The Elephant Keeper, by Christopher Nicholson (2009)
The Elephant Keeper is narrated by Tom Page, a young man who was hired to mind the horses for a wealthy landowner in England in the late 1700s. When his master purchases two Indian elephants, Tom is put in charge of these large, exotic beasts. The elephants had been transported to England, crated in large boxes and arrived near death. Tom learns to tend these animals with love. Tom devotes his entire life to "his" elephants, forgoing the love of a woman who might have been a good companion for him.
Tom gives the elephants names ~ Timothy and Jenny. No one in England knows anything about elephants, and Tom, who is barely literate, is asked to write a history of elephants, thus the book is Tom’s “history” of his elephants.
Early on, Tom observes that Timothy periodically has hormonal episodes that render him very dangerous and uncontrollable. Eventually, the elephants are sold separately. Tom stays with Jenny and moves to another wealthy landowner, Lord Bidborough. Tom and Jenny live happily on Lord Bidborough’s estate. Tom learns that elephants are very intelligent and teaches Jenny lots of tricks.
Lord Bidborough son and heir, however, is malicious. He mistreats people, especially woman, and the elephants. After the son rapes one of the lower-class young women, following an outing in which he demanded that Tom and Jenny provide the transportation, he (the heir) turns up dead. Jenny does not forget those who mistreat her.
After the death of Lord Bidborough, Tom and Jenny find themselves in a traveling circus. Tom’s narrative is not only about the life of an elephant, but also a portrait of life in England in the 18th Century. It shows a cross-section of life among the gentry as well as those struggling to make a living.
The Elephant Keeper starts out slowly. It took a while for me to concentrate on the story, but about a third of the way, this book just opened up and was a real gift. The Elephant Keeper is an amazing first novel by Christopher Nicholson.
Read: November 8, 2010
