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los angeles, ca, United States
My name is Dave Davenport, but I am sometimes known as "Dogspunk", and sign my artwork "DDOG". I've been tattooing since 1996 and making comic books since 2004. In a past life I animated video games. To view galleries of my work, visit my website dogspunk.com and click on the teeth menu on the left...

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

my first kindle experience... guy endore's "the werewolf of paris"

So I had finished an awesome collection of horror stories that I had honestly just picked up because of the neato Edward Gorey dust jacket. The book was called "Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural" and edited by Marvin Kaye.


But that isn't what this post is about. Marvin Kaye included a further reading list, and on that list was "the Werewolf of Paris" by Guy Endore, said to be for wolfmen what "dracula" is for vampires and Shelly's "frankenstein" is for flesh golums.




Needless to say I wanted to read it.
The book itself is out of print and as such is pretty rare. Used paperback copies can be from 10 to 100$. Hardback up to several hundred!
So I checked and the LA public library has a copy, but Daniel suggested I get it on Kindle (he'd just bought a kindle a few months earlier).
$2.99!
So I took the plunge. I was skeptical of the kindle at first, but I like it just fine. I find the typos amusing... they show that a program digitizes the pages, because now human would misspell "flair" as "l4air". So it ends up being like reading a dialect.


I am about two thirds through the book. I like it, some parts more than others.




The story begins with a lineage history that results in the genetic mutation of the werewolf character. The present day of the story is Napoleonic France. There is a lot of taboo sexual situations, squirm inducing ones. The grossest scene so far involved a banquet sampling alternative meats for the besieged parisians (like rat, dog, cat, raccoon, et.al.). The best scene so far was one of the few from the P.O.V. of the werewolf, as he escapes his captivity and runs through the night, taking his clothes off and making a kill. His senses don't change but how his body behaves does, as he thinks to strangle a victim but rends it's throat with his teeth, thinks to carry the body away but instead pulls with his maw and pushes against the ground with four legs.



2 comments:

Rob K. said...

Very interesting - if I ever get a Kindle I will def. get this book (love those classic old out of print horror and dark fantasy titles - been reading Fritz Leiber lately). I have Masterpieces of Terror & the Supernatural as well, only saving it for halloween!

the sebaceous funk said...

OMG this is a must read!