Best Werewolf stories/novels?

[ghostofcorwin]

I was doing some research on this genre to figure out what might be good to read... anyone have some recommendations, either short story or novel? If this has been discussed in another thread, the link would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Fried Egg]

Interesting question.

"Darker than you think" by Jack WIlliamson is an excellent book that features Werewolves quite heavilly.

Robert Howard wrote a couple of good Werewolf short stories called: "In The Forest Of Villefere" & "Wolfshead". Usually found in collections of his horror stories.

 

[Rodders]

I remember back in the 90s a very slim novella/comic from Stephen king called Cycle of the Wolf. It was pretty decent, but the film wasn't up to much.

 

[chrispenycate]

Just how traditional do you want to be? I enjoyed the Wen Spencer 'Alien taste' series, but it's hardly conventional werewolf.

Come to think of it, I can't remember details of any of the conventional werewolf tales I've read.

 

[j d worthington]

Also depends on how far back you want to go. There's the werewolf story in Petronius' Satyricon, for instance, one of the earliest such tales. Clemence Housman's "The Were-wolf" is an excellent tale, as well. One shouldn't overlook Algernon Blackwood's "The Camp of the Dog", either, in his John Silence. H. Warner Munn's Tales of the Werewolf Clan may also prove to be of interest (if you can locate a copy). Even "The White Wolf of St. Bonnot" (one of Seabury Quinn's Jules de Grandin tales) has some things to recommend it.

On the non-fiction front, there are always Sabine Baring-Gould's The Book of Werewolves and Montague Summers' The Werewolf (later retitled The Werewolf in Lore and Legend).

Or, for the penny-dreadful sort of thing, there is always Wagner, the Wehr-wolf, by George W. M. Reynolds -- one of the first "popular" handlings of the theme.

And then there's always Anthony Boucher's The Compleat Werewolf....

You may find the following to be of aid in your search (it's the werewolf page at the Horrormasters site):

HorrorMasters' Werewolf Page

 

[Werewoman]

*crosses her arms and taps her toe impatiently*

Or you could just ask the Werewoman...



Okay, okay, there are some wonderful suggestions here. REH being my personal favorite of course, but I suppose that's obvious. Now, I'll just run off back to the Asylum where I belong...

 

[ghostofcorwin]

*crosses her arms and taps her toe impatiently*

Or you could just ask the Werewoman...



Okay, okay, there are some wonderful suggestions here. REH being my personal favorite of course, but I suppose that's obvious. Now, I'll just run off back to the Asylum where I belong...

This is what I like about this site.... ask about werewolfs and one shows up

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Anybody read the hard to find Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore... everything I've read about it suggests it is to werewolves what Bram Stoker's Dracula was to vampires....

 

[Werewoman]

*pops in momentarily* Unfortunately, I just transformed in the Asylum. I don't usually do that so publicly, but well, Hoopy turned me into a puppet, and werepeople, while being usually mild-mannered albeit clutzy folks, do sometimes get angry, and well, I got angry at Hoopy, and well, we'll just have to see how it plays out...*pops back into the Asylum to finish off the Hoopster - hopefully*

 

[Oxman]

Dreamsongs by George R R Martin (Volume 2) has a lovely little werewolf story called "The Skin Trade" in it amongst some other gems. Well worth a look.

 

[dwndrgn]

In case you wanted to get away from the more traditional ones, there are the more recent urban fantasies involving werewolves. The better ones are the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews and Patricia Briggs Mooncalled (and her Alpha and Omega is a second series that also has them). I wouldn't go for the Laurell Hamilton ones unless you like sex, sex and more sex (but hey, just in case I figured I'd mention it). Jim Butcher's Dresden files (most especially Fool Moon) has werewolves and other shapeshifters.

Happy reading!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Of those mentioned at HorrorMasters (thanks to JD for providing the link), I would absolutely agree that "The Were Wolf" by Clemence Housman and "The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains," by Captain Frederick Marryat are among the essentials.

There are many other excellent stories on that list (at least the ones that I have read and can vouch for) but for me they don't supply the same frisson as the Housman and the Marryat.

 

[j d worthington]

Teresa: You're welcome.

The Werewolf of Paris... It has been more than 25 years since I last read that one, but I'd hesitate to say it does for werewolves what Dracula did for vampires; nor do I think Endore intended it to be anything like that. It uses some genuine lore about real lycanthropy cases (as well as some fictional aspects), and combines it with the violence of the Paris communes at the period, as an examination of the beast in man; the tendency to revert to a violent animal state so easily, and the corruption which spreads with it.

If this makes it sound like a treatise... there is that aspect to it; yet it is a powerful novel -- just not one where the main intent was to produce a supernatural novel, but rather one using the mythical supernatural elements as an ideal vehicle for exploring certain ideas. I would recommend it, but with the warning not to expect a comfortable little thriller, but a book which is often very strong medicine: dark, almost unrelentingly grim, violent, at times repulsive, and even hard to take, but an important gem in the field nonetheless. (Though there are those who argue that he took some of his best material from H. H. Ewers' Vampire, which I have not been able to get my hands on....)

