The Werewolf...in Legend, Fact and Art

The legend of the werewolf, like that of the Vampire, is one of the most ancient and fascinating myths that have come down to us out of the mists of time. Lycanthropy - the gradual changing of man to wolf - was believed by the ancients to be an actual physical state in which men became transformed at the full of the moon, running down their prey and destroying anyone unfortunate enough to run into their path. "The Werewolf: in Legend, Fact and Art" deals with the myths in which the monster came to be one of the most feared of beings; with the "werewolf disease" of medieval times, in which thousands of suspected werewolves were destroyed in judicial holocausts, for which a modern doctor had an ingenious medical explanation; with the wolf boys, ancient and modern, whose activities embellished the legend; with the treatment of the werewolf in literature with such novels as "Wagner the Wehr-wolf" and "The Werewolf of Paris"; and with its various filmic manifestations in today's cinema. Fully illustrated, "The Werewolf" is a fascinating study, uniform with the author's "The Vampire: in Legend, Fact and Art".