Jumbo: This Being the True Story of the Greatest Elephant in the World

This book was unremittingly sad. From the opening scenes wherein Jumbo's mother is brutally murdered in front of baby Jumbo to the tragic end of the elephant's life, this book catalogs the Victorian attitude toward exotic animals with clinical dispassion. The story is very interesting and the book well written. I wish I thought we'd learned something about the care and conservation of wildlife in the interim.

This is a “biography” of the African elephant who gave the world a new word for large, gigantic, stupendous, huge, magnificent: Jumbo.

Chambers details how the young calf was captured by nomadic Hamran traders, and subsequently, through the hands of various dealers in exotic animals, delivered to the zoo in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. That facility eventually sold the young animal to the London Zoological Society, where he came under the care of Matthew Scott, who would become his champion and life-long keeper, and where Jumbo became the darling of Victorian England.

I’d heard of Jumbo before, but only as part of P T Barnum’s circus. I found it fascinating to learn how the giant elephant was trained and treated while at the show more London zoo, the thousands of children who received rides on his back, and the outcry on learning that Barnum would take the beloved elephant to America. I also appreciated learning more about the various personalities surrounding Jumbo, from Scott to the head of the London’s Zoological Garden, Abraham Bartlett, to P T Barnum.

I am an admitted fanatic when it comes to elephants, but even I lost interest a few times. And I think that readers who don’t want to read about any mistreatment of animals would best avoid this work. (It’s historically accurate, but that doesn’t make it easier to take.) show less

Well researched but poorly written. Quite disappointed, I had high hopes for this one.