VCE Literature Texts: Only the Animals

On this website, you can read the author's biographical information, and explore her other creative works, from books to essays, articles and a short film.

Read the author's introduction to her book and find links to reviews.

Dovey discusses the motivation for the story, her writing habits and her development as a writer. Only the Animals was longlisted for the Stella Prize, shortlisted for the 2015 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and the winner of both the inaugural Readings New Australian Writing Award and the Steele Rudd Award (Short Story Collection) at the Queensland Literary Awards.

When authors write fictional stories about animals, often they’re writing about the human predicament. Author Ceridwen Dovey discovered this is often the case in researching her collection of short stories 'Only the Animals'. As she tells Sarah L’Estrange, writing the book was a literary education.

A concise review examining the writing style, language and literary style, focusing on. a few different stories.

This review considers the writing, genre and subject of the book as a whole, as well as evaluates individual stories in the collection.

A concise overview examining the experiences of the author and the themes in the book.

A concise and straightforward review of the novel and subjects.

Brief information about the book and the author.

This review provides a comprehensive evaluation of Only the Animals, comparing it with other animal literature from Kakfa and Coetzee, and unpacking individual stories and the writing in detail.

A concise evaluation of the success of the story, with reference to the writing and style.

An overview of the plot, characters and symbols. Detailed analysis of the plot, themes and quotes requires an account.

Questions and discussion points - In Only the Animals, the souls of ten animals caught up in human conflicts over the last century tell their astonishing stories of life and death, sharing their view of humans at our brutal worst and our creative best.

Examining the connection between the rate of declining animal characters in literature and their rate of extinction.

A wide-ranging list, from the Cheshire Cat, to the Kakfa, to Behemoth from the Master and Margarita.

Aesop's Fables are one of the earliest stories featuring animal characters that talk and speak as humans do, in order to highlight human weaknesses. The fables contain a moral or lesson for behaviour - can you make a connection to Only the Animals?

Read the teachers note on this page and compare how characters are represented as animals in Art Speilgelman's Maus - what connection can you make with Only the Animals?

Light and fun - how many of these animal characters did you meet and fall in love with as a young reader?