Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Zarafa : A Giraffe's True Story, from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris - Michael Allin

Zarafa

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

By: Michael Allin

Paperback | 10 August 1999

At a Glance

Paperback


$42.99

or 4 interest-free payments of $10.75 with

 or 

Ships in 10 to 15 business days

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.
Industry Reviews
"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

More in General & World History

The Shortest History of Innovation - Andrew Leigh
A Short History of Ancient Rome - Pascal Hughes

RRP $49.99

$38.75

22%
OFF
Convicts, Crimes and Tragic Times : Dark Days of Old Australia - Tony Matthews
The Eagle and the Hart : The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV - Helen Castor
Battle of the Arctic : The Maritime Epic of World War Two - Hugh Sebag Montefiore
All or Nothing : How Trump Recaptured America - Michael Wolff

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF
Advance Britannia : How the Second World War Was Won, 1942-1945 - Alan Allport
Utopia for Realists : And How We Can Get There - Rutger Bregman

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
Letters from a Stoic : The Ancient Classic - Tom Butler-Bowdon

RRP $24.95

$21.75

13%
OFF
Introduction to Medieval Europe 300-1500 : 4th Edition - Wim Blockmans
History's Strangest Deaths : A Half-Arsed History book - Riley Knight
The Golden Road : How Ancient India Transformed the World - William Dalrymple
Francis of Assisi : The Life of a Restless Saint - Volker Leppin

RRP $26.95

$22.99

15%
OFF
Dominion : Making of the Western Mind - Tom Holland

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF