Much has been written about the founder of Wombwell’s menagerie, and his life is still the subject of ongoing and energetic research, conducted in large part by his descendants. The first two volumes of a three volume biography were published by Shaun Everett in 2016 and 2017, and he also maintains a website, www.georgewombwell.com dedicated to exploring the life of George and the history of menageries. And as Shaun himself notes, it is fairly obvious going through the available sources that the George Wombwell story is a murky combination of fact, supposition, and mythology. Apocryphal stories abound with no possible way of verifying them, but all are invested with high drama of one kind or another.
It has to be suggested that a prime source of many of these confabulations may well have been George himself, along with his immediate circle. But if so, this was not due to a mere excess of personal vanity, much as that may have played a part, but more part of an acute and intuitive grasp of marketing principles, in which the true story always had to be subordinate to the best story.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.