Monsters of the Gévaudan [electronic resource] : the making of a beast / Jay M. Smith.
Smith, Jay M., 1961-
2011
DC611.G4 S64 2011eb
Available Online

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Title Monsters of the Gévaudan [electronic resource] : the making of a beast / Jay M. Smith.
Author Smith, Jay M., 1961-
ISBN 9780674061323 electronic book
9780674047167
Imprint Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2011.
Language English
Description 1 online resource (378 p.)
Call Number DC611.G4 S64 2011eb
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.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description Description based on print version record.
Available in Other Form Monsters of the Gévaudan.
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Introduction: The beast and its world
Sounding the alarm
Monsters real and imagined
Digesting defeat
A star is born
The perils of publicity
Heroes and skeptics
Exaggerated expectations and extraordinary endings
Narrative echoes past and present
Conclusion: The beast in history
Note on place names.

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