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frogggirl2's review against another edition
4.0
How much of this is fiction? The author is incredibly successful at using historical events and people of note to ground the story in reality. He also uses the narrator's incredulity and scientific or religious arguments to increase the credibility of the story to great effect. My only criticism is that this edition is not optimal; there are basic typographical errors and it does not have translations of all of the French so some meanings are lost.
woowottreads's review against another edition
3.0
Old fun.
There are some interesting things going on on this book, if one can abide the historical decorations that are important to the setting. And be sure to read the appendix.
There are some interesting things going on on this book, if one can abide the historical decorations that are important to the setting. And be sure to read the appendix.
laragomes's review against another edition
3.0
"This has neither beginning nor end, but only a perpetual unfolding. A multi-petaled blossom of strange botany"
I find it hard to talk about this book, for it is kind of mess. Part of it is like a horror classic. Part of it seemed like a Historical fiction that could have been written in this century. It is an Odd book. But apparently the author was aware if this, once he himself said that this story is a "multi-petaled blossom of strange botany". Who am i to disagree with the author? This book is indeed strange, so much that i don't know if I liked it or not...
Particularly, I could divide it in 5 distinct parts, being my feelings for each one different.
1- Introduction - A little weird.When the narrator find the story in the streets
2- Background history much needed.That family quarrel that ended up "creating" the werewolf
3- Origins of the Werewolf, Bertrand - Had a *weird* sexual element that made me rethink about what was proper at that time it was written.When the girl was raped by the priest and the whole affair until the death of Aymar's aunt
4- Bertrand's childhood. My favorite part, more Horror Classic in the way it was written.
5- Bertrand's Adulthood. If the 4th part was more of the classic horror aspect. This one is more like historical fiction. We follow more people now, and there is a war that makes this part feels different.
Overall, "The Werewolf of Paris" is a interesting novel that doesn't knows what it wants to be. What makes it hard for me to figure out how I feel about. It was worth reading though, for it is an unique book in it's oddities.
I find it hard to talk about this book, for it is kind of mess. Part of it is like a horror classic. Part of it seemed like a Historical fiction that could have been written in this century. It is an Odd book. But apparently the author was aware if this, once he himself said that this story is a "multi-petaled blossom of strange botany". Who am i to disagree with the author? This book is indeed strange, so much that i don't know if I liked it or not...
Particularly, I could divide it in 5 distinct parts, being my feelings for each one different.
1- Introduction - A little weird.
2- Background history much needed.
3- Origins of the Werewolf, Bertrand - Had a *weird* sexual element that made me rethink about what was proper at that time it was written.
4- Bertrand's childhood. My favorite part, more Horror Classic in the way it was written.
5- Bertrand's Adulthood. If the 4th part was more of the classic horror aspect. This one is more like historical fiction. We follow more people now, and there is a war that makes this part feels different.
Overall, "The Werewolf of Paris" is a interesting novel that doesn't knows what it wants to be. What makes it hard for me to figure out how I feel about. It was worth reading though, for it is an unique book in it's oddities.
kmpatel13's review against another edition
3.0
This isn't what I thought it was and granted it was interesting and well done I was kind of bored and had to force myself through it but in a way I was glad I did but again it was hella interesting.
rian501's review against another edition
4.0
3.6 stars? I enjoyed different things about this book for different reasons. First, the narrator conceit was a little annoying to me at first, but I found it ultimately pretty effective. The nested story also echoes itself somewhat (bookish writer type gets pulled outside of his comfort zone and ends up with a story - narrator who finds found manuscript, or writer of found manuscript?), which paves the way for a few tangential pieces on the nature of the human condition, and speculation about the meaning of life and lycanthropy, etc. Some of the more involved points about the stuff going on in France at the time I found pretty boring (the Franco-Prussian war and so on), although it is important as a setting toward the end. There were some parts I found really long and rambling, and yet other places where the descriptions were almost poetry.
I doubt I would have enjoyed it at much if I had not used it to escape the mild torments of travel during the holiday season.
I wish there had been more from the point of view of the werewolf himself, but it is mostly told from those dealing with him and observing him.
Still, the story was good overall. I've never read Dracula (I KNOW), so I don't know if this is to werewolves as that is to vampires.
I doubt I would have enjoyed it at much if I had not used it to escape the mild torments of travel during the holiday season.
I wish there had been more from the point of view of the werewolf himself, but it is mostly told from those dealing with him and observing him.
Still, the story was good overall. I've never read Dracula (I KNOW), so I don't know if this is to werewolves as that is to vampires.
myxomycetes's review against another edition
3.0
2-stars for being crappily written. 4-stars for being insane.
A mélange of scandal and horror (S&M, rape, incest, cannibalism, etc.) mixed with the scolding tone of propriety, set amid some bastardized Victor Hugo meets the Marquis De Sade French backdrop.
Sure, it’s badly written, but it’s also intoxicating. A deliriously horrible book that reads like the lost weekend you had in junior high when you stayed with your American grandmother and alternated your reading of the Monster Manual with a perusal of her back issue stack of the National Enquirer.
A mélange of scandal and horror (S&M, rape, incest, cannibalism, etc.) mixed with the scolding tone of propriety, set amid some bastardized Victor Hugo meets the Marquis De Sade French backdrop.
Sure, it’s badly written, but it’s also intoxicating. A deliriously horrible book that reads like the lost weekend you had in junior high when you stayed with your American grandmother and alternated your reading of the Monster Manual with a perusal of her back issue stack of the National Enquirer.
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