As beginnings go it isn't that exciting. It's the sort of thing that happens every day. Nevertheless every story must start somewhere, and this one starts here.
The man had been married before. He was a rich widower who liked to have a woman around the house. His new wife was young and beautiful and not at all sure what she was getting into.
After the wedding she moved into his large house. Maybe mansion is more accurate. The only rule he had was that she must stay out of his study.
Is he the Beast? I hear you ask yourself.
Worse, I reply.
They settled in to married life and everything was fine for a few weeks. She cooked and cleaned and he did whatever it was that he did to earn money. It was comfortable.
Then the man was called away on business. Before he left, he warned her again to stay out of his study.
Alas she had always been curious. He'd been gone less than an hour before she'd fetched the key and was standing in the door of his study, wishing she'd listened to him. Surrounded by the corpses of his previous wives, she could do nothing but scream.
Her scream brought him back. He had never actually left. It was a test. She failed. Her punishment was to join the rest of his wives.
Eventually the man found a satisfactory woman who obeyed him completely. He also found that some of the thrill had gone out of his life.
No. Scratch that. I don't like that story at all. Do you?
Let's back up. Before the beginning. When the man and woman were betrothed.
Mary had always been curious, you see. She wasn't about to move into a house without at least seeing it first. Besides which, Mr. Fox had invited her to come see his estate. There was no reason for her to stay away and every reason to surprise him one evening.
One of the risks of surprising someone is that, not knowing your intentions, they may not be there to be surprised.
Undeterred by the owner's absence, Mary elected to explore the house on her own. It would soon be hers, after all.
She entered the grounds and walked down the path. On a series of arches between the gate and the door she read the following:
Be bold, be bold.
But not too bold.
Else your heart's blood
shall run cold.
But not too bold.
Else your heart's blood
shall run cold.
Boldness, like curiosity, was not something Mary lacked. She ignored the warning and continued into the house. It was only a matter of time before she came across her fiance's study, saw the corpses he kept like trophies.
Before she could decide what to do she heard Mr. Fox coming up the lane. Dragging the body of a young woman behind him.
Before she could decide what to do she heard Mr. Fox coming up the lane. Dragging the body of a young woman behind him.
Mary ran down the stairs, but she wasn't fast enough to escape the house. She ducked behind a table, hoping he'd be too preoccupied to see her. From her hiding place she saw him notice a diamond ring on his victim's figure, attempt to tug it off, grow frustrated, cut the finger off using a knife from his belt, tuck his prize into a pocket. That done, he resumed dragging the corpse upstairs. When he was gone, Mary grabbed the discarded finger and ran home.
On their wedding day, before the papers were to be signed, the families gathered to share a meal. With everyone there, Mary began to recount the tale of her visit to Mr. Fox's house. Over his repeated protests ("It is not so, nor twas it so, and God forbid it should be so.") she laid bare all she had seen, finally producing the finger of the latest woman he had killed. Mary's father and brothers wasted not a moment before leaping on Mr. Fox and hacking him to pieces.
***
The first of these stories is a French folktale called Bluebeard. It's several centuries old, possibly based on the crimes of Gilles de Rais, who lived in the early 15th century. Then again, it may predate him. The moral is clear: be obedient, not curious.
The second story, which rewards the woman for her curiosity, is an English folktale sometimes called The Robber Bridegroom and other times Mr. Fox. Again, it's hard to date this tale. William Shakespeare called it old when he referenced it in Much Ado About Nothing (Act I, scene i).
Because of the nature of oral traditions, not to mention the geographic distance between these two tales' origins, it's impossible to know which came first. But it certainly seems like one is a reaction to the other. And after all, Englad and France aren't so far from each other.
I first encountered Mr. Fox in college, in Neil Gaiman's The White Road. Gaiman elects to have Mary falsely accuse an innocent Mr. Fox, which is a choice I'm more wary of than I used to be. Still, the story captured my imagination at the time. It burrowed into my subconscious and stuck with me.
Years later, I cam across Bluebeard in a collection of modern retellings of fairy tales. I was intrigued enough to briefly look up the original tale, but Bluebeard didn't entrance me. Though it did haunt me, feeding on my love of vampires and driving me to distrust Mr. Rochester.
After I read White is for Witching, I went looking for more of Oyeyemi's work. It took me a while to actually pick up another of her books, but Mr. Fox has been on my mental book shelf since I heard of it. I love literature that takes apart and examines fairy tales. I knew Mr. Fox was concerned with Bluebeard. Oyeyemi is both vicious and smart, and I was eager to see her take on this particular tale.
Of course, I got caught up in other things. My sister-in-law told me she hadn't liked Mr. Fox, which caused me to hesitate, even as I saw praise for it all over the internet. Then my book club chose White is for Witching and I decided it was the perfect opportunity seek out Mr. Fox once and for all.
Ten pages in, that phrase is repeated: Be bold, be bold; but not too bold.
It was like an electric shock that sent my whole brain buzzing. I immediately found and re-read the Gaiman story. I fell down a wiki-hole, pulled books off my own shelves as I reminded myself of all the other times I had encountered those words, that story. I learned more, saw for the first time how the two tales comment on each other. I finally came up for air, eager, prepared for this book. I am intimately familiar with the framework, now, prepared to digest Oyeyemi's take.
By a stroke of luck, I also have Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride sitting on my to-read stack. I bought it on the same day I bought Mr. Fox, simply because I can't pass up a cheap copy of an Atwood book. It's about the same thing, with the genders swapped. I'm about to fall into a foxhole, surround myself with this tale. See you on the other side.
The second story, which rewards the woman for her curiosity, is an English folktale sometimes called The Robber Bridegroom and other times Mr. Fox. Again, it's hard to date this tale. William Shakespeare called it old when he referenced it in Much Ado About Nothing (Act I, scene i).
Because of the nature of oral traditions, not to mention the geographic distance between these two tales' origins, it's impossible to know which came first. But it certainly seems like one is a reaction to the other. And after all, Englad and France aren't so far from each other.
I first encountered Mr. Fox in college, in Neil Gaiman's The White Road. Gaiman elects to have Mary falsely accuse an innocent Mr. Fox, which is a choice I'm more wary of than I used to be. Still, the story captured my imagination at the time. It burrowed into my subconscious and stuck with me.
Years later, I cam across Bluebeard in a collection of modern retellings of fairy tales. I was intrigued enough to briefly look up the original tale, but Bluebeard didn't entrance me. Though it did haunt me, feeding on my love of vampires and driving me to distrust Mr. Rochester.
After I read White is for Witching, I went looking for more of Oyeyemi's work. It took me a while to actually pick up another of her books, but Mr. Fox has been on my mental book shelf since I heard of it. I love literature that takes apart and examines fairy tales. I knew Mr. Fox was concerned with Bluebeard. Oyeyemi is both vicious and smart, and I was eager to see her take on this particular tale.
Of course, I got caught up in other things. My sister-in-law told me she hadn't liked Mr. Fox, which caused me to hesitate, even as I saw praise for it all over the internet. Then my book club chose White is for Witching and I decided it was the perfect opportunity seek out Mr. Fox once and for all.
Ten pages in, that phrase is repeated: Be bold, be bold; but not too bold.
It was like an electric shock that sent my whole brain buzzing. I immediately found and re-read the Gaiman story. I fell down a wiki-hole, pulled books off my own shelves as I reminded myself of all the other times I had encountered those words, that story. I learned more, saw for the first time how the two tales comment on each other. I finally came up for air, eager, prepared for this book. I am intimately familiar with the framework, now, prepared to digest Oyeyemi's take.
By a stroke of luck, I also have Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride sitting on my to-read stack. I bought it on the same day I bought Mr. Fox, simply because I can't pass up a cheap copy of an Atwood book. It's about the same thing, with the genders swapped. I'm about to fall into a foxhole, surround myself with this tale. See you on the other side.
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