GARNETT, David

(1892-1981)

   UK writer, member of the famous Garnett family which includes his grandfather, Richard GARNETT, his father, Edward GARNETT, and his mother, the translator Constance Garnett (1862-1946); DG was also an intimate member of the Bloomsbury Group. His first novel under his own name is also his most famous, the fantasy Lady into Fox (1922 chap); like its inferior successor, VERCORS' Sylva (1961; trans 1962), this is an allegory of metamorphosis, in this instance from demure wife into vixen, with tragic results. A FEMINIST reading of the book is both elucidating and inescapable; it was famously parodied by Christopher Ward (1868-1943) in Gentleman into Goose (1924 chap). A Man in the Zoo (1924) is also fantasy. The Grasshoppers Come (1931) fascinatingly combines aviation and allegory in a borderline-sf tale. Two by Two: A Story of Survival (1963) retells the story of Noah (quite possibly a portrait of DG's friend T.H. WHITE) and the Flood. DG translated Andre MAUROIS's A Voyage to the Islandof the Articoles (1927; trans 1928 UK). The White/Garnett Letters (coll 1968), which he edited, are of great value to students of both his workand White's.

   JC

   Other works: A Terrible Day (1932); Purl and Plain, and Other Stories (coll 1973); The Master Cat: The True and Unexpurgated Story of Puss in Boots (1974).