Synopses & Reviews
It was the Age of Enlightenment.
And in Paris, a gentle, wide-eyed stranger was all the rage.
In 1826, a twelve-foot giraffe, captured in the Sudan, shipped down the Nile, carried across the Mediterranean in a ship's hold, was now walking across France. A gift from Muhammed Ali, the most powerful man in Africa, this "beautiful stranger" would become an object of adoration in France. But in this compelling, beautifully rendered book, Michael Allin looks beyond the fairy tale to reveal the complex web of politics, culture, religion, and greed that fueled the phenomenon of the giraffe called "Zarafa."
Opening an exotic window on the early nineteenth century, brilliantly capturing what it is like to see something for the very first time, Zarafa weaves a captivating tale of nations and nature, of colorful scoundrels and dangerous rulers and of a remarkable animal that charmed a nation, bribed a leader, and brought two very different worlds together.
Review
"[P]rovides a glimpse of a time period not commonly written about." Library Journal
Review
"Zarafa is all about the vanishing pleasure of wonderment...as seen through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed the arrival of the first giraffe in France in 1826." Detroit Free Press
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"Michael Allin does a terrific job of chronicling the giraffe's remarkable pilgrimage from Egypt to Paris." New York Times Book Review
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"The book is a collage of gorgeous facts, a parade of facts joined together by a mysterious animal and a lively, curious writer." Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review
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"[Allin's] book...not only rescues a charming anecdote from obscurity but also makes a convincing case for its importance in the world of 19th-century Mediterranean diplomacy." Washington Post Book world
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"[A] fine caricature of European bureaucratic maneuvering in the early 19th century; and...a superb description of the sea's colors off Alexandria." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
In October 1826, a ship arrived at Marseille carrying the first giraffe ever seen in France. A royal offering from Muhammad Ali, Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt, to King Charles X, she had already traveled 2,000 miles down the Nile to Alexandria, from where she had sailed across the Mediterranean standing in the hold, her long neck and head protruding through a hole cut in the deck. In the spring of 1827, after wintering in Marseille, she was carefully walked 550 miles to Paris to the delight of thousands of onlookers.
The viceroy's tribute was politically motivated: He commanded the Turkish forces then fighting the Greeks in their war of independence, and hoped his gift would persuade the French not to intervene against him. But the viceroy and his intentions were quickly forgotten as France fell in love with its "beautiful stranger."
Zarafa chronicles the full story of this remarkable animal, revealing a kaleidoscope of history, science, and culture that opens an exotic window on the early nineteenth century. From the Enlightenment's blossoming fascination with science to Napoleon's ill-fated invasion of Egypt in 1798-from the eminent French naturalist Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire to Bernardino Drovetti, French consul general in Egypt and tomb robber extraordinaire-the era was full of memorable events and characters. Michael Allin deftly weaves them into the story with an appreciation for detail and an uncommon affection.
The giraffe's strange and wonderful journey linked Africa and Europe in mutual discovery. Although her arrival did not keep the French out of Ali's war, she became an instant celebrity in Paris and over the next eighteen years she fascinated all of Europe. Through Michael Allin's narrative skill, Zarafa stirs the imagination as it provides a new context for the history of a distant age.
About the Author
Michael Allin is the author of the highly acclaimed book Zarafa: A Giraffe's True Story from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris, and is also the screenwriter of the classic film, Enter the Dragon.