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Young and in love, John Cromartie and Josephine Lackett want to get married. But as their relationship gets more and more serious, Josephine fears disappointing her aristocratic family by marrying a working-class man. When she gets cold feet, John chooses to live among the animals at the zoo. A Man in the Zoo is a novel by David Garnett.
About the author
David Garnett (1892 - 1981) was a British writer and publisher. As a child, he had a cloak made of rabbit skin and thus received the nickname "Bunny", by which he was known to friends and intimates all his life. A prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group, Garnett received literary recognition when his novel Lady into Fox, an allegorical fantasy, was awarded the 1922 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. He ran a bookshop near the British Museum with Francis Birrell during the 1920s. He also founded (with Francis Meynell) the Nonesuch Press. He wrote the novel Aspects of Love (1955), on which the later Andrew Lloyd Webber musical was based.
Summary
A Man in the Zoo (1924) is a novel by David Garnett. Published several years after Garnett was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Hawthornden Prize for Lady into Fox (1922), his third novel explores themes of race and empire while showcasing the author’s original—and often controversial—literary style. “It was a warm day at the end of February, and Sunday morning. In the air there was a smell of spring, mixed with the odours of different animals—yaks, wolves, and musk-oxen, but the two visitors did not notice it. They were lovers, and were having a quarrel.” On a beautiful day at the local zoo, John Cromartie and Josephine Lackett find themselves falling out of love. Among the animals, Josephine explains that she can no longer explain their relationship to her family, who expect her to marry a man of equal social stature. Insulting John, she tells him he should live in the zoo before storming off. Heartbroken, and perhaps a little vindictive, John resolves to remain at the zoo with the animals she thinks he belongs with. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of David Garnett’s A Man in the Zoo is a classic work of British literature reimagined for modern readers.
