The Life of a Fox, Written by Himself
1970
This is a delightful oddity: an 1820s sporting novel narrated by a fox who has learned to read and write. Wily the fox invites his fellow creatures to share their hunting escape stories, then recounts his own life from birth in a breeding earth through his education under his mother's watchful eye to his countless near-misses with hounds and humans. The humor comes from the incongruity of a rustic creature employing the formal language of the English gentleman to describe poultry theft and narrow escapes. Smith, who actually ran several famous hounds in Hampshire, wrote this as a kind of inversion of the hunting memoir, giving voice to the quarry rather than the pursuers. The result is both a period piece of sporting culture and something stranger: a sympathetic portrait of cunning and survival from the animal's point of view. It will appeal to fans of anthropomorphic fiction, anyone curious about early 19th-century rural life, and readers who enjoy a clever narrative conceit.
Editions
Link to this book
Add a free, dofollow link to Lex on your blog, forum, syllabus, or reading list.
<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/the-life-of-a-fox-written-by-himself-1b583e6d-0c9e-48a4-b0d9-d22270f6a0fd"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read The Life of a Fox, Written by Himself by Thomas Smith free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/the-life-of-a-fox-written-by-himself-1b583e6d-0c9e-48a4-b0d9-d22270f6a0fd)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/the-life-of-a-fox-written-by-himself-1b583e6d-0c9e-48a4-b0d9-d22270f6a0fd][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read The Life of a Fox, Written by Himself by Thomas Smith free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/the-life-of-a-fox-written-by-himself-1b583e6d-0c9e-48a4-b0d9-d22270f6a0fdCite this book
Reading this edition for a paper or guide? Copy a citation.
Smith, Thomas. The Life of a Fox, Written by Himself. Lex, lex-books.com/book/the-life-of-a-fox-written-by-himself-1b583e6d-0c9e-48a4-b0d9-d22270f6a0fd.Smith, T. (1970). The Life of a Fox, Written by Himself. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-life-of-a-fox-written-by-himself-1b583e6d-0c9e-48a4-b0d9-d22270f6a0fdSmith, Thomas. The Life of a Fox, Written by Himself. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-life-of-a-fox-written-by-himself-1b583e6d-0c9e-48a4-b0d9-d22270f6a0fd.
