"adds to the entertainment." The Washington Post called it an "engaging new novel," and pronounced that "if all books on ancient history were written with the free-flowing grace of An Elephant for Aristotle, many more of us would have an appreciation of the civilizations that came before ours." It stated the author "has given this historical novel a different treatment–one which scrupulously tries to respect historical fact but doesn't take itself too seriously–the change is all for the better." Awards The novel won the Athenaeum of Philadelphia's 1958 Athenaeum Literary Award for fiction. Similar book The idea of using the travel of an elephant across different countries as the focus of a historical novel was also taken up by the well-known Portuguese writer José Saramago, in the 2008 novel A Viagem do Elefante (The Voyage of the Elephant), though in a very different literary style from de Camp's and set in a very different time (16th Century Europe) (see ). Notes 1958 American novels Novels by L. Sprague de Camp Books about elephants Novels set in ancient Persia Novels set in ancient Greece Ancient India in popular culture Doubleday (publisher) books Novels set in the 4th century BC