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Post by dem bones on May 1, 2022 13:48:11 GMT
Terrifying Transformations, cont.
Catherine Crowe - The Story of a Wehr-Wolf: (Hogg’s Weekly Instructor, 16 May, 1846). A Gothic romance, published two years before her enduring study of the supernatural, The Night Side of Nature. Cabanis, a small village in the mountains of Auvergne, 1536. Françoise Thilouze, the alchemist's daughter, is falsely accused of witchcraft and lycanthrope by her cousin and rival for the affections of Count Victor de Vardes. Strong, if totally misleading circumstantial evidence, apparently confirms her guilt. Only when Françoise and her father are condemned to burn in the market square does Manon repent her treachery, by which time it is too late to save them, unless .... Manon sets out into the forest to slay the real culprit, a man-killing white wolf minus one paw. If she can but present its corpse to the authorities, they must surely halt the witch-burning.
Eric Stenbock - The Other Side: A Breton Legend: (The Spirit Lamp, 6 June 1893). Bullied by his schoolfellows on account of a gentle nature, still Gabriel is the only person in the village dares cross the enchanted brook to pluck a blue flower from the forest on the "other side." Wandering through fields, he encounters a pack of were-hybrids, including a ram with a hideous human face and Lilith, the golden haired wolf-woman. Returning home, the boy catches his reflection in the water. The pious intervention of his parish priest returns the boy to human form, but Father Felicien is not yet done with Lilith and friends.
Most enjoyable so far, although it could be argued the Dudley Costello comedy is included under false pretences.
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Post by helrunar on May 1, 2022 17:49:44 GMT
Count Stenbock's The Other Side really is quite good.
Some of those tales described sound as if the editor was scraping rather beyond the bottom of the barrel.
H.
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Post by dem bones on May 30, 2022 18:12:52 GMT
Frederick Marryat - The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains: (The Phantom Ship, 1839). On surprising his wife in bed with a Hungarian noble, Krantz kills both and flees Transylvania with his three infant children — Caesar, Hermann (our narrator) and Marcella — to lie low in the Hartz Mountains. His bride's infidelity has soured Krantz toward all womankind, little Marcella bearing the brunt of his hatred.
Krantz is hunting a huge white wolf recently taken to howling beneath his window when he meets a stranger struggling through the snow. The man gives his name as Wilfred of Barnsdorf — who'd have believed it, a previously unknown cousin! When Barnsdorf introduces daughter Christina, a beauty in white furs, Krantz's misogyny is a thing of the past. They marry, with the groom swearing a terrible oath dictated by his soon-to-be father-in-law.
Initially, Christina is all sweetness and light toward the children, but no sooner is Krantz's back turned than she turns violently against them. She also takes to sneaking out into the forest at night, which is surely too reckless - after all, Krantz has still to hunt down the dreadful white wolf! Worse is to follow when Caesar, tracking his stepmother on one of her midnight excursions, is torn to bits. Worse — no sooner has Krantz buried what's left of his son than the wolf despoils the grave to get at the bones. Only after Marcella meets a similar fate does it dawn on the fugitive that maybe this "cousin" and his daughter may not be all they seem ...
Been so long since I'd read this Gothic horror masterpiece, the ending came as a shock all over again.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 17, 2024 11:00:18 GMT
Bob Baum Stuart Evans - The Werewolf and the Cowboy: ( See for Men, Nov. 1961: Robert Deis & Wyatt Doyle [eds] - Atomic Werewolves and Man-Eating Plants, 2023). It was like no other animal that stalked the range — an unkillable monster big as a steer. But what made the stranger so sure it was a werewolf? Gene Preen - Killer of the Cave: ( Adventure, April 1966: Robert Deis & Wyatt Doyle [eds] - Atomic Werewolves and Man-Eating Plants, 2023). It turned a man into a killer-beast and Newman tracked it down until he stood face-to-face with it ... then he had no choice but to die
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