num_pages: 352
description: Using modern biology and history to investigate a series of grisly deaths in the countryside of 18th-century France.Something unimaginable occurred from 1764 to 1767 in the remote highlands of south-central France. For three years a real-life monster or monsters ravaged the region slaughtering by some accounts more than 100 people mostly women and children and inflicting severe injuries upon many others. Alarmed rural communitiesand their economieswere virtually held hostage by the marauder and local officials and Louis XV deployed dragoons and crack wolf hunters from far-off Normandy and the Kings own court to destroy the menace. And with the creatures reign of terror occurring at the advent of the modern newspaper it can be said the ferocious attacks in the Gvaudan region were one of the world's first media sensations.Despite extensive historical documentation about this awesome predator no one seemed to know exactly what it was. Theories Was it an exotic animal such as a hyena that had escaped from a menagerie? A werewolf? A wolf-dog hybrid? A new species? Some kind of conspiracy? Or as was proposed by the local bishop was it a scourge of God? To this day debates on the true nature of La Bte  The Beast continue.With historical illustrations composite sketches by the author on-the-scene modern-day photographs autopsy analysis and fictionalized accounts Beast takes a fascinating look at all the evidence using a mix of history and modern biology to advance a theory that could solve one of the most bizarre and unexplained killing sprees of all Frances infamous Beast of the Gvaudan.
language: English
title: Beast: Werewolves, Serial Killers, and Man-Eaters: The Mystery of the Monsters of the Gévaudan
publisher: Skyhorse