His Monkey Wife

Emily, a chimp, is the only attentive student in Mr. Fatigay's class in the heart of South Africa. Her desire to learn, gather information, and better herself through knowledge touches the heart of her teacher, and gives Amy Flint -- his alluringly hateful fiancée -- a competitor in the race for the schoolteacher's hand in marriage. This classic work of biting satire and radiant prose playfully uses this strange courtship to illuminate two abiding kinds of souls, the faithful and the unfaithful, and shows how man's soul deepens in the presence of love.

The New York Times

The whole is written with sly humor throughout and is illuminated by splendid similies and metaphors which mark the author as a true humorist.

John Collier (1901-1980) was born in Britain, but spent much of his life in the U.S., where he wrote screenplays for Hollywood (The African Queen, Sylvia Scarlet, and I Am a Camera among them) and short stories for The New Yorker and other magazines. He was also a poet, editor, and reviewer.