Mrs Fox by Sarah Hall (25 Books in 25 Days: #24)

Can you tell that the books are getting shorter as I get to the end of my 25 days? Mrs Fox (2014) by Sarah Hall is certainly short – it is, indeed, the winner of the National Short Story Award 2013. Faber turned it into a book all of its own, with wide margins, huge font, and only 37 pages.

Sarah Hall acknowledges that it was inspired by David Garnett’s Lady Into Fox – a 1922 novella that I’ve read a lot, because it was a major part of my DPhil. She also claimed not to have read it.

I’m not going to call her a liar, but Mrs Fox follows the same beats of Lady Into Fox to an astonishing degree. I found a useful blog post that details all of those common factors – but, in brief, a lady turns into a fox. Hall’s version is more visceral than Garnett’s, and certainly more grounded in the now (while Garnett deliberately used an eighteenth-century style for his). Her writing and pacing are excellent, but I found it so hard to judge it – because it is so, so similar to Lady Into Fox in plot. To the point that it’s a bit embarrassing that the competition judges let it win, if I’m honest – and probably the reason that the inspiration is acknowledged. It’s even acknowledged in the book, where the main characters’ surname is Garnett.

So, yes, it’s used in an interesting way to examine the dynamics of a marriage. And thank you Annabel for sending me this copy! But what an interesting case of not-actually-plagiarism.

14 thoughts on “Mrs Fox by Sarah Hall (25 Books in 25 Days: #24)

  • June 21, 2019 at 11:46 pm
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    How are you feeling as you near the end of your project? Is your reading soul crying out for a chunkster or are you becoming addicted to short fictions?

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    • June 30, 2019 at 10:07 pm
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      I am very happily in the c.300-page books now, which is apparently as far as I lean to chunksters in terms of withdrawal symptoms! I do have to read The Blind Assassin for book group soon, and that is enormously long.

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    • June 30, 2019 at 10:06 pm
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      You did! I’ve been meaning to look it up at some point.

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  • June 22, 2019 at 7:20 am
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    Well… they say there’s nothing new under the sun, even in literature, but this does sound suspicious!

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    • June 30, 2019 at 10:04 pm
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      Absolutely agree!

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  • June 22, 2019 at 12:32 pm
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    Human-into-fox (and vice-versa) is quite a common device. The French novelist Vercors (Jean Bruller) wrote a book, Sylva, with the Lady-into-Fox scheme, and with male lead characters, there’s a folk-song, Reynardine, a band, Mr Fox, a story by Walter de la Mare…
    In Chinese folklore, wrefoxes are the equivalent of werewolves.

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    • June 22, 2019 at 1:52 pm
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      If you search the menus, you’ll find a review of Sylva ;)
      And yes, if it had just been drawn from that world, I’d forgive it. But it’s all the same evolution of the story too.

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  • June 22, 2019 at 2:08 pm
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    I love Lady Into Fox, so I don’t really know what the point of something like this is…. And tbh I probably won’t read it. But well done – you’re nearly at the end (I obvs had a funny five minutes when I was commenting on your last post and thought it was no 25…) ;)

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    • June 30, 2019 at 10:04 pm
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      It does seem quite strange… and I suspect all the judges hadn’t read LIF!

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  • June 22, 2019 at 3:54 pm
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    Well done for completing your 25day reading hike Simon, though I feel you have been descending rather than ascending Parnassus to end up in the murky swamps of 37page plagarists !

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    • June 30, 2019 at 10:05 pm
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      Ha, you’re not wrong, Tom! I’m glad I finished on a slightly more respectable length of book.

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  • June 22, 2019 at 6:28 pm
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    I remembering enjoying this when I heard it being read aloud for the BBC National Short Story Award. (It must have been on Radio 4 at the time.) That said, I haven’t read David Garnett’s Lady into Fox, so maybe it’s time to seek it out. Hopefully it’s still in print!

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  • June 22, 2019 at 8:48 pm
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    Did I send you it? (Obvs yes!!!) I read it before Garnett’s original – but can’t remember which I preferred.

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