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A Man In The Zoo & Lady into Fox
In a fit of spurned love, a lover arranges to be what his lover declares he should be - an exhibit in the zoo.
Lady Into A Victorian gentleman's wife, after only one year of marriage, turns into a fox, yet he continues to live with her as husband and wife. (An enchanting pre-war classic republished for a new generation
Lady Into A Victorian gentleman's wife, after only one year of marriage, turns into a fox, yet he continues to live with her as husband and wife. (An enchanting pre-war classic republished for a new generation
146 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1924
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262 people want to read
About the author
David Garnett
95 books42 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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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
November 30, 2019
Lady into Fox - 3 stars. Fun and bizarre magical realism about a sudden transformation, coming a decade after Kafka's Metamorphosis. Maybe it's an allegory about women's changing place in society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Maybe it's about nothing.
A Man in the Zoo - 1 star. Fascinating and surreal until the last 15 pages or so, when it takes a devastating nose dive that contemporary readers may find difficult to tolerate (I did, particularly the very end and certain details of it).
A Man in the Zoo - 1 star. Fascinating and surreal until the last 15 pages or so, when it takes a devastating nose dive that contemporary readers may find difficult to tolerate (I did, particularly the very end and certain details of it).
October 16, 2022
Two bizarre novellas by one of more peripheral members of Bloomsbury set. The first, Lady into Fox, is literally about a recently-married woman who turns into a fox, and her husband's continuing love for her. The second, again with a literal title, is about a man who, by his own request, is exhibited in a cage at the zoo after a bitter argument with his fiancee. A Man in the Zoo was marred by some racist language (the N word) at the end.
December 16, 2022
Two wonderful and weird stories
December 3, 2009
Earlier this year I fell in love with David Garnett’s Lady Into Fox. I had been strong-minded and not bought a copy but ordered it up from the library. But after reading I knew that I had to have a copy – and to track down the author’s other work. So I was thrilled to uncover a tatty volume in a bargain box. Not just Lady Into Fox, but a new and unknown novella too – A Man in the Zoo.
I was a little worried though. Two novellas with animal themes pairs together. Might the second be just a reworking or a retread. I should have had more faith. There are common reference points, but A Man in the Zoo is an altogether different tale.
The story opens with a young couple – John Cromartie and Josephine Lackett – visiting the zoo. Sadly they have fallen out. Josephine’s parents do not approve of John. He wants them to be married regardless, but she is reluctant to fall out with her family.
Exasperated, John compares his situation with the caged animals they are viewing. And decides to join them as an exhibit.
Yes, really! David Garnett has the wonderful talent of making such an absurd idea seem entirely possible.
John’s proposal is accepted by the Zoo’s Board, and he packs his bags and takes up residence in a new cage in the Ape-house. Visitors are intrigued, and flock to see the new exhibit. Occupants of neighbouring cages are first curious, then accepting, but sometimes jealous of the interest that John excites.
At first Josephine reacts with horror and refuses to even contemplate visiting the zoo, but eventually she is drawn there and reacts with concern and then interest.
So what happens in the end? That would be telling! The tale has many twists and turns in its 115 pages on the way to before reaching a conclusion that is entirely right.
A Man in the Zoo is, on the surface a simple fable. But there is much more than that below the surface, and so much insight into the human condition and how human society works. That sounds a little heavy, but trust me, the book is anything but.
David Garnett’s knack of making the unbelievable seem entirely possible means that the story works from start to finish. His prose is clear, simple and so very readable. His storytelling is just perfect.
I have a couple more of his novellas on the shelf, and I am looking forward to them all the more now.
And just one more thing. My copy of A Man in the Zoo came complete with a newspaper cutting that a previous owner must have tucked away. It suggests there was a proposal that Charlie Chaplin make a film of A Man in the Zoo. I’m so sorry that it came to nothing – it could have been quite wonderful!
I was a little worried though. Two novellas with animal themes pairs together. Might the second be just a reworking or a retread. I should have had more faith. There are common reference points, but A Man in the Zoo is an altogether different tale.
The story opens with a young couple – John Cromartie and Josephine Lackett – visiting the zoo. Sadly they have fallen out. Josephine’s parents do not approve of John. He wants them to be married regardless, but she is reluctant to fall out with her family.
