 Dust-jacket illustration for first edition | |
| Author | L. Sprague de Camp |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Alice Smith |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical novel |
| Published | 1958Doubleday |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 360 |
| Preceded by | The Arrows of Hercules |
| Followed by | The Bronze God of Rhodes |
An Elephant for Aristotle is a 1958historical novel by American writerL. Sprague de Camp. It was first published in hardback byDoubleday, and in paperback byCurtis in 1971. The first British edition was published by Dobson in 1966.[1][2] The book was reissued with a new introduction byHarry Turtledove as atrade paperback and e-book by Phoenix Pick in March 2013.[2][3][4] It is the first of de Camp's historical novels in order of writing, and the third chronologically. It has been translated into German.[2]
The novel concerns the adventures of Leon of Atrax, aThessaliancavalry commander who has been tasked byAlexander the Great to bring anelephant captured from theIndian rulerPorus, toAthens as a present for Alexander's old tutor,Aristotle. Leading a motley crew that includes an Indian elephantarch to care for the creature, aPersian warrior, aSyriansutler and a Greek philosopher, Leon sets out to cross the whole of the ancient known world from theIndus River toAthens.
The journey is long and adventurous, involving frequent skirmishes withbandits, unruly noblemen,Macedonian commanders with ideas of their own about who is in charge, and a runaway Persian noblewoman. It doesn't help that the goal of the whole enterprise is essentially a malicious prank concocted by Alexander on his former teacher: he gives Aristotle the elephant but no funds for its upkeep, while sending the funds (but no elephant) to the savant's arch-rivalXenocrates.
The story is founded on the fact that Aristotle's writings include an apparently eye-witness description of an Indian elephant, though the circumstances under which he might have come into contact with such an animal are unknown.
Contemporary reviews of the novel were favorable. TheChicago Daily Tribune called it "an amazing narrative vehicle for the display of ... a fairly complete composite of the life and times of which the author writes" and praised its "ever-freshly welling vein of humor."[5]The New York Times called it an "engaging new historical novel," and stated that "by hybridizing a Middle-Eastern travelogue with an Alexandrine comedy of manners, the author has produced a specimen only slightly less rare than elephants in Westchester–to wit, a historical novel with a sense of humor." It highlighted de Camp's endowment of each his various characters "with a particular modern accent or dialect" to "differentiate the multitude of nationalities in Alexander's empire," noting that the device "adds to the entertainment."[6]The Washington Post called it an "engaging new novel," and pronounced that "if all books on ancient history were written with the free-flowing grace ofAn Elephant for Aristotle, many more of us would have an appreciation of the civilizations that came before ours." It stated the author "has given this historical novel a different treatment–one which scrupulously tries to respect historical fact but doesn't take itself too seriously–the change is all for the better."[7]
P. Schuyler Miller inAstounding Science Fiction had a more negative reaction than other reviewers, contrasting de Camp unfavorably with such authors asEdgar Pangborn, "a gifted writer who can make any people warm and real and a part of their times," andTalbot Mundy, whose characters take on "three solid dimensons in a way that only Leon himself comes close to doing" in de Camp's novel—and even de Camp himself, in his "classic"Lest Darkness Fall. Miller admits that "[t]he worried, self-deprecating professional soldier, Leon, does add up to more than a shadow," with "the most believable part of the book com[ing] when he finds himself at home in Thessaly, with his own people." But "[t]his may be a case of art becoming too much of a good thing, for the person Leon iswould take exactly this matter-of-fact view of his amazing journey, but a hero can be too self-effacing." And he feels de Camp "does not manage" to make his other characters as convincingly real. He finds its "flaw" in a plot composed "like strings of almost identical beads--separate little episodes, each lovingly constructed, [but] held together only by the continuity of the central characters," leaving it "full of fascinating incident but ... an intellectual adventure rather than something that happens to real people." Miller dismisses the author's use of English dialects to represent those of ancient Greece as "an interesting gimmick, ... logical but somewhat annoying."[8]
The novel won theAthenaeum of Philadelphia's 1958Athenaeum Literary Award for fiction.[9]
The idea of using the travel of an elephant across different countries as the focus of a historical novel was also taken up by the well-known Portuguese writerJosé Saramago, in the 2008 novelA Viagem do Elefante (The Voyage of the Elephant), though in a very different literary style from de Camp's and set in a very different time (16th Century Europe) (see[1]).
| Preceded by | Historical novels of L. Sprague de Camp An Elephant for Aristotle | Succeeded by |