Why read The Beast within?

Book cover of The Beast within: A History of the Werewolf

Book description

Most people know about werewolves only from the fevered imagination of some Hollywood scriptwriter. But where did the image of a mild human transformed into a snarling animal come from? Why is the terrible change supposed to take place at the full moon? And why should silver bullets be supposed…

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Mythology

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Beast within as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Steven E. Wedel

Author

As research, I read a lot of books about werewolves. Some were bad, some were decent, and some were too academic. This one was, in the words of Goldilocks, just right. I loved that it was written in a language anyone could understand and that it wasn’t focused on just one geographic location or culture.

Douglas presents everything from Greek mythology to Norse, Japanese, American Indian, and others. He keeps his personal commentary to a minimum and presents the reader with much information. I see this book as a primer for understanding just about everything about the shapeshifter in legend…

From Steven's list on A list of werewolf books so good you’ll be howling.