Exasperated, John compares his situation with the caged animals they are viewing. And decides to join them as an exhibit.
Yes, really! David Garnett has the wonderful talent of making such an absurd idea seem entirely possible.
John’s proposal is accepted by the Zoo’s Board, and he packs his bags and takes up residence in a new cage in the Ape-house. Visitors are intrigued, and flock to see the new exhibit. Occupants of neighbouring cages are first curious, then accepting, but sometimes jealous of the interest that John excites.
At first Josephine reacts with horror and refuses to even contemplate visiting the zoo, but eventually she is drawn there and reacts with concern and then interest.
So what happens in the end? That would be telling! The tale has many twists and turns in its 115 pages on the way to before reaching a conclusion that is entirely right.
A Man in the Zoo is, on the surface a simple fable. But there is much more than that below the surface, and so much insight into the human condition and how human society works. That sounds a little heavy, but trust me, the book is anything but.
David Garnett’s knack of making the unbelievable seem entirely possible means that the story works from start to finish. His prose is clear, simple and so very readable. His storytelling is just perfect.
I have a couple more of his novellas on the shelf, and I am looking forward to them all the more now.
And just one more thing. My copy of A Man in the Zoo came complete with a newspaper cutting that a previous owner must have tucked away. It suggests there was a proposal that Charlie Chaplin make a film of A Man in the Zoo. I’m so sorry that it came to nothing – it could have been quite wonderful!
July 17, 2017
(Spojler alert) Člověk v zoologické zahradě (spojler alert konec) je o člověku v zoologické zahradě, přesněji řečeno o jednom troubovi, kterej se tam nechá zavřít jako exemplář po jedné hádce se svojí buchtičkou. Tu chce, pak nechce, ona ho nechce, pak chce, pak nechce, pak on nechce ji, pak myslí, že ji chce nechtít a ona tuší, že chce, že to nechce, načež chce, ale on zase nechce ji, takže se nechtějí, ale pak si to vyříkají takže se chtějí, ale on zase nechce, ona pak taky moc neví co chce, no a pak se dohodnou, že se chtějí a je konec. V této knize bych tedy především ocenil myšlenkové pochody britských milenců počátku dvacátého století, kteří kdyby v současné době přišli do Starbucks a viděli 80 druhů kýblů s kafetem, tak by jim asi explodoval mozek. Slabší novela, slabší děj, slabší konec. Takže dávám tři body za to, že se mi knížka vešla do náprsní kapsy a měl jsem tedy za chůze levou ruku volnou pro občasné poškrábání na pytlíku.
July 12, 2015
A man broken by love commits himself to living in the Ape-house at the Zoo. He befriends a caracal. He is attacked by an orangutan. And occasionally, love comes to visit him through the bars of his cage.
"That evening Cromartie could not keep still. When the chairs presumed to stand in his path he knocked them over, but he found that merely upsetting the furniture was not enough to restore his peace of mind. It was then that Mr. Cromartie made a singular determination...somehow or other to get himself exhibited in the Zoo, as if he were part of the menagerie."
"That evening Cromartie could not keep still. When the chairs presumed to stand in his path he knocked them over, but he found that merely upsetting the furniture was not enough to restore his peace of mind. It was then that Mr. Cromartie made a singular determination...somehow or other to get himself exhibited in the Zoo, as if he were part of the menagerie."
July 22, 2007
so this dude breaks up with his girl at a zoo. out of rejection and as a way to prove a point, this dude offers to have himself put on exhibit between the chimpanzee and the orang-outang.
September 16, 2021
I knew nothing about this book or its author before reading it, so I came to it with no preconceptions - I had a vague idea that possibly Garnett was associated with the Bloomsbury crowd - and in fact I haven't checked yet. Just an intriguing title.
Two eccentric and unusual stories. Perhaps they are allegorically sardonic meditations on, respectively, conjugal and romantic love, and (both) on the difficulty of knowing another person, especially, in AMITZ, a person one hardly sees, and the ease of conjuring feelings out of imagination. Then again, maybe not. I'll have to see what other people say about it after posting this.
