Monsters of the Gévaudan : The Making of a Beast / Jay M. Smith.
Smith, Jay M., author.
2011
DC611.G4 S64 2011
Available Online

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Title Monsters of the Gévaudan : The Making of a Beast / Jay M. Smith.
Author Smith, Jay M., author.
ISBN 9780674061323
DOI https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674061323
Published Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, [2011]
Copyright ©2011
Language English
Language Note In English.
Description 1 online resource (392 p.) : 25 halftones, 3 maps
Other Standard Identifiers 10.4159/harvard.9780674061323 doi
Call Number DC611.G4 S64 2011
Dewey Decimal Classification 599.7730944/81
Summary 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.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics text file PDF
Source of Description Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 18. Sep 2023)
In E-BOOK GESAMTPAKET / COMPLETE PACKAGE 2011
E-BOOK PACKAGE ENGLISH LANGUAGES TITLES 2011
E-BOOK PAKET PHILOSOPHIE UND GESCHICHTE 2011
HUP eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013 (Canada)
Harvard University Press eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
Available in Other Form print 9780674047167
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Frontmatter
Contents
Maps
Introduction
1. Sounding the Alarm
2. Monsters Real and Imagined
3. Digesting Defeat
4. A Star Is Born
5. The Perils of Publicity
6. Heroes and Skeptics
7. Exaggerated Expectations and Extraordinary Endings
8. Narrative Echoes Past and Present
Conclusion
Notes
Note on Place Names
Note on Sources
Acknowledgments
Index

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