Writing About Animals in the Age of Revolution

By: Jane Spencer

Narrated by: Cat Gould

Writing About Animals in the Age of Revolution shows how an appreciation of human-animal similarity and a literature of compassion for animals developed in the same years during which radical thinkers were first basing political demands on the concept of natural and universal human rights. Some people began to conceptualize animal rights as an extension of the rights of man and woman. But because oppressed people had to insist on their own separation from animals in order to claim the right to a full share in human privileges, the relationship between human and animal rights was fraught and complex.

This book examines that relationship in chapters covering the abolition movement, early feminism, and the political reform movement. Donkeys, pigs, apes, and many other literary animals became central metaphors within political discourse, fought over in the struggle for rights and freedoms; while at the same time more and more writers became interested in exploring the experiences of animals themselves. We learn how children's writers pioneered narrative techniques for representing animal subjectivity, and how the anti-cruelty campaign of the early 1800s drew on the legacy of 1790s radicalism.

©2020 Jane Spencer (P)2020 Tantor

One For The Academic Asses

Jane Spencer's "Writing About Animals in the Age of Revolutions" is a detailed account of the intersection of animal and human rights rhetoric and discourse in late eighteenth century literature. It is also the only substantial book you will find on the subject of animals in literature on audible. The literature Spencer focuses on ranges from Romantic poetry, to children's stories, to vegetarian tracts, feminist and radical polemics, to early nineteenth-century legislation like Martin's Act (1822), and much more. The book's introduction provides you with a fairly comprehensive critical overview of the contemporary (2010-2020) philosophical approaches to the study of animals in literature, and the chapters that follow are well researched, informative, and intellectually stimulating. Chapter 2 focuses on Ass narratives; 3, on animals in children's literature; 4, women, brutes, and feminism; 5; primates, slavery, and abolition; 6, pigs and radicalism; 7, on the first animals rights legislation. I personally found Spencer's introductory discussion of David Hume and Adam Smith's differing ideas of sympathy as they relate to be animals to be very helpful, as was her exploration of Mary Wollstonecraft's relationship to animals in her vindications. I found Spencer's chapter's on pigs, radicals, and the working class, to be less impressive, and i would also question the author's right to claim her book to be a study of animals when the book is focused on domesticated mammals, the ass in particular. Listening to so much ass talk was a bit of a pain in the ass.

Puns aside, one thing that did annoy me about this audiobook was the general shabbiness of the listening experience provided by Tantor Media, the producer of this recording. While Cat Gould's narration was fine, listening to her speaking 13 hours of fairly turgid prose made for a dry, dull, audio experience. I don't see why Tantor cannot get a little creative and add some audioscape depth to their productions instead of taking the book and paying someone to read it out aloud. Moreover, this kind of approach does not work with academic books like this one, as it is obviously filled with footnotes to scholarship the author is frequently alluding to. Not many people are going to buy into audiorecordings of academic books unless they possess some creative innovations the physical books lack. Indeed, even the accompanying illustration (picture of goat writing) to the book has no real relation to the content of the book, as the author writes not a jot about goats.