Hackenfeller's Ape by Brigid Brophy, decorations & dustwrapper by Asceir Scott - 1953

London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1953. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. First edition, first printing. Hardback in dustwrapper. 20.5 × 13.5cm, 123pp. In London Zoo, Professor Darrylhyde is singing to the apes again. Outside their cage, he watches the two animals, longing to observe the mating ritual of this rare species. But Percy, inhibited by confinement and melancholy, is repulsing Edwina's desirous advances. Soon, the Professor's connection increases as he talks, croons, befriends - so when a scientist arrives on a secret governmental mission to launch Percy into space, he vows to secure his freedom. But when met by society's indifference, he takes matters into his own hands... A trailblazing animal rights campaigner, Brigid Brophy's sensational 1953 novel is as provocative and philosophical seventy years on. An electric moral fable, it is as much a blazingly satirical reflection on homo sapiens as the non-human - on our capacity for violence, red in tooth and claw, not only to other species, but our own. Condition: The book is in very good condition. The dustwrapper is bright and clean with one small closed tear at the head of the spine. It has not been price-clipped and is now within a protective sleeve.