This is a “biography” of the African elephant who gave the world a new word for large, gigantic, stupendous, huge, magnificent: Jumbo.

Chambers details how the young calf was captured by nomadic Hamran traders, and subsequently, through the hands of various dealers in exotic animals, delivered to the zoo in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. That facility eventually sold the young animal to the London Zoological Society, where he came under the care of Matthew Scott, who would become his champion and life-long keeper, and where Jumbo became the darling of Victorian England.

I’d heard of Jumbo before, but only as part of P T Barnum’s circus. I found it fascinating to learn how the giant elephant was trained and treated while at the London zoo, the thousands of children who received rides on his back, and the outcry on learning that Barnum would take the beloved elephant to America. I also appreciated learning more about the various personalities surrounding Jumbo, from Scott to the head of the London’s Zoological Garden, Abraham Bartlett, to P T Barnum.

I am an admitted fanatic when it comes to elephants, but even I lost interest a few times. And I think that readers who don’t want to read about any mistreatment of animals would best avoid this work. (It’s historically accurate, but that doesn’t make it easier to take.) ( )

Well researched but poorly written. Quite disappointed, I had high hopes for this one. ( )

This book was unremittingly sad. From the opening scenes wherein Jumbo's mother is brutally murdered in front of baby Jumbo to the tragic end of the elephant's life, this book catalogs the Victorian attitude toward exotic animals with clinical dispassion. The story is very interesting and the book well written. I wish I thought we'd learned something about the care and conservation of wildlife in the interim. ( )

Jumbo is an interesting slice of Victorian life about one of the first African elephants to be exhibited in Europe since the Roman Empire. Chamber strikes a nice balance between Victorian and contemporary attitudes, taken into consideration their sentimentality and our understanding of the social and emotional lives of elephants.

Jumbo was first virtually ignored at the Parisian zoo which had ordered his capture, then sold to the London Zoo, where he grew large, became a star attraction, and acquired a companion for the rest of his life: Matthew Scott. Becoming obstreperous as he approached adulthood, Jumbo was sold to the Barnum and London (late Barnum and Bailey) Circus, where he created a craze and his name entered into the lexicon as a synonym for extremely large One of Chambers successes is in conveying just how large an eleven-foot-high elephant is.

The story is interestingly told, and an enjoyable little nugget about a bit of cultural history that is with us to this present day. Jumbo never gets lost in the swirl of machinations of the people around him. The book includes a number of photographs and reproduction of pictures of Jumbo. ( )