Monsters of the Gévaudan: The Making of a Beast

392 Pages·2011·1.28 MB·English

by  Jay M. Smith

MONSTERS OF THE GÉVAUDAN

Monsters
of the
Gévaudan
the Making of a Beast
Jay M. smith
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, en gland
2011
Copyright © 2011 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
all rights reserved
Printed in the united states of america
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
smith, Jay M.
Monsters of the Gévaudan : the making of a beast / Jay M. smith.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
IsBn 978-0-674-04716-7 (alk. paper)
1. Gévaudan (France)—social life and customs—18th century.
2. Popular culture—France—Gévaudan—History—18th century.
3. Beast of Gévaudan—History.
4. Wolf attacks—France—Gévaudan—History—18th century.
5. Wolves—France—Gévaudan—Folklore.
6. Monsters—France—Gévaudan—Folklore.
7. narration (rhetoric)—social aspects—France—History.
8. discourse analysis, narrative.
I. title
dC611.G4s64 2011
599.7730944′81—dc22 2010044994
For my mother and father, in loving memory

Contents
Introduction: the Beast and Its World 1
1 sounding the alarm 7
2 Monsters real and Imagined 27
3 digesting defeat 60
4 a star Is Born 107
5 the Perils of Publicity 138
6 Heroes and skeptics 159
7 exaggerated expectations and extraordinary endings 195
8 narrative echoes Past and Present 227
Conclusion: the Beast in History 270
notes 285
note on Place names 355
note on sources 357
acknowledgments 361
Index 365
[To view this image, refer to
the print version of this title.]

France, showing the Gévaudan region in the south. Maps on pp. viii and ix by Richard
Talbert and Brian Turner, Ancient World Mapping Center, University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill
[To view this image, refer to
the print version of this title.]

the Gévaudan, in northern Languedoc.
[To view this image, refer to
the print version of this title.]

the highest concentration of attacks occurred in the northern Gévaudan.