In any case, the fantastical premises give them interest, and Garnett sustains it quite well, especially in LIF (though that had the advantage of coming first, of course). They are both a little claustrophobic, in that the cast of characters is very restricted and the field of action too. In my copy, a 1932 reprint, they are (pleasingly) illustrated with wood engravings, and I felt that the style of the writing had something of an analogous quality, for better and worse. Not that the writing is wooden, but that the stories are two series of rather static tableaux. I got a bit impatient, because of that I think, in the second half of AMITZ.
Two eccentric and unusual stories. Perhaps they are allegorically sardonic meditations on, respectively, conjugal and romantic love, and (both) on the difficulty of knowing another person, especially, in AMITZ, a person one hardly sees, and the ease of conjuring feelings out of imagination. Then again, maybe not. I'll have to see what other people say about it after posting this.
In any case, the fantastical premises give them interest, and Garnett sustains it quite well, especially in LIF (though that had the advantage of coming first, of course). They are both a little claustrophobic, in that the cast of characters is very restricted and the field of action too. In my copy, a 1932 reprint, they are (pleasingly) illustrated with wood engravings, and I felt that the style of the writing had something of an analogous quality, for better and worse. Not that the writing is wooden, but that the stories are two series of rather static tableaux. I got a bit impatient, because of that I think, in the second half of AMITZ.
June 21, 2018
(Spoiler alert) Dáma v lišku je o dáme, ktorá sa premení v líšku (spoiler alert koniec). Jedného dňa ide chlapík s manželkou do lesa a zrazu pozerá, že je z nej líška. Namiesto toho, aby bol rád, že sa z nej nestala krava alebo husa, čo sa údajne tiež občas deje, je z toho celý nešťastný, varí jej čaj a chytá králiky, a ušije jej pyžamko, aby nemusela chodiť nahá. Sex nemajú, čo je škoda. Do toho sa vloží starý lišiak a manželka vrhne, a...no, je to také ako to znie. Dosť ma však bavilo znázornenie myšlienkových pochodov britských párov na počiatku 20. storočia, ktorí keby si dali rande dnes, tak by im asi explodoval mozog:) Kniha sa nečíta zle, celkovo však ale časom začne byť to rozkročenie niekde medzi rozprávkou od Trošku a antickou drámou otravné. Slabšia novelka, slabší dej, slabší koniec. Dávam 3*, že si to ty, Garnette!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 2, 2025
Two short novellas whose titles more or less encapsulate their plots. Both should have been interesting, but for the most part weren’t – at least to me.
The problem is that David Garnett wrote with all the panache normally reserved for the proceedings of a local natural history society. Maybe this was deliberate, as a counterbalance to the fantastical events described. But, deliberate or not, it made for a disappointingly flat and uninspiring read.
Both resemble fables – short stories with a moral or lesson. Yet trying to extract a meaning from either is pretty hopeless. Lady into Fox in particular seems to have been confidently interpreted in a host of allegorical ways by different critics and commentators, none of them entirely convincing. David Garnett himself stated that “the value of all works of art is their face-value and not a hidden value” which, if true, would mean that these are just club stories about a man caged in a zoo and a woman who turns into a fox.
I had hoped for something more.
The problem is that David Garnett wrote with all the panache normally reserved for the proceedings of a local natural history society. Maybe this was deliberate, as a counterbalance to the fantastical events described. But, deliberate or not, it made for a disappointingly flat and uninspiring read.
Both resemble fables – short stories with a moral or lesson. Yet trying to extract a meaning from either is pretty hopeless. Lady into Fox in particular seems to have been confidently interpreted in a host of allegorical ways by different critics and commentators, none of them entirely convincing. David Garnett himself stated that “the value of all works of art is their face-value and not a hidden value” which, if true, would mean that these are just club stories about a man caged in a zoo and a woman who turns into a fox.
I had hoped for something more.
May 31, 2024
I was completely unprepared for these two short novellas. From the picture on the default goodreads edition, you expect a children's story, but these are smart "thought experiment" books, obviously for adults.
In the first book, a man and a woman have a fight and break up while visiting a zoo. After being told by his now ex that he might as well be in a cage with the rest of the Great Apes, the man writes to the zoo, points out that they are missing an important ape specimen, and volunteers himself for the exhibit. This story would have been close to perfect were it not for the strange/racist ending which came pretty close to ruining it for me.
