At last. A new, affordable, mass market edition of the seminal werewolf novel, The Werewolf of Paris.

The Werewolf of Paris was originally published in 1933 by novelist and screenwriter, Guy Endore. Endore is known by horror movie historians as the scenarist of Mad Love, Mark of the Vampire, and The Devil Doll.

Ironically, Guy Endore was employed by Universal Studios, but neither Werewolf in London nor The Wolf Man was based on his novel, The Werewolf of Paris. It wasn't until the excellent1962 Hammer Studios picture, The Curse of the Werewolf, that the Endore book was adapted for the screen.

Despite good reviews and sales, The Werewolf of Paris has had a very spotty publication history. After the original editions went out of print, it wasn't available in a cheap mass market edition for many years until 1962, when Ace Books put it out. A later edition was published by Pocket Books in 1976, and that is the version that I read.

The Werewolf of Paris is a fast read that does not feel nearly as dated as much of the fiction of its day. Like a lot of the best horror fiction, it works extremely well as a cracking good monster yarn, but the story can also be seen as a metaphor for the monster within us all. The frank sexual explicitness in it was controversial and shocking in its day.

I would suggest that interested readers find an old paperback at ebay, Amazon, Abebooks, or any of the other usual places to buy used materials, but copies are pretty expensive.

Of course, if your book-buying budget is a lot broader than mine, you can get yourself a copy of the Centipede Press edition, and be treated to a Introduction by Thomas Tessier, who explored similar themes in his novel, The Nightwalker.

Now, happily, a new edition of The Werewolf of Paris is out in hardcover from Pegasus Press. You can get a discounted hardcover at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Folks, take a break from the Vomit Fiction and read one of the true classics of the genre. One that has been sadly neglected and that deserves to be held in the same regard as the works of Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley.

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