Zarafa: A Giraffe's True Story, from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris

by Michael Allin

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802713394
• ISBN13: 9780802713391
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Walker & Company
• Length: 215 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Zarafa Stands Tall

In "Zarafa," author Michael Allin has the gift of engaging the reader in a tale he or she would not have necessarily selected off a bookshelf. Zarafa is the main character - not a king, conqueror or superhero, but a giraffe. As we follow this giraffe from the depths of Africa to cosmopolitan Paris, we get to know her as intimately as any human travel companion. Along the way, we learn about French and Egyptian history, Arabic customs and Parisian ways, geography, exploration and many other interesting tidbits. The book's only shortcoming is its sentimentality, but this is not of the heavy-handed Disney variety and does not detract from a most engaging, interesting, and enjoyable journey.

Utterly charming

Delightful, charming, magical. The story of the giraffe will stay with you like a dream. An enjoyable and non-cynical fable about colonialism, the birth of the modern world and the death of wonder. I think the success of these elegant little non-fiction books (Longitude, Cod etc) is somehow very heartening. Long live the General Reader!

Fascinating blend of history, zoology, and adventure.

I *REALLY* enjoyed this book! Allin does a remarkable job of historical research, but he doesn't stop there: by providing many fascinating details of life in early 19-th century Europe and Africa, he fleshes out the remarkable story of this gentle beast and the humans so enchanted by her. Allin proves that history, properly told, is if nothing else a fascinating story. I am eagerly awaiting his next book.

A fascinating journey through history, geography and zoology

I nearly set this book aside, unread, when the author started talking about his personal fascination with snakes. What was this all about? I am so glad I skipped through is personal information and entered the world of Zarafa! I was enthralled by the descriptions of Africa and the 1800s... I followed each step of the giraffe's journey on the map provided, never wanting it to end. The book makes an avid reader want more about the history and culture of the time. I agree, though, that the description of Zarafa herself and her life in Paris is lacking. I was quite disappointed at the way the story ended without more details about her life, her health, her diet, her happiness. Maybe more excerpts from the newspapers of the time, more personal accounts from people who saw her would have been nice. But all in all -- imagine being there at the time and seeing that beautiful animal proudly march by! And thanks to the author for all the research that went into this book! Incredible!

Delightful; a mesmerizing joyride

Michael Allin takes us on a Mike Toddian historical joyride, managing to leap gracefully from the time of the pharoahs to Napoleonic Europe (which is the story's focus) and back again. The central episode of this delight ful collage is the odyssey of a single (although for a time there were two) female giraffe calf which began in 1824 when the Viceroy of Egypt sends her as a gift to King Charles of France to divert the French from Egypt's excesses on the side of the Turks against Greece. Zarafa,though she has the title role, does not really appear for fully a third of the book, but her story is obviously the lens through which we are to view the author's canvas. Western Europe has entered the Age of Enlightenment. That means that the powers no longer make war and subjugate lesser beings for the usual reasons (fun and profit) but rather in quest of ideas and learning and other intellectual pursuits.Having ousted (make that beheaded) their king and queen at the end of the eighteenth century in favor of some sort of popular republicanism, by 1810 the fickle French returned to royalism and reinstated the very family that they had targeted in their bloodbath barely two decades earlier. Napoleon passes from military hero to banishment following a poor won-lost record. The French and other Western powers are newly obsessed with Egyptology and everyone has been happily plundering, brutalizing, enslaving and generally exploitingthe Nile Valley and the wonders of grave-robbing. Egypt itself is preoccupied with its own alliance with Turkey in their rape of Greece, although before too long Egypt decides to change sides and turns on the Turks. Enter Zarafa. Michael Allin clearly knows and loves his subject. He has exhaustively researched Zarafa's journey and takes us from her capture in Africa to her arrival in Paris in 1827after having actually trekked the last 500 plus miles from Marseilles. In this pre-photography era, no one has seen her like and crowds mob her along her route. Allin applies his brushstrokes with great affection, irony, enthusiasm and above all considerable wit and amusement. While the reader is inexorably caught up in the historical sweep of the author's scape, Allin makes certain that we do not miss the greed, sadism, incest, waste, class consciousness and raw power struggle that have fueled these events. What better way to underscore the ugliness that has marked man's time on this planet than to contrast the innocence and charm and beauty of this exotic creature. She seemed to bear a message that, while everyone was captivated by the messenger, no one heard. Zarafa is a jewel and is not to be missed.