The Werewolf

He left to much untranslated verbiage so you have to do a lot of work to read it. It does provide a fair historical perspective on the were.

The classic multi cultural view of the subject. A more modern view might include psychiatric and physiological views of the origin of the subject.

Werewolf lore

I bought the book for a gift. Great quality.

It took me 8 years to procure a copy of "The Werewolf", by Montague Summers. Perhaps, my expectations were too high, but this was a big disappointment.I've read many books on Werewolves, and shape-shifter lore, both fiction and non-fiction. While I must give Rev. Summers credit for the amount of research that went into the book, the exceptional bibliography and documentation, his writing style made the book all but unreadable. If you happen to read fluent English, French, German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Spanish, or have a penchant for pretentious prose, then you're sure to get much more out of "The Werewolf" than a rube such as I. Summers will begin to make a point, and then summarize with a quote in Greek that he doesn't even bother to translate! This happens through out the entire book.If "The Werewolf" is ever reprinted, it would certainly behoove the editor to translate the passages, and update the language by changing all those "U's" to "V's" in words such as "couen" and "Sauiour". In the mean time, so yourself a favor, and purchase "The Book of Werewolves" by Sabine Baring-Gould.

This is the textbook of werewolfery and, is about as entertaining as any college textbook would be. It was written in the days before the Hollywood werewolf and, reads like an Audubon Society field guide to birds. If you are looking for the definitive non-fiction work on the subject, you have found it. If you are looking for "Werewolf: The Apocalypse" type kitsch, you're in over your head here.