Lady Into Fox
Publisher: Standard Ebooks
Published: 2022
Language: eng
Subjects: Fantasy fiction, English; Metamorphosis -- Fiction; Foxes -- Fiction; Fantasy
Description: <p>A newly-married couple are taking a leisurely walk through the woods in England when, without warning, the woman suddenly transforms into a fox. The grief-stricken husband does his best to look after his transformed wife after this astonishing change.</p> <p>That’s the unlikely premise of <i>Lady Into Fox</i>. Other than the mysterious transformation of the woman, this short work is otherwise completely realistic, placing it in the category of contemporary fantasy or magic realism.</p> <p>Published in 1922, the book quickly attracted critical attention and praise. It won both the <a href="https://standardebooks.org/collections/james-tait-black-memorial-fiction-prize-winners">James Tait Black Memorial Prize</a> and the <a href="https://standardebooks.org/collections/hawthornden-prize-winners">Hawthornden Prize</a>, and was included by the writer Rebecca West in a list of the “best imaginative productions” of the 1920s alongside <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/virginia-woolf">Virginia Woolf’s</a> <i>Orlando</i>.</p> <p><i>Lady Into Fox</i> was turned into a ballet in 1939 by the choreographer Andrée Howard, with music based on piano pieces by Arthur Hoenegger. Performed by Ballet Rambert, it was apparently a success.</p> <p>In 1960, a French writer using the pseudonym “Vercours” wrote a novel titled <i>Sylva</i> directly inspired by <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/david-garnett">Garnett’s</a> novel, in which the reverse transformation occurs: a fox on the run from a hunt is transformed into a naked young woman, who is taken in and cared for by the owner of a nearby manor. This novel, translated into English, was nominated for Best Novel in the Hugo Awards presented by the World Science Fiction Convention in 1963.</p>