Monkeying with innocence

Press, 14 April 1984, Page 20

Monkeying with innocence

His Monkey Wife. By John Collier. Oxford, 1983. 274 pp. $9.95 (paperback). First published in 1930, “His Monkey Wife” is ostensibly the story of Emily, a sentimental and intelligent chimpanzee belonging to Mr Fatigay, an English schoolmaster in the Upper Congo. Emily has assimilated an education which she furthers at the British Museum, graduating from reading Darwin’s “Origin of the Species” to the accumulated wisdom of the major English writers. Given as a present by her master to his flighty fiancee, Amy, the book tells of Emily’s cruel treatment at Amy’s hands, her observations of the worst of the follies of people in love

(when the willingness to deceive and be deceived is present), and her eventual happiness as Fatigay’s True Love. It is impossible to dismiss the book as merely bizarre. John Collier has the same keen eye for people’s absurdities as Evelyn Waugh, without the latter’s macabre qualities. “His Monkey Wife” is a powerful satire, a wickedly piercing look at the fickleness of men and women — and very, very funny. Descriptions are delightful; the theme of innocence versus corruption is drawn with the skill of a master. Those who deplore the lost art of sentence construction will appreciate a style which almost defies analysis, but remains highly enjoyable. — Agnes-Mary Brooke.