The Essential Guide to Werewolf Literature

The Essential Guide to Werewolf Literature Brian J. Frost. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003. Brian J. Frost's book provides a comprehensive overview of werewolf fiction and nonfiction, from ancient Roman writers such as Virgil and Ovid through what Frost calls "the boom years" of the 1990s. The breadth of Frost's coverage is impressive, making this book an essential reference guide for those interested in the literary pedigree of the werewolf. Although the term "werewolf" itself is Anglo-Saxon in origin, Frost notes that stories of human beings who transform themselves into wolves (or other kinds of animals) are common in world mythology, folklore, and literature. The task Frost then establishes for himself is a formidable one: to catalogue most (if not all) of the known appearances of the werewolf in Western literature. He does so in workmanlike fashion, annotating the references as he sees fit. The end result is a book that is somewhat inconsistent in the amount of detail given in the story synopses, and the depth of its commentary on the literary significance of the werewolf. However, the book cannot be faulted for its exhaustive listings and lengthy concluding bibliography. The bibliography alone makes this volume indispensable for scholars with an interest in the subject. Chapter one, "The Werewolf Phenomenon," situates the werewolf legends of England, France, Spain, Greece, Sweden, and other northern European countries within the larger mythological tradition of hybrid monsters. Based on such legends, Frost profiles the physical appearance of the werewolf, the duration of the transformation, and the methods (either voluntarily or involuntarily) by which one becomes a werewolf. Frost then makes a crucial distinction between the terms "lycanthrope" and "werewolf," the former referring to a person who believes that he or she is a wolf, and the latter referring to an actual shapeshifter. Frost points out that occult belief in werewolves as literal shape-shifters or psychic projections of inner savagery continued through the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. Frost also summarizes the Freudian and Jungian psychological explanations of the werewolf as symbolic manifestation of unspeakable internal desires. Chapter two is entitled "A Survey of Reference Works." Frost observes that most reference works on the subject address the ontology of the werewolf tradition and/or the literal existence of werewolves; until recently, few works have catalogued the werewolf in fiction. The works cited in this chapter approach the werewolf legend from a variety of perspectives, including occult, theological, anthropological, and psychoanalytic. Frost identifies the most important studies as originating in the sixteenth century. Within the larger context of a belief in witchcraft and demonology, these works tend to conclude that so-called werewolves are mentally ill people under the satanic delusion that they have been transformed into beasts. Not until the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, however, did several noted reference works bring the werewolf to popular attention. Some of the more recognizable twentieth-century authors (and a host of more obscure ones) cited by Frost include Montague Summers, Ernest Jones, and Robert Eisler. Toward the end of the chapter, while noting the contribution of writers such as Basil Copper and Stephen King, Frost states the purpose of his own work: to fill a void in the cataloguing and literary criticism of fictional werewolf tales. In chapter three, "The Werewolf Enters Fiction," Frost embarks upon this primary mission. He points out the earliest known literary occurrences of the werewolf theme in works by Virgil, Petronius, and Marie de France. After the end of the medieval period, Frost says, the werewolf rarely appears in fiction again until the nineteenth century. Frost displays his impressive knowledge by pointing out such disparate moments as the first novel to have a werewolf as a central character (George W. …