Dancing Bears, and where to find them

 

The Dancing Bear by Peter Dickinson

published 1972

 

 

Where do the books come from?

Well. In this case, it would be hard to invent the CiB connections.

A theatrical mystery – Come to Paddington Fair by Derek Smith – featured a stuffed bear as part of a stage set (and part of the crime) and I was very pleased with the picture I found.

Stage Door Enquiries - theatrical mystery and prop guns from Derek Smith

Blogfriend Christine Harding posted a comment considering the incidence of bears in books, and of course the readers surged forward to add to her suggestions, and a good time was had by all.

This one was mentioned (anon comment, but I think maybe Sovay) and I idly looked it up – I’m a big fan of Peter Dickinson’s crime books, and have also read some of his children’s books, but not this one. And so I discovered that the book is set in the time of the Emperor Justinian, 558 CE,  and starts out in the vari-named Byzantium. Bingo! This was all gone over on the blog last year – see this post for an obscure historical novel, and here for Robert Graves’ Count Belisarius. So obviously I had to track down a copy and read it. It is also true that I was utterly fascinated by the idea of dancing bears when I was a child, and I would have LOVED this book if I’d ever come across it.

One thing to get out of the way: to modern eyes the idea of a dancing bear, in captivity for the entertainment of humans, is shocking and cruel, and would not be tolerated today, and I have no argument with that (though I don’t really understand why it is different from, say, riding horses for entertainment, possibly putting them in danger?) But I am going to say that this book is set 1500 years ago, and there is a lot worse going on, including the fact that the main character, Sylvester, is a slave.  So we are going to go with the flow and accept it for what it was.

Sylvester is a bear-keeper and clerk in a wealthy household in Byzantium, and a friend to the daughter of the house, the Lady Ariadne. There is an attack on the city by Huns, and Ariadne is carried off. After a lot of activity, Sylvester finds himself with Holy John – a saint and mystic who usually sits on top of a pillar – and his beloved bear Bubba, outside the city walls, off to find and rescue Ariadne. The book follows their very complex adventures. I enjoyed it hugely, and as I say just regret not having read it earlier.

Peter Dickinson died 10 years ago, but luckily his website still survives, I’m guessing his family look after it:

| Peter Dickinson Books

--and it is, btw, a model author site in my important opinion.

This is part of Dickinson’s comments on the book:

 I chose the period of the great Emperor Justinian because one year when I was at Eton a last-minute emergency teacher had had to be found to teach us ancient history, and he announced on arrival that the only period he could teach was that of Justinian — five hundred years later than the time of the great classic writers that was all we were supposed to take an interest in…

Some of the book is true and some is fiction – the author says he invented the specific raid by the Huns, and later found there had been one exactly then. The characters shine out – Holy John is a hoot and a half – and the bear is absolutely wonderful, and her relationship with Sylvester a delight. The book is packed with action and adventure but also very funny and charming at times.

There are extraordinary scenes such as the ones where the bear is asked to walk over ill people, which was thought to make them better.

‘She danced to and fro across the old woman, stepping on her several times, while the old woman shrieked and hooted and [her son] yelled to his friends to come and see his mother being killed, or cured, as the case might be.’

There are great descriptions of the bear dancing, of travelling, of hunting (there is a splendid ‘demon huntress’).

Another recent community post was this one:

Compass directions, a children’s classic, and is North best?

which began with a reference to the children’s book, Stuart Little. I had a complaint or difficulty with that story, and feel I can say (spoiler-free) that The Dancing Bear did not have the same lack of resolution.

Dickinson’s style, and the drive of the book, reminded me of Geoffrey Trease who also wrote excellent historical (and modern YA)  novels

In the original comments I mentioned a bear anecdote from Nancy Mitford’s Love in a Cold Climate, and here it is:

‘Sadie was telling how some people, before their babies are born, gaze at Greuze so that the babies shall look like it, and she said “You never know about these things, because when I was a little girl in Suffolk a baby was born in the village with a bear’s head, and what do you think? Exactly nine months before a dancing bear had been in that neighbourhood.” So Vict. said “But I can quite understand that, I always think bears are simply terribly attractive”, and Sadie gave the most tremendous jump I ever saw and said, “You awful child, that’s not what I mean at all”’.

Pictures from the turn of the century, France & England.

Another noted children’s author, Michael Morpurgo, also wrote a book called The Dancing Bear, published  in 1994, which didn’t grab me - rather unfairly, I didn't like it because it had an unconvincing contemporary setting. It sounded like Heidi to begin with, an orphan girl with a gruff grandfather somewhere like a French mountain village? Maybe Swiss? Becomes friend and protector to a bearcub, Bruno. Then a film crew is coming, so I thought maybe 1930s. The director wore a purple fedora - 

- I admired that idea very much. Then there was a startling mention of George Michael, and the revelation that the film was a pop video. I thought the story sat awkwardly among these different aspects, and it didn’t work for me though others plainly love it.

Go to the comments on that previous post to find more books featuring bears.

 

Country Circus Troupe with Dancing Bear from Balkans, on T… | Flickr

Christmas cards depicting cats reading, bears dancing, owls singing, tortoise, and hare. - NYPL Digital Collections

File:Carte postale, Poussay (Vosges), Nomades montreurs d'ours.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

File:English dancing bear.jpg - Wikimedia Commons