David Garnett (1) (1892–1981)

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 show more 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. show less

'where once his wife had been the moment before, was a small fox of a very bright red'
By sally tarbox on 16 Jan. 2012
Format: Paperback
Lady into Fox, winner of the 1922 James Tait Black Prize, is an absolutely beautiful tale. Although the theme of a young newly wed woman metamorphosing into a fox sounds improbable, Garnett writes in a calm and factual manner without a trace of whimsy. From their first days together when Silvia still retains most of her human characteristics, to the first show more signs of her becoming a real vixen (watching her pet dove with a 'strange eagerness' when her husband is trying to read to her)...How will their relationship develop?

A Man at the Zoo is an interesting concept but lacks the magic of the other. When a young couple have a blazing row at London Zoo, the man decides to go and volunteer himself as an exhibit for the ape house where he becomes a great attraction... Perhaps the somewhat unlikeable young couple spoil the story (I felt John would do better in his cage than back with Josephine) also the silliness of some situations (notably Josephine offering to go and live in a cage with him). But certainly a story to make you think. show less

I loved this. It manages to be an insightful commentary on so many relationship issues, while still remaining true to its core premise and not wandering too far into heavy allegory. The struggles Mr Tebrick goes through when his wife turns into a fox strongly resonate with the struggles of people whose partners develop mental health problems, change from when they first married them, long for freedom, wish to do things that their partner finds unnatural, want to put their needs before their show more safety, or commit adultery, and yet are fundamentally more vulpine than any of those. One cannot but feel sympathy for both Sylvia and Richard, whose lives are destroyed by the change neither of them asked for. show less

A very strange little book, but I had tears in my eyes when it was over—it's a weird, sad story.

A lady becomes a fox—just like that—and though nobody witnesses it (her husband was looking away at the instant), the change is immediate, and the fox can understand English and play cards, so we accept it as truth. It is told from a narrator's opinion of the husband's point of view, as he copes with a wife who is a fox, and as the story unfolds, a wife who increasingly becomes foxlike.

My show more mother (who is keen to ask me what the theme or message of a book was, thinking that's something they all must have, based on her chosen diet of books) would probably like this one. I suspect there's a theme or message there for the taking. I try not to worry about such things. But it held my interest, got extra points for being utterly strange, I felt the author played fair given the premise, and it moved me.

It's freely available at Project Gutenberg, with the original illustrations—I finally broke down and learned how to download-and-transfer-to-Kindle, so I could read this in bed, and it couldn't have been easier once I identified my Kindle folder! Luddites, give it a try.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). show less