 

[BookStop]

Kelley Armstrong's Bitten series has a female werewolf protagonist. It's fairly light reading, but very enjoyable. She also has short stories set int he same universe on her website and they are free.

 

[biodroid]

Did anyone miss this but what about SK's - The Cycle of the Werewolf. Part graphic novel too.

 

[Taltos]

How about some "not so classic" werewolf examples (from classic writers noneteheless)
Clifford Simak The Werewolf Principle
Roger Zelazny The Dark Travelling
Poul Anderson Operation Chaos
None of these books is best from particular writer but readable anyway

 

[Connavar]

The Mammoth Book of Wolf Men

Collects many stories by many famous horror writers from classic pulps to modern horror.

Its a book i will easily pay 4 quid for

 

[ghostofcorwin]

Teresa: You're welcome.

The Werewolf of Paris... It has been more than 25 years since I last read that one, but I'd hesitate to say it does for werewolves what Dracula did for vampires; nor do I think Endore intended it to be anything like that. It uses some genuine lore about real lycanthropy cases (as well as some fictional aspects), and combines it with the violence of the Paris communes at the period, as an examination of the beast in man; the tendency to revert to a violent animal state so easily, and the corruption which spreads with it.

If this makes it sound like a treatise... there is that aspect to it; yet it is a powerful novel -- just not one where the main intent was to produce a supernatural novel, but rather one using the mythical supernatural elements as an ideal vehicle for exploring certain ideas. I would recommend it, but with the warning not to expect a comfortable little thriller, but a book which is often very strong medicine: dark, almost unrelentingly grim, violent, at times repulsive, and even hard to take, but an important gem in the field nonetheless. (Though there are those who argue that he took some of his best material from H. H. Ewers' Vampire, which I have not been able to get my hands on....)

Okay, here's a weird follow-up to my request for titles. I just headed up the street in Greenwich Village (NYC) after parking my car and came across a couple of boxes of old books that someone had left by a trash can. Sure enough, I couldn't resist poking around, as I'm fond of those old fashioned bindings. Amidst the mundane titles one jumps out at me.... The Werewolf of Paris in a rather beaten up copy with yellow boards. Sure enough, it's a first printing from Farrar Strauss, 1933. Text is pretty clean and readable. I'm thinking there's got to be a coven of werewolves somewhere near by that are insistent on me reading this book. Then I dig a little further.... yes, a second copy, but this one in a red binding... Triangle Books, 1944. Unfortunately, the copy is not only worn but the pages are simply flaking out the book and very browned. But one must wonder at the ways of the world. I had just checked in various websites to see if there were used copies of Endore's book out there, only to discover that they were all quite pricey and apparently somewhat rare (cheapest copy was from 1990 at around $30, but most in the $100 range. My first edition is not really sellable, but certainly a great reading copy....

P.S. I've read a few of the more classic werewolf stories -- Blackwood, Beaugrand, started Houseman. And now looking forward to Endore. Should be a howler....

 

[j d worthington]

Hmmm. I note that even the Sphere paperback (#1, if I recall, in the "Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult") is going for between $28 and $40 US....

You know, that's a series that someone needs to bring back into print. A fair amount of "meh", but also some darned good, hard-to-find pieces of weird fiction which deserve much more exposure....

Oh, and by the way... you lucky devil, you......

 

[ghostofcorwin]

Finished Werewolf of Paris. It was an uneven book, in my opinion, but had some edgy material in it for sure. It was a worthwhile read overall and I do recommend it. I thought the whole Paris during the commune historical stuff was tangential to the story of Bertrand, the Werewolf, but not totally distracting. Some of the things that were pretty shocking were: Bertrand feeding on the body parts of the recently interred; keeping himself from turning into a werewolf by cutting his lover's body and supping on her blood to the point where she was scarred all over, but completely under his spell.... and some of the werewolf attacks were tense and well done, especially the last in the sanitorium where Bertrand is kept as a patient.

 

[j d worthington]

Actually, I can't agree that they were tangential; they were two parts of a whole. This is the world which produced Bertrand, and the very bestiality of which he is a concentrated form also runs through the violence in the Paris commune, especially during the period of especial civil unrest (certainly a horrific chapter in human history). Endore's thrust seems to be, I think, that where the one is "socially acceptable" (war, revolution, violent suppression by authorities of that which seems to threaten the established social order, etc.) and the other (Bertrand's rapes, cannibalism, necrophilia, etc.) are not, they are really the same thing... only one is done by society at large, while the other is done by an individual (who is therefore more easily focused on as a target on which to vent our outrage at such inhumane acts, while never truly addressing the underlying causes inherent in society).

He wasn't preaching a moral lesson, or attempting to find solutions, but making a rather grim statement about our tendency toward violence and how we pick and choose who will be the scapegoat for our deeds and who will not. In some ways, it is related to the theme of Ursula LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas", though Endore's take on it is considerably more overtly violent and nasty... but in the end, the indictment remains much the same.