Just Couldn’t Finish Reading: Wolves and Werewolves by John Pollard (FP: 1964) [178pp] 

ANOTHER DNF!! Thankfully we’re almost at years end, so the fact that I’ve reached my maximum allowed rejections won’t be too much of an issue – I HOPE! Now, I didn’t have any particularly unreasonable expectations for this book, I just expected it to be readable. In that I was disappointed. Despite the author apparently being an Oxford graduate his writing style was terrible. Although I guess that it shows some skill to make a potentially interesting study so tedious and dull. 

The first part of the book – which I failed to complete, ending with page 55 – focused in on numerous wolf related stories and folk tales from throughout Europe going back several hundred years. Although the list of wolf related attacks/interactions was ‘interesting’ in itself, the author failed to weave any kind of narrative to the seemingly endless list which soon became both boring and pointless. Looking into, for example, what the local authorities tried to do about such things – whether they succeeded or not – would've added some depth to the tale. Instead, he seemed to rely on stories clearly copied down without any further thought or analysis. I did actually, after yet another wolf related death, start questioning exactly how SO many wolf attacks were even possible well into modern times. Afterall, the wolf became extinct in England during the reign of Henry VII (1485-1509) and the last wolf was officially killed in Scotland in 1680. Did they last much longer in more areas on Continental Europe? This from Wiki: 

According to documented data, man-eating (not rabid) wolves killed 111 people in Estonia in the years from 1804 to 1853, 108 of them were children, two men and one woman. 

In France, historical records compiled by rural historian Jean-Marc Moriceau indicate that during the period 1362–1918, nearly 7,600 people were killed by wolves, of whom 4,600 were killed by nonrabid wolves. [[That’s on average just over 8 non-rabid wolf related deaths PER YEAR, so not a *huge* amount then.]] 

The most interesting chapter, and the last one I read, was on the fabled ‘Beast of the Gevaudan’ which was credited with around 60 kills in that region over a period of two years. It was either one or (more likely) a pair of wolves responsible which managed to avoid numerous attempts, including the arrival of specialist hunters commissioned by the King himself to end the terror. The interest wasn’t in the sudden improvement of writing (which didn’t happen) but rather the fact that this the base story behind one of – if not the – favourite foreign language movies I’ve seen: Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001), starring Samuel Le Bihan as Knight Grégoire de Fronsac, Vincent Cassel as Jean-François de Morangias, the absolutely gorgeous Émilie Dequenne as Marianne de Morangias, the amazing Mark Dacascos as Mani and  Monica Bellucci as Sylvia. It’s a beautifully filmed and highly entertaining film and should be watched in the original French for its full effect. I highly recommend it. I just don’t recommend this book! Hopefully my other werewolf books will be better. 

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