The Essential Guide to Werewolf Literature

by Frost, Brian J.

• ISBN13: 9780879728601
• ISBN10: 0879728604
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-11-01
• Publisher: Popular Pr of Bowling Green State

Summary

In this fascinating book, Brian J. Frost presents the first full-scale survey of werewolf literature covering both fiction and nonfiction works. He identifies principal elements in the werewolf myth, considers various theories of the phenomenon of shapeshifting, surveys nonfiction books, and traces the myth from its origins in ancient superstitions to its modern representations in fantasy and horror fiction. Frost's analysis encompasses fanciful medieval beliefs, popular works by Victorian authors, scholarly treatises and medical papers, and short stories from pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s. Revealing the complex nature of the werewolf phenomenon and its tremendous and continuing influence, The Essential Guide to Werewolf Literature is destined to become a standard reference on the subject.

Author Biography

Brian J. Frost is the author of Book of the Werewolf and The Monster with a Thousand Faces: Guises of the Vampire in Myth and Literature.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xiii
The Werewolf Phenomenon	3	(27)
A Survey of Reference Works	30	(20)
The Werewolf Enters Fiction	50	(56)
A New Approach	106	(38)
The Beast Within	144	(43)
The Boom Years	187	(52)
Werewolf Anthologies	239	(20)
Bibliography	259	(74)
Index	333