# Is there a definitive werewolf novel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [May 5, 2026, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803 "2026-05-05T14:05:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/1 "2026-05-05T14:05:52Z")
Something like Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein? ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/2 "2026-05-05T14:21:56Z")
Would Hound of the Baskervilles count? I know when I first encountered the story (in film form) I assumed it was going to be a werewolf story and not have rational non-supernatural conclusion. Was it written with that intent? ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/3 "2026-05-05T14:25:29Z")
I think it’s meant to be some sort of demonic dog, not a man that turns into a wolf or dog. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/4 "2026-05-05T14:38:36Z")
Probably [The Werewolf of Paris](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Werewolf_of_Paris), from 1933. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/5 "2026-05-05T14:45:46Z")
For what it’s worth, the break-out werewolf movie, The Wolf Man from 1941 that starred Lon Chaney Jr. in the title role, was an original screenplay by Curt Siodmak, with no attribution to anything that it was adapted from. There was one earlier movie, Werewolf of London, for which writer Robert Harris was credited with the “original story.” He and another writer are in IMDb for “adaptation” but it doesn’t say what was adapted. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/6 "2026-05-05T15:03:56Z")
Neither the Wolf Man nor Werewolf of London were based on The Werewolf of Paris, even though the novel was right there, and its author, Guy Endore, actually worked as a screenwriter and wrote several horror films during that period. His novel didn’t really get adapted to film until Hammer’s Curse of the Werewolf in 1961. The Werewolf of Paris is fairly political, being set mostly during the Paris Commune. (Endore was a member of the Communist party and was eventually blacklisted by several studios). Curse of the Werewolf dropped most of the political content and moved the setting to Spain. Not as many people seem to read The Werewolf of Paris as Dracula or Frankenstein these days, and I’m not sure how influential it’s really been. But it does seem to be the only major werewolf novel of the period before horror films really took off. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/7 "2026-05-05T15:05:24Z")
As Roderick notes, Curt Siodmak wrote the original Wolfman movie, and invented much of the “fakelore” surrounding it. The Jeckyll-and-Hyde monster that was Lon Chaney’s Wolfman is very unlike werewolf legends. So there really was no definitive werewolf novel. One highly regarded novel s Jack Williamson’s **Darker than you Think** (1948), but it isn’t regarded as the setter of tropes. > **[Darker Than You Think](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darker_Than_You_Think)** > > Darker Than You Think is a science fantasy and horror novel by American writer Jack Williamson. Originally a novelette, it was expanded into novel length and published by Fantasy Press in 1948. The short version was published in Unknown in 1940. > The novel begins with the announcement from an ethnological expedition to Mongolia that among humanity exist people who can turn themselves into animals. However, the expedition's spokesman dies of a sudden mysterious seizure in the midst of a press c... Have a look at my webpage _Secrets of the Wolf Man_ > **[Secrets of the Wolfman](https://srichardwilkcom.wordpress.com/secrets-of-the-wolfman/)** > >   Lon Chaney Jr. As Larry Talbot, the Wolf Man As a Boomer, I grew up in the cultural fallout of the 1940s — the cartoons I watched, many of the movies I saw on TV, much of the fiction I… ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/8 "2026-05-05T15:18:58Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > I think it’s meant to be some sort of demonic dog, The characters think it’s some kind of demonic dog and say so. I assumed watching it would actually be one of the characters as a werewolf. Of course I thought that as the werewolf trope was thoroughly established in culture at that point. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/9 "2026-05-05T15:24:17Z")
Hound of the Baskervilles is sort of an _Ur_-Scooby Doo story: “He used the old legend to frighten Sir Charles to death. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if not for that meddling consulting detective!” ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/10 "2026-05-05T15:27:48Z")
I don’t think _any_ of the original Sherlock Holmes stories involved any supernatural elements. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/11 "2026-05-05T16:49:24Z")
They didn’t. Even _The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire r_ejected the very idea of blood-drinking corpses. The closest to supernatural the stories got where when Doyle went off on a woo-woo tangent, as in _The Adventure of the Creeping Man_. People _were_ screwing around with simian extracts and transplants, but they wouldn’t have that effect. Doyle even kept really woo stories away from his other hero, Professor Challenger. When he wrote the abysmal and supernatural _The Maracot Deep_ he used as his hero a Challenger-like substitute, Professor Maracot. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/12 "2026-05-05T16:55:33Z")
