What do you think?
Rate this book
The City Jungle
Get to know the lives and longings of animals in a city zoo in this time-honored tale from the author of Bambi .
The animals of the city zoo miss their homes. While they appreciate the company of one another, they have a fierce longing to be free of the daily visitors, the city sounds—and most of all, the bars to their cages.
Vasta the mouse is the only animal who is not behind bars. She uses her freedom to travel from cage to cage, visiting Yppa the orangutan and her young son Tikki, Hella the proud lioness and her two cubs, Mino the crazy fox, Pardinos the friendly elephant, and Hallo the tame wolf.
The zookeepers and visitors have no idea what life is really like in this city jungle, but Felix Salten’s depiction of these animals’ stories is brought vividly to life in this beautiful repackage.
The animals of the city zoo miss their homes. While they appreciate the company of one another, they have a fierce longing to be free of the daily visitors, the city sounds—and most of all, the bars to their cages.
Vasta the mouse is the only animal who is not behind bars. She uses her freedom to travel from cage to cage, visiting Yppa the orangutan and her young son Tikki, Hella the proud lioness and her two cubs, Mino the crazy fox, Pardinos the friendly elephant, and Hallo the tame wolf.
The zookeepers and visitors have no idea what life is really like in this city jungle, but Felix Salten’s depiction of these animals’ stories is brought vividly to life in this beautiful repackage.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1932
1 person is currently reading
69 people want to read
About the author
Felix Salten
316 books114 followersThere is more than one author with this Name.
Felix Salten was an Austrian writer. He was born Siegmund Salzmann in Budapest, Hungary. When he was three weeks old, his family moved to Vienna, Austria. Many Jews were immigrating into the city in the late 19th century because Vienna had finally granted full citizenship to Jews in 1867.
When his father went bankrupt, Felix had to quit school and begin working in an insurance agency. He also began submitting poems and book reviews to journals. He became part of the Young Vienna movement (Jung Wien) and soon received work as a full-time art and theater critic in the Vienna press. In 1901 he founded Vienna's first, short-lived literary cabaret. In 1900 he published his first collection of short stories. He was soon publishing, on an average, one book a year, of plays, short stories, novels, travel books, and essay collections. He also wrote for nearly all the major newspapers of Vienna. He wrote film scripts and librettos for operettas. In 1927 he became president of the Austrian P.E.N. club. (acronym of the International Association of Poets and Playwrights, Essayists and Editors, and Novelists)
His most famous work is Bambi, which he wrote in 1923. It was translated into English in 1928 and became a Book-of-the-Month Club hit. In 1933, he sold the film rights to Sidney Franklin for $1,000, who later transferred the rights to the Walt Disney studios. Disney released its movie based on Bambi in 1942.
Life in Austria became perilous for a prominent Jew in the 1930s. Adolf Hitler had Salten's books banned in 1936. Two years later (1938), after Austria had become part of Germany, Salten moved to Zurich, Switzerland, where he lived until his death.
He was married to the actress Ottilie Metzl, and had two children: Paul and Anna-Katherina. He wrote another book based on the character Bambi, titled Bambi's Children: The Story of a Forest Family, 1939. His stories "Perri" and "The Hound of Florence" inspired the Disney films Perri and The Shaggy Dog.
Salten is considered to be the author of the erotic novel Josephine Mutzenbacher, the fictional autobiography of a Vienna prostitute, which was published in 1906.
Felix Salten was an Austrian writer. He was born Siegmund Salzmann in Budapest, Hungary. When he was three weeks old, his family moved to Vienna, Austria. Many Jews were immigrating into the city in the late 19th century because Vienna had finally granted full citizenship to Jews in 1867.
When his father went bankrupt, Felix had to quit school and begin working in an insurance agency. He also began submitting poems and book reviews to journals. He became part of the Young Vienna movement (Jung Wien) and soon received work as a full-time art and theater critic in the Vienna press. In 1901 he founded Vienna's first, short-lived literary cabaret. In 1900 he published his first collection of short stories. He was soon publishing, on an average, one book a year, of plays, short stories, novels, travel books, and essay collections. He also wrote for nearly all the major newspapers of Vienna. He wrote film scripts and librettos for operettas. In 1927 he became president of the Austrian P.E.N. club. (acronym of the International Association of Poets and Playwrights, Essayists and Editors, and Novelists)
His most famous work is Bambi, which he wrote in 1923. It was translated into English in 1928 and became a Book-of-the-Month Club hit. In 1933, he sold the film rights to Sidney Franklin for $1,000, who later transferred the rights to the Walt Disney studios. Disney released its movie based on Bambi in 1942.
Life in Austria became perilous for a prominent Jew in the 1930s. Adolf Hitler had Salten's books banned in 1936. Two years later (1938), after Austria had become part of Germany, Salten moved to Zurich, Switzerland, where he lived until his death.
He was married to the actress Ottilie Metzl, and had two children: Paul and Anna-Katherina. He wrote another book based on the character Bambi, titled Bambi's Children: The Story of a Forest Family, 1939. His stories "Perri" and "The Hound of Florence" inspired the Disney films Perri and The Shaggy Dog.
Salten is considered to be the author of the erotic novel Josephine Mutzenbacher, the fictional autobiography of a Vienna prostitute, which was published in 1906.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 5, 2015
From the moment I opened this book and read the first page I knew that I recognized the style. In looking at the other books that the author has written I found out why. Years and years ago, I read another book by him: Bambi. One can definitely tell that this book was written in a different era given its language and overall tone. Unlike Bambi though, this book was rather unpleasant. It was one long meandering without purpose. The only real message within the book that seemed to come across is that life in the zoo is torturous. Well, maybe that's true, but a plot would still be nice.
August 28, 2025
It was a really interesting and very well-written children’s animal chapter book. In my opinion, I think it’s one of the best Felix Salten animal books I’ve ever read in my whole life. I really recommend this one to both children and adults.
January 5, 2015
Mr. Salten’s description of the thoughts, feelings and actions of the various zoo denizens does not necessarily admit to a preternatural understanding of the animal mind. What gradually unfolds, however, are creatures who reflect the humanity around them. The animals in captivity display a pitiful dignity while at the same time showing that they are delusional, mad, vicious, quarrelsome, despairing, playful or majestically blind. They view mankind with varying degrees of gratitude, awe, bafflement, hatred, violence or callous indifference.
As the novel proceeds, you realize that the animals’s uncomprehending, confused and conflicting notions about the nature of Man are comparable to that of man’s attitude towards God. The revelation is so stunning that it makes you reel. This book is alternately sublime and silly, cheerful and wrenching with grief.
The language in this small book engenders emotions uplifting and tender, even when they crush with the implications of shame. Mr. Salten may have written this ostensibly for children but the adult themes raise this far above mere children’s literature.
As the novel proceeds, you realize that the animals’s uncomprehending, confused and conflicting notions about the nature of Man are comparable to that of man’s attitude towards God. The revelation is so stunning that it makes you reel. This book is alternately sublime and silly, cheerful and wrenching with grief.
The language in this small book engenders emotions uplifting and tender, even when they crush with the implications of shame. Mr. Salten may have written this ostensibly for children but the adult themes raise this far above mere children’s literature.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews