Throughout Martin Wallen's book, "Fox," the author demonstrates how the fox has long been viewed by humans as an ambiguous creature living on the boundaries of civilized society. Just as a fox evades capture in the hunting field through its wit and cleverness, the fox also escapes simple definition.



Each of the six chapters reads as an individual essay. The opening chapter deals with efforts to classify the fox over time, beginning with the philosopher Aristotle, who believed foxes to be literally made of earth. Many creatures throughout the world share the name and the general appearance of "fox" - from the Arctic fox to the South American culpeo to the African fennec - but vary greatly in behavior and habitat.

Another chapter explores the fox in legend and myth in both Western and Eastern cultures. In Western thought, the fox is often a malevolent being, both trickster and thief living on the edges of society. Wallen recounts the fox in Aesop's Fables, the Reynard legend from medieval France, and early Christian and medieval depictions of the fox as the devil in disguise. The legend of the kitsune, or spirit fox, migrated to medieval Japan from China, and kitsune possess the ability to shapeshift into human form, thus crossing the boundaries between man and animal and the spirit and material worlds. Subsequent chapters deal with the topics of foxhunting, the commercial fur industry, and the metaphor of the fox in twentieth-century cinema.



In his chapter on foxhunting, Wallen traces the evolution of the sport and the way it was portrayed in English art and literature. While eighteenth century depictions emphasized the violent death of the fox, emphasis shifted over time until the pageantry and rules of the sport became more important than the actual capture and death of the animal.



Martin Wallen's carefully-crafted book gives readers an appreciation of this mysterious animal that has excited human imagination.