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Zarafa, August 1999
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A Giraffe's True Story, from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris
Delta
August 1999
224 pages
ISBN: 0385334117
Trade Size (reprint)
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Historical | Non-Fiction
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 �tienne 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.
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