Curse of the Werewolf
By Chantal Bourgault Du Corday
I.B Taurus, London/New York, 2006, Trade Paperback, Non Fiction, 224 Pages

Curse of the Werewolf is a well-written book discussing the Werewolf in mythology, literature and film. It covers the evolution of the werewolf from his folk roots to the werewolf as we know and love him today.

The flow of the book suffers from an excessive emphasis on the influence of psychoanalysis on the movies and literature. The influence existed and needed to be mentioned. The discussion of the beast within was relevant and fascinating, but she went on about it for far too long.

The most interesting thing I learned is that two things integral to our idea of the werewolf originated in the 20^th century, namely the bite of the werewolf inducing lycanthropy and the vulnerability to silver. The history of the interaction between films and literature in modern times is totally gripping.

The book has an extensive bibliography which any lover of the genre will find interesting. The index is useful making possible the easy location of interesting tidbits. I loved this book and recommended. It can be gotten from ASU’s Hayden Library via Interlibrary Loan. – Gary Swaty