# 2026-05-26 - Lady Into Fox by David Garnett
       
   IMG Fox Woman Illustration
       
       Lady Into Fox (1922) is a story about a newlywed English couple who
       go on a walk in the woods and the wife abruptly turns into a fox.  I
       expected a whimsical child's tale, but no, this story is serious.
       Lady Into Fox is a relatively short read and i recommend it.
       
       It reminded me a lot of another book i read, The Fox Woman (1999) by
       Kij Johnson, which is set in Japan and steeped in classical Chinese
       culture.  Both books were online recommendations.  Both books
       seriously and philosophically explore the ramifications of human and
       magical fox relationships.  Neither book is for children.
       
       [1] The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson (1999)
       
           This world--
           call it an image
           caught in a mirror--
           Real it is not,
           nor unreal, either
          
           --Minamoto Sanetomo (1192-1219)
       
       To summarize without spoilers: magical foxes aren't evil, but they
       aren't exactly good either.  Entering relationships with magical
       foxes tends to have a deleterious effect on humans.  I take it as an
       allegory: humans find wild nature alive, attractive, and free!  But
       it never ends well.  These humans would have been better off to stick
       with civilization.
       
       This view is confirmed by the following review of Lady Into Fox:
       
       > For the British, the fox--as the last wild mammal of any size, one
       > of the few predators of our livestock--represents the threat played
       > by the wild in our national psyche like no other animal on this
       > rather tame, industrialised island. In this context, the fox's
       > growing presence in our cities makes it ripe for a new phase of
       > vilification, as the ultimate urban pest, a despoiler of suburban
       > order and a biter of innocent children.
       > --Alex Klaushofer
       
       [2] Alex Klauhofer's review of Lady Into Fox
       
       author: Garnett, David, 1892-1981
  TEXT detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Lady_into_Fox
  HTML source: ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/1/0/3/3/10337/
       tags:   ebook,fantasy
       title:  Lady Into Fox
       
       # Footnotes
       
  TEXT [1] The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson (1999)
       
  HTML [2] Alex Klauhofer's review of Lady Into Fox
       
       # Tags
       
   DIR ebook
   DIR fantasy