9780674047167-0674047168-Monsters of the Gévaudan: The Making of a Beast

Monsters of the Gévaudan: The Making of a Beast

ISBN-13: 9780674047167
ISBN-10: 0674047168
Edition: 1
Author: Jay M. Smith
Publication date: 2011
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Format: Hardcover 392 pages
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Book details

ISBN-13: 9780674047167
ISBN-10: 0674047168
Edition: 1
Author: Jay M. Smith
Publication date: 2011
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Format: Hardcover 392 pages

Summary

Monsters of the Gévaudan: The Making of a Beast (ISBN-13: 9780674047167 and ISBN-10: 0674047168), written by authors Jay M. Smith, was published by Harvard University Press in 2011. With an overall rating of 4.2 stars, it's a notable title among other France (European History, Historiography, Historical Study & Educational Resources, World History, Folklore & Mythology, Social Sciences) books. You can easily purchase or rent Monsters of the Gévaudan: The Making of a Beast (Hardcover) from BooksRun, along with many other new and used France books and textbooks. And, if you're looking to sell your copy, our current buyback offer is $12.3.

Description

In a brilliant, original rendition, Monsters of the Gévaudan revisits a spellbinding French tale that has captivated imaginations for over two hundred years, and offers the definitive explanation of the strange events that underlie this timeless story.

In 1764 a peasant girl was killed and partially eaten while tending a flock of sheep. Eventually, over a hundred victims fell prey to a mysterious creature, or creatures, whose cunning and deadly efficiency terrorized the region and mesmerized Europe. The fearsome aggressor quickly took on mythic status, and the beast of the Gévaudan passed into French folklore.

What species was this killer, why did it decapitate so many of its victims, and why did it prefer the flesh of women and children? Why did contemporaries assume that the beast was anything but a wolf, or a pack of wolves, as authorities eventually claimed, and why is the tale so often ignored in histories of the ancien régime? Smith finds the answer to these last two questions in an accident of timing. The beast was bound to be perceived as strange and anomalous because its ravages coincided with the emergence of modernity itself.

Expertly situated within the social, intellectual, cultural, and political currents of French life in the 1760s, Monsters of the Gévaudan will engage a wide range of readers with both its recasting of the beast narrative and its compelling insights into the allure of the monstrous in historical memory.

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