If I love anything where reading is concerned, it's a good theme/marathon/series, so when it came time to choose some seasonal reading this Halloween I decided to re-read/read some of the classic monster literature. It was interesting to read the source material for so very many famous stories and characters and movie adaptations to know the true literary origins (and to note just how far dramatized/cinematic versions can sometimes stray from the originals, while sometimes staying surprisingly faithful in some ways).
So now, I present character sketches from Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein (review
here):
... Bram Stoker's
Dracula (review
here):
... and Guy Endore's
The Werewolf of Paris (review
here):
I had read both
Frankenstein and
Dracula in my teenage years, and enjoyed them (probably a little more than I did this time around), but I had never even heard of this
Werewolf of Paris thing. I read it mostly because it reportedly does for werewolves what
Dracula does for vampires, and it was the closest I could discover was the "literary origin" of the werewolf character. It was pretty interesting, but at times surprisingly unsettling, though that probably shouldn't have been
that surprising.
As a side note, these were also suitable reading for our recent Mediterranean cruise. They just seemed so European, and covered so many countries and even continents.
Happy Halloween*, everyone!
* And remember, it's pronounced "Hallow-een", not "Hollow-een". Just one of my favorite seasonal pet peeves.
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