I would go with either _Darker Than You Think_(1940) by Jack Williamson, or _The Werewolf Of Paris_(1933) by Guy Endore. For old classic short stories definitely get _The Best Werewolf Short Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Werewolf Anthology_. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/13 "2026-05-05T17:30:07Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > the break-out werewolf movie, The Wolf Man from 1941 > [@CalMeacham](#): > > One highly regarded novel s Jack Williamson’s **Darker than you Think** (1948) > [@Czarcasm](#): > > or _The Werewolf Of Paris_(1933) by Guy Endore Considering that Cat People, which looks like the werewolf story with a panther instead of a wolf to me, premiered 1942 this idea must have been in the air around then: > **[Cat People (1942 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_People_(1942_film))** > > Cat People is a 1942 American supernatural horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced for RKO by Val Lewton. The film tells the story of Irena Dubrovna, a newly married Serbian fashion illustrator obsessed with the idea that she is descended from an ancient tribe of Cat People who metamorphose into black panthers when aroused. When her husband begins to show interest in one of his co-workers, Irena begins to stalk her. The film stars Simone Simon as Irena, and features Kent Smith, ... > The germ of _Cat People_ was Lewton’s short story, “The Bagheeta,” published in _[Weird Tales](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weird_Tales)_ magazine (July 1930), about a legendary panther, a “half leopard and half woman . . . were-beast,” > […] > According to Bodeen, Koerner felt that werewolves, vampires and man-made monsters were over-exploited, and that “nobody has done much with cats”. Seems to imply that there were already more werewolf stories out there before the ones mentioned here. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/14 "2026-05-05T17:36:43Z")
Take a look at the third book on my list. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/15 "2026-05-05T17:39:02Z")
Thanks for this list, seems like a good starting spot. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/16 "2026-05-05T17:45:50Z")
Notice there is no Ann Rice or Laurel K. Robinson crap on that list, and certainly no Mercy Thompson type stories. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/17 "2026-05-05T22:51:43Z")
Those of you who have read a lot of werewolf stories, which do you think are the best? I like Stephen King’s _Cycle of the Werewolf_, but I don’t think it should be the trope-setter. _The Howling_ was based on a novel by Gary Brandner, but I don’t think many people have read it. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2026, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/18 "2026-05-06T15:17:42Z")
FWIW, Stephen King declares **The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde** to be the archetypal werewolf book. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2026, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/19 "2026-05-07T10:58:58Z")
Yeah, but as I observed it’s only with the movies (_The Wolf Man_ and the earlier _Werewolf of London_ that the transformation becomes an involuntary thing. Before those movies (which created their own not completely compatible “fakelore” background) werewolves a.) transformed at their own will, and b.) transformed into actual wolves, not some weird wolf and man hybrid. They combined the involuntary transformation from Stevenson’s novel along with the transformation into a grotesque humanoid creature to create the modern “werewolf”. Read my essay on my webpage (linked to above). If you pay close attention to Curt Siodmak’s script, he was deliberately very ambiguous about whether Larry Talbot was physically transforming at all. His script constantly says that the wolf man only believes that he was transforming, and how he might become such a creature “in his own mind”. Siodmak didn’t want to show the transformation at all, or even to show Chaney as The Wolf Man except for a brief glimpse near the end, when he is being hunted, and sees his reflection in pool of water. It was a studio decision to have it explicitly shown that Larry Talbot WAS physically transforming, and showing it on camera. Probably a good decision. As I point out, movies in which there is no real monster, with no transformation, haven’t done well at the box office. Or even on TV. There’s reason that _She-Wolf of London_ is one one Universal werewolf movie you almost never see. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2026, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803/20 "2026-05-07T11:30:49Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Siodmak didn’t want to show the transformation at all, or even to show Chaney as The Wolf Man except for a brief glimpse near the end, when he is being hunted, and sees his reflection in pool of water. It was a studio decision to have it explicitly shown that Larry Talbot WAS physically transforming, and showing it on camera. Siodmak did get his chance to do exactly this ten years later, in a super-cheap movie called _Bride of the Gorilla_, which he both wrote and directed. A pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr plays a plantation owner in Latin America who is placed under a curse that will supposedly turn him into a gorilla-like monster. A bunch of strange killings begin, and Burr’s character becomes a suspect. Eventually, after he attacks the leading lady and is shot by the local police commissioner (Lon Chaney, Jr.!), he crawls to the edge of a pond and sees the reflection of a gorilla staring back him from the water before he dies. It’s the only time we actually see a gorilla. Not a good movie, and probably demonstrates that having an actual monster is usually better. It also probably demonstrates that Curt Siodmak should have stuck to writing, and left the directing to his brother Robert. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-werewolf-novel/1029803.md?page=2)