WAGNER THE WEREWOLF

In the midst of a wood of evergreens on the banks of the Arno, a man -young, handsome, and splendidly attired - has thrown himself upon theground, where he writhes like a stricken serpent. He is the prey of ademoniac excitement: an appalling consternation is upon him - madness isin his brain - his mind is on fire. Lightnings appear to gleam from hiseyes - as if his soul were dismayed, and withering within his breast. 'Oh!no -no!' he cries with a piercing shriek, as if wrestling madly - furiously- but vainly, against some unseen fiend that holds him in his grasp. Aged and deserted, Fernand Wagner agrees to serve John Faust for the lastyear of his life. In return he is given youth, wealth and beauty - but atthe terrible price of becoming a werewolf. He loves the glacial,beautiful, sesual Nisida, whose family history conceals a dreadful secret.Together they flee from Florence to a desert island: but dogged by theInquisition, and by the might of the Ottoman Empire, they are finallyforced to face the horror that lurks in the closet.... First published in 1847, Wagner the Werewolf is one of the very earliesttreatments of the Werewolf theme in English literature, and has lost noneof its power to shock, it is one of the greatest works of George W.M.Reynolds, once the most popular author