Once again, my local public library delivered. I had learned about this book through an article a couple of years back, and I thought I’d never be able to find it. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find a translated copy of it in the library – and was an interesting book indeed.
Lady Into Fox is a 1922 novel (although its length would make it mostly a novella), by the British author David Garnett.
The quiet and idyllic life of Richard Tebrick in the English countryside, is suddenly interrupted when one day, his young wife Silvia, unexpectedly turns into a fox. From that point on, Richard tries to care for his wife and continue their lives as they were up to that point, although the Laws of Nature will quickly overcome his attempts at normality.
There are a lot of ideas cramped into such a short novel (less than 100 pages). The whole magical affair between Richard and Silvia, who, although at first still retains human characteristics despite her metamorphosis, starts to change even more, can be read through various different lens: as a commentary on the traditional, patriarchal family and the role of women in it, the relationship between the modern Man and the natural world, and the meaning of being “Human” more broadly.
The novel is pretty short as I said, and it’s in the public domain, so it can be easily found in a site like Project Gutenberg. If you like stuff like Aesop’s parables etc., you can treat this story as something similar, in a way. It’s quite easily digestible.
by A_Guy195