף אותה באהבה שאינה תלויה בדבר. (אני חייבת לומר שהפרשנות - ההגיונית - הזו, קצת קוממה אותי כנגד המחבר). כשקראתי את הספר, חשבתי דווקא על אישה שמתפרצת אצלה מחלת נפש או דמנציה או מחלה קשה, והיא עוברת טרנספורמציה - היא אינה אותה אישה כפי שהיתה לפני המחלה - ובעקבות זאת נאלץ הבעל לטפל בה, וזה נותן בו את אותותיו. בכל מקרה, הנובלה מעלה סוגיות כגון מה הוא המחיר של זוגיות א-סימטרית שבה אחד הצדדים מטפל ומקדיש את חייו לצד האחר על חשבון עצמו, והאם אהבה שאינה תלויה בדבר היא אכן תמיד חיובית? מה המחיר של חיים תחת חינוך קפדני וכיצד הם יכולים להשפיע על אותם בני אדם בהמשך או לתרום להתדרדרותם? מהו האושר, ואיך אנחנו שופטים אנשים בהקשר הזה. ספר מעניין מאוד.
הנובלה היא מן הסתם אלגוריה, וניתן לפרשה בכמה דרכים. באחרית הדבר מוצגת הפרשנות של אישה נואפת, שכדי להתמודד עם חטאה, בעלה מדמה שהיא הפכה לחיה, ולמרות בגידתה, בעלה התמים עדיין מציף אותה באהבה שאינה תלויה בדבר. (אני חייבת לומר שהפרשנות - ההגיונית - הזו, קצת קוממה אותי כנגד המחבר). כשקראתי את הספר, חשבתי דווקא על אישה שמתפרצת אצלה מחלת נפש או דמנציה או מחלה קשה, והיא עוברת טרנספורמציה - היא אינה אותה אישה כפי שהיתה לפני המחלה - ובעקבות זאת נאלץ הבעל לטפל בה, וזה נותן בו את אותותיו. בכל מקרה, הנובלה מעלה סוגיות כגון מה הוא המחיר של זוגיות א-סימטרית שבה אחד הצדדים מטפל ומקדיש את חייו לצד האחר על חשבון עצמו, והאם אהבה שאינה תלויה בדבר היא אכן תמיד חיובית? מה המחיר של חיים תחת חינוך קפדני וכיצד הם יכולים להשפיע על אותם בני אדם בהמשך או לתרום להתדרדרותם? מהו האושר, ואיך אנחנו שופטים אנשים בהקשר הזה. ספר מעניין מאוד.
December 11, 2020
A very odd, fairy-tale like story of a man whose wife suddenly turns into a fox on their morning walk. Initially, he takes her back to his house, dismisses all his servants, shoots his dog, and tries to keep her safe from the hunt, but as the story progresses, her foxy natures becomes more and more dominant.
Complete with beautiful woodcut illustrations.
Complete with beautiful woodcut illustrations.
April 27, 2022
****1/2
August 19, 2022
What a wonderful weird creepy book! The version I read had beautiful woodcuts of the fox in her nightgown and sipping tea in a chair. There are lots of interesting messages in this book about gender and trauma and relationships and it's super easy to read even though it was written almost 100 years ago!
January 14, 2018
מקסים, עצוב, מעורר מחשבה.
May 8, 2024
An allegorical tale, an early example of the now-popular "shifter" genre in fiction,—in which a man watches his wife connect to her animal nature. The transformation is both sudden and then gradual.
There are touches here of the complicated feelings sharing one's wife with another man; gossip from Garnett's own life indicates this shading is informed by experience.
I didn't love this story very much, took me several tries to get through it, and I was often bored. I'm going to round down to 2 stars, because I can, and who cares.
There are touches here of the complicated feelings sharing one's wife with another man; gossip from Garnett's own life indicates this shading is informed by experience.
I didn't love this story very much, took me several tries to get through it, and I was often bored. I'm going to round down to 2 stars, because I can, and who cares.
March 7, 2020
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.
September 2, 2018
Hoe lang kan een liefde standhouden? Wat als de voorwaarden van het verbond veranderen? In Vrouw of vos van David Garnett verandert mevrouw Tebrick plotseling in een vos. Wat kan meneer Tebrick anders doen dan er bij staan, kijken en haar blijven liefhebben - tot gekmakends toe.
Een volwassen vrouw is een vos geworden. Een vos die haar oren spitst, haar snuit rimpelt. Ze dartelt en ravot. Likt de oren van manlief. Hapt zijn hand. Een wonder en een drama ineen. De vertwijfeling van echtgenoot Richard is (in-)voelbaar, zijn schaamte ook. Zijn liefde lijkt alles overstijgend, de roddels, het verdriet. Even oprecht is echtgenote Silvia of de vos in haar gedaante: onbekommerd maar ook onbetrouwbaar.
Deze subtiele novelle verscheen bijna een eeuw geleden voor het eerst. David Garnett was schrijver en boekhandelaar, boer en herder. Hij weigerde dienst in de Eerste Wereldoorlog en werkte voor de Britse geheime dienst in de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Bij Uitgeverij Cossee is dit jaar de Nederlandse editie van Lady into Fox uitgekomen. Wat een ontdekking!
Iwan Droog vertaalde Garnetts debuut uit 1922 en hij voorzag het sieraad van een verhelderend nawoord. Daarin worden andere gedaanteverwisselingen uit de literatuur benoemd – van Kafka tot Murakami en haalt de vertaler reacties op het boek aan. Staat Garnetts vos symbool voor ‘de sluwheid van de vrouw’? Is de metamorfose een teken van ontrouw? Zijn we van de natuur verwijderd geraakt?
Vrouw of vos zindert in ieder geval heerlijk na. Is het niet doordat je je afvraagt wat er echt is, dan wel omdat het een weldadig geschreven, zachtaardig verhaal is. Liefde is, heel soms, dierlijk en bovennatuurlijk.
Een volwassen vrouw is een vos geworden. Een vos die haar oren spitst, haar snuit rimpelt. Ze dartelt en ravot. Likt de oren van manlief. Hapt zijn hand. Een wonder en een drama ineen. De vertwijfeling van echtgenoot Richard is (in-)voelbaar, zijn schaamte ook. Zijn liefde lijkt alles overstijgend, de roddels, het verdriet. Even oprecht is echtgenote Silvia of de vos in haar gedaante: onbekommerd maar ook onbetrouwbaar.
Deze subtiele novelle verscheen bijna een eeuw geleden voor het eerst. David Garnett was schrijver en boekhandelaar, boer en herder. Hij weigerde dienst in de Eerste Wereldoorlog en werkte voor de Britse geheime dienst in de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Bij Uitgeverij Cossee is dit jaar de Nederlandse editie van Lady into Fox uitgekomen. Wat een ontdekking!
Iwan Droog vertaalde Garnetts debuut uit 1922 en hij voorzag het sieraad van een verhelderend nawoord. Daarin worden andere gedaanteverwisselingen uit de literatuur benoemd – van Kafka tot Murakami en haalt de vertaler reacties op het boek aan. Staat Garnetts vos symbool voor ‘de sluwheid van de vrouw’? Is de metamorfose een teken van ontrouw? Zijn we van de natuur verwijderd geraakt?
Vrouw of vos zindert in ieder geval heerlijk na. Is het niet doordat je je afvraagt wat er echt is, dan wel omdat het een weldadig geschreven, zachtaardig verhaal is. Liefde is, heel soms, dierlijk en bovennatuurlijk.
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