REVIEW: Zarafa

Zarafa: Michael Allin. Headline 1998.

( Zarafa was the first living giraffe Europe had seen in almost 350 years and the first of her kind ever to arrive in France. She was a politically motivated tribute to Charles X from Muhammad Ali, the Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt, who hoped to forestall European intervention in his war against the Greeks. The gentle animal, however, soon became an adored celebrity in her own right and the embodiment of an era in French history rich in new scientific and cultural ideas. )