In the second book, a husband/wife are watching a fox hunt which he loves and she hates when suddenly she is transformed into a fox. The loyal husband recognizer the vixen as his wife, and proceeds to care for her as she gets further away from her human self and becomes more and more like a wild animal.
This would have been a 5 star read for me were it not for the final part of A Man In The Zoo.
In the first book, a man and a woman have a fight and break up while visiting a zoo. After being told by his now ex that he might as well be in a cage with the rest of the Great Apes, the man writes to the zoo, points out that they are missing an important ape specimen, and volunteers himself for the exhibit. This story would have been close to perfect were it not for the strange/racist ending which came pretty close to ruining it for me.
In the second book, a husband/wife are watching a fox hunt which he loves and she hates when suddenly she is transformed into a fox. The loyal husband recognizer the vixen as his wife, and proceeds to care for her as she gets further away from her human self and becomes more and more like a wild animal.
This would have been a 5 star read for me were it not for the final part of A Man In The Zoo.
April 18, 2019
Fantastical, droll, strange: these words apply to both of the stories in this little book, published in 1923 and 1924. A young woman suddenly turns into a red fox, but still seems to be herself, so her husband takes her home and tries to carry on their life together. A man who has been rejected by the woman he loves decides to offer himself as an exhibit in the zoo, which changes their relationship, too.
August 9, 2019
Quote:
Now was his peace of mind all gone, the happiness which he had flattered himself the night before he knew so well how to enjoy, seemed now but a fool's paradise in which he had been living. ("Lady into Fox", p. 74)
February 27, 2018
Entretenido, momentos divertidos, pero nada que me parezca trascendente.
October 13, 2018
In the same edition as "Lady into Fox". Very odd premise.
December 1, 2018
Brilliantly weird and satirical.
February 19, 2020
Forgettable pair of stories - humorous at times, but both are so verbose and drawn out that they’re just not that enjoyable.
July 17, 2025
Lady into fox: very disturbing and contains bestiality.
A man in the zoo: thought-provoking and interesting but not my favorite.
A man in the zoo: thought-provoking and interesting but not my favorite.
July 10, 2019
Apparently Charlie Chaplin made a proposal to make a film of A Man in the Zoo. This could have been quite wonderful, as David Garnett sets out the scene so straightforwardly simple but touching base nonetheless. A lover’s quarrel ends up in an anthropologically interesting experiment in which man is seen as the most evolved specimen. Is he really? Brilliantly weird and satirical is this little story, to say the least.
December 12, 2020
The two stories, ‘Woman into Fox’ and ‘Man in the Zoo’ are two stories that do exactly what they say. One is about a woman who turns into a fox and the other is a story about a man who lives in the zoo. There’s a fable-like quality to the stories that is largely driven by the matter-of-fact nature of their telling. This matter-of-fact nature grounds the stories and provides a great deal of humour whilst unsettling the reader at the same time.
I’m sure ‘Woman into Fox’ was trying to say something but what it was saying was a little beyond me. There were times it seemed to be saying that the husband, while accepting and wholly loving of the socially acceptable sides of femininity was terrified of the sides he perceives as more instinctive and animal. Certainly being a a fox is distinguished as being different to a fox but both are women. There’s even a part where he feels cuckolded by a dog fox when his wife, now fully integrated in her animal life, has puppies. The fact he still sees the vixen as his wife and the puppies as something like his children, is very disturbing. Naturally, the story does not have a happy end.
In some ways ‘Man in the Zoo’ is more straightforward. A man is a total tit and to make his girlfriend feel jealous because she won’t commit to him, and him alone, he signs up to become an exhibit at the ape house of London Zoo. Initially he is placed between the Orang-Utan and the Chimpanzee and the other two apes grow to hate him because he gets all the attention. Eventually the Orang-Utan assaults him and while he is being checked up medically (I was hoping by a vet) another man in moved into the cage next door and the ape house is on the way to being the man house. Whilst there is certainly an element of racism (and a whole heap of n-word), I don’t think the man is less happy with his place in the zoo because the person in the cage next door is black, or even because he is chatty but because with another man next door, he is no longer the unique man in the zoo. He is still too stubborn to leave his cage though and agrees to marry his girlfriend, only if she moves into the cage with him. She agrees but the zoo say they can’t do that and release the man to again be with his girl. I didn’t want him to have a particularly happy ending, I wanted him living a pointless life of being stared at and ridiculed because he is a cockwomble.
