A visit to the elephant: Classic Book Guide and Free Edition
A visit to the elephant: author and translator credits, catalogue synopsis, subjects and links to the Gutenberg reading formats.
A visit to the elephant is catalogued by Project Gutenberg with author credits for Hedge, Mary Ann.
Catalogue synopsis
Project Gutenberg supplies this automated synopsis of the opening text:
"A visit to the elephant" by Mary Ann Hedge is a didactic children's book written in the early 19th century. Framed by affectionate domestic scenes and gentle Christian reflection, it uses a family outing to a menagerie—and a kindly grandfather’s memories of India—to teach natural history, moral lessons, and wonder at creation, with the elephant as its central subject. The opening of the book introduces Mr. Elmer, a benevolent retiree, and his faithful servant Alan, whose lifelong bond began in a Scottish cottage and deepened during years in India. After a stormy night, a handbill for a nearby menagerie prompts Mr. Elmer to collect his grandchildren—Harry, Joanna, and little Ellen—from their mother, Mrs. Monson, and take them to see the elephant. At the show he explains the animal’s features, diet, bathing, docility, and strength, praising the Creator and adding vivid anecdotes from India; afterward, over dinner, he describes how elephants are captured and tamed, the perilous Abyssinian hunts, and the pomp of Asian courts with war elephants and royal processions. A visit to his sketchbook widens the lesson to ivory, Solomon’s throne, the Mogul’s peacock throne, and the animal’s sensitivity to music, while Mr. and Mrs. Monson draw gentle morals about piety, gratitude, and kindness to animals. The section closes the next morning with more talk of useful elephant labor and a new thread on serpents, as Mr. Elmer begins describing the beautiful, harmless boiga.
Book and edition facts
- Title: A visit to the elephant
- Author credits: Hedge, Mary Ann
- Catalogue language: English
Catalogue subjects
- Children's stories
- Elephants -- Juvenile fiction
Read this edition
View the complete Gutenberg catalogue record. Project Gutenberg identifies this edition as public domain in the United States; that designation does not establish its copyright status in every country.
Source notes
Catalogue metadata is public domain and is supplied through Gutendex, which imports Gutenberg's machine-readable catalogue. The automated synopsis is source-supplied, not an independently verified review. Author dates above describe the credited people; no ebook release date is presented as the book's original publication date.
Sources
More in Books & Authors
Keep reading
