Best Werewolf stories/novels?

j.d., you're absolutely correct. In thinking back, Endore makes the point about the variations in violence and puts the werewolf in perspective, noting that he does much less damage/death than the commune.... he actually becomes lost in the overall bloodshed. I think what I was trying to get at however, is that the length and detail about the history of the commune was a bit too much for me and took away from the core narrative about Bertrand. It was much less interesting because somewhat impersonal. But I can't argue with your point about Endore's intent.
 
The only stories of this genre I have read till date was The Werewolf by Clemence Houseman , which was a good short novela and The Door of the Unreal by Gerald Biss . The later , while celebrated by Lovecraft , can become somewhat of a tedium with the "cat" being out of the bag a good portion before the end , with to much detail on the preparations on the atack on the werewolfes then the actual act .
 
I see your point; and certainly it is less intense by taking this route. For me, however, it gives it a broader scope and, in the end, more impact because, despite the horrific things Bertrand does, he ends up as almost a pitiful figure when scaled against his background; a sick, twisted individual, but more the symptom than the disease. A lycanthrope he may be, but the real werewolves are all around.

Again, though, I really need to re-read the novel, it having been so long....
 
This reminds me , J.D. , didn't you read Wagner the Wehr Wolf some time ago as well ? Care to share your thoughts about it here ? :p
 
Mmmm... I thought I already had done so, but... G. W. M. Reynolds' Wagner is one of those things which anyone with a genuine interest in the development of the field should read, just to have an idea of what this sort of popular tale was like. It certainly has its moments, and occasionally manages some genuinely powerful atmosphere... but they are few and very far between. On the whole, Reynolds (as was his wont) simply rehashes (read: plagiarizes) material from the better-known Gothics, but often does it less effectively. For the casual reader, who is simply interested in entertainment -- avoid it like the proverbial plague....
 
My copy, from the Hearst Co., comes to 974 pp. of very small type... about the size type used for the smaller classified ads in daily newspapers....
 
Here's a few; the novel was great, haven't read the collection yet.

Werewolf.jpg
Werewolfbc.jpg

MoonOfTheWolf.jpg
 
The novel is entirely new to me; the anthology, on the other hand, has some sterling stuff in it. By the way, in case you weren't aware, it is one of a series of such anthologies put together by Pronzini, including:

Voodoo! A Chrestomathy of Necromancy
Mummy! A Chrestomathy of Crypt-ology
Ghoul! A Chrestomathy of Ogrery
(re-released as The Arbor House Necropolis and later, in slightly abridged form, as Tales of the Dead)
Creature! A Chrestomathy of Monstery
Specter! A Chrestomathy of "Spookery"

This is not to mention other horror anthologies he did, such as:

Witches' Brew: Horror and Supernatural Stories by Women (with his wife, Marcia Muller)
The Giant Book of Horror Stories (with Martin H. Greenberg and Barry N. Malzberg)
and The Arbor House Treasury of Horror and the Supernatural....
 
I thought there might have been another but had no idea there were six. Gives me something else to be on the lookout for. Do have the Arbor House anthology. Guy's been busy. Didn't know he and Muller were married.
 
I have a copy of the novel Night Screams, wrongly listed as an anthology on fantasticfiction. I picked it up because it was co-written by Barry N. Malzberg, but I can't say I was especially impressed by the book.
 
A rather ......peculiar word selection for the title , I must say .
 
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