Since I’m recovering from surgery this month, here is a briefer than usual recommendation for something short and strange – Lady Into Fox by David Garnett (1892-1981). This prize-winning novella was first published in 1922, illustrated with charming woodcuts by Garnett’s first wife, Rachel Marshall Garnett. It has rarely been out of print since. You could download the story for free via Project Gutenberg or find an audiobook version but the best option is a paperback edition with the original illustrations.

At the start of the story the narrator introduces us to Richard and Sylvia Tebrick, a young married couple living quietly in the Oxfordshire countryside during the late 19th century. One winter’s day when they are out for a walk, Sylvia is suddenly transformed into a fox. The local Fox-hunt is nearby but Richard hides the trembling Sylvia inside his jacket. After dark, he carries her home and takes ruthless measures to ensure that nobody finds out what has happened. The servants are dismissed and the dogs are disposed of. Richard tries to treat his wife as if she was still human, dressing her up in some of Sylvia’s clothes and bringing her to eat formal meals at the dining table. At first, Sylvia seems to cling to her human memories but gradually her wilder, animal instincts begin to influence her behaviour.

The only other person who still recognizes Sylvia is her former nanny, the strict Mrs Cork. She comes to look after the household and tries to force Sylvia to behave like a well brought-up young lady again. Rumours are going round the neighbourhood that Mrs Tebrick has run off with another man and that her husband has gone mad with grief. Richard decides to shut up his house and pretend they are going abroad while actually moving into Nanny Cork’s isolated cottage. Sylvia hates being shut up inside the cottage and eventually manages to escape into the nearby woods. Although she still recognizes her husband, Sylvia begins to live as a wild vixen and finds a fox-mate. Richard struggles to accept her choices and as winter arrives the threat of the Hunt draws ever nearer…

In Lady into Fox, the narrator identifies himself as David Garnett, a natural sceptic who is telling a true story without being able to explain it. This is a common literary device but who was the real David Garnett? Well he was a talented writer and publisher who embedded himself in the Bloomsbury Group (pun intended) and enjoyed his bohemian life style with the kind of supreme selfishness usually reserved for cats. At one point he lived at the famous Charleston House with his lover, the painter Duncan Grant (Lady into Fox is dedicated to him) and Duncan’s lover, painter Vanessa Bell (a sister of novelist Virginia Woolf). Later he married Duncan and Vanessa’s daughter Angelica, who was 26 years his junior. Even other members of the Bloomsbury Group thought this was a bit much but the tempestuous marriage managed to produce four cubs – sorry, daughters – and helped to inspire Garnett’s best known novel Aspects of Love (1955).

If you are interested in the history of the writers, artists and intellectuals of the Bloomsbury Group, Lady into Fox is essential reading. It is often described as an allegory and the novella uses Sylvia’s transformation to illustrate the ways that Garnett and his friends and lovers were defiantly breaking the social and sexual conventions of their day. I do note that even in this fantasy, the leading female character pays a heavy price for her new freedoms while the leading male character can just return to his privileged place in society. Personally I am not a great admirer of the Bloomsbury life style, especially when I consider the trail of devastation left behind by some of their unconventional relationships. I have to struggle to separate my dislike of Garnett as a person from my view of him as a writer but I think this is an effort worth making.

In Lady into Fox Garnett is a sharp-eyed but compassionate narrator. He writes with wit and charm which persuades readers to accept the extraordinary premise of this story. Garnett studied Zoology and Botany at the Royal College of Science so it shouldn’t be surprising that he describes the flora and fauna of the English countryside with knowledge and sensitivity. The scenes involving the natural life of foxes are delightful, especially after Sylvia produces cubs, but the menace of the Hunt, that embodiment of the crueller aspects of conventional society, hangs over the whole book.

Above all, Lady into Fox is a story about testing the limits of love. Richard Tebrick is initially presented as a devoted husband who passionately vows to continue loving and protecting his wife however much she has changed. Gradually the narrator makes it clear what a controlling husband Richard has been to shy inexperienced Sylvia. There is a lot of absurd humour in the early scenes in which Richard behaves as if his vixen-wife is still the perfect English gentlewoman. He dresses her up like a doll and essentially that is the way he has always treated her. Most readers will cheer when Sylvia starts ripping off her clothes and chasing ducks. Richard never becomes likeable but he is shown as making genuine efforts to overcome jealousy and to allow Sylvia to live her new animal life to the full. The scenes in which he plays with her five cubs (one of whom is named Angelica) are genuinely touching.

So, whether or not you are into the Bloomsbury Group, I suggest that you give this classic What If? fantasy a try and see where it takes your thoughts and feelings. Until next month…

Geraldine Harris

November 2024