Whilst both of these novellas are uncomfortable, they are extremely interesting and I wouldn’t hesitate by trying other works by this author, he seems a rather interesting if not very pleasant sort of person - though he was from Brighton, so he has that going for him.
I’m sure ‘Woman into Fox’ was trying to say something but what it was saying was a little beyond me. There were times it seemed to be saying that the husband, while accepting and wholly loving of the socially acceptable sides of femininity was terrified of the sides he perceives as more instinctive and animal. Certainly being a a fox is distinguished as being different to a fox but both are women. There’s even a part where he feels cuckolded by a dog fox when his wife, now fully integrated in her animal life, has puppies. The fact he still sees the vixen as his wife and the puppies as something like his children, is very disturbing. Naturally, the story does not have a happy end.
In some ways ‘Man in the Zoo’ is more straightforward. A man is a total tit and to make his girlfriend feel jealous because she won’t commit to him, and him alone, he signs up to become an exhibit at the ape house of London Zoo. Initially he is placed between the Orang-Utan and the Chimpanzee and the other two apes grow to hate him because he gets all the attention. Eventually the Orang-Utan assaults him and while he is being checked up medically (I was hoping by a vet) another man in moved into the cage next door and the ape house is on the way to being the man house. Whilst there is certainly an element of racism (and a whole heap of n-word), I don’t think the man is less happy with his place in the zoo because the person in the cage next door is black, or even because he is chatty but because with another man next door, he is no longer the unique man in the zoo. He is still too stubborn to leave his cage though and agrees to marry his girlfriend, only if she moves into the cage with him. She agrees but the zoo say they can’t do that and release the man to again be with his girl. I didn’t want him to have a particularly happy ending, I wanted him living a pointless life of being stared at and ridiculed because he is a cockwomble.
Whilst both of these novellas are uncomfortable, they are extremely interesting and I wouldn’t hesitate by trying other works by this author, he seems a rather interesting if not very pleasant sort of person - though he was from Brighton, so he has that going for him.
June 3, 2015
A post WWI fable about a man who, after a bitter argument with his fiancée, offers himself as an exhibit in a zoo in a bid to help the public accept Darwin's theories. This was probably a much more innovative idea in 1924, when the novella was originally published, than in the modern day of webcams and constant exhibitionism. But the story has a bit more going for it than just the premise. It is a thoughtful look at voluntary imprisonment and mental illness. The main character's increasing feels being trapped in the role of a zoo animal, and feels sure the zoo will never allow him to leave, as the public want "to visit their particular friends, Sam, Sadie and Rollo, and not merely to look at any polar bear, orang or king penguin." In the hands of another author, A Man in the Zoo could have been a Kafkaesque nightmare, but the novella ends all too abruptly in an anticlimax of unconvincing heteronormativity and ugly racism.
March 6, 2014
Condition: Used - Good
Sold by: seagull_bookstore_uk £1.50
I love how he settles down to read The Golden Bough A Study in Magic and Religion and then later Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Sold by: seagull_bookstore_uk £1.50
I love how he settles down to read The Golden Bough A Study in Magic and Religion and then later Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 22, 2010
this is one of those books i swiped from a shelf in the house because it was thin and fit in the purse i was using at the time. it sounded like an intriguing story (when they say "vixen" they mean it literally, so i quickly learned!). it has so far exceeded my expectations. you know how some people can be so funny even though they are simply being straightforward? that's the best way to describe lady into fox. that, and "cute."
April 18, 2011
This just arrived. This is not the edition I have. They sent an ancient (first edition) hardback - it's quite beautiful. I can hardly wait to make a start.
This was a very odd story. Absurdist and yet compelling and plausible. A man gets pissed with his girlfriend (I thought unreasonably so) and decides to live in the zoo with the other apes. People come and stare - all the while he ignores them, reading or writing letters. And then....well, read it for yourself.
This was a very odd story. Absurdist and yet compelling and plausible. A man gets pissed with his girlfriend (I thought unreasonably so) and decides to live in the zoo with the other apes. People come and stare - all the while he ignores them, reading or writing letters. And then....well, read it for yourself.
December 29, 2014
Posting onto Susie and Judy
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews