Angus Wilson, The Old Men at the Zoo

Marina MacKay (University of Durham)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1961

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Set ten years in the future, this novel is narrated by Simon Carter, who works as the Secretary of London Zoo between 1970 and 1973. Carter prides himself on his dispassionate administrative skills, but his professional equilibrium is ruined when a young keeper is killed one morning by a kick in the testicles from Smokey the Giraffe. This comically recounted opening incident seems to set the tone for an improbable plot, but Carter, a humorless character, sees the event as the occasion for a moral crusade. The first sections of the novel deal with Carter's attempts to apportion blame in the aftermath of the keeper's death, attempts which are thwarted by the complacency of the Zoo's Establishment, the “old men” of the novel's title. Two of these old men, Falcon, the curator of the Zoo,…

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494 words

Citation: MacKay, Marina. "The Old Men at the Zoo". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 January 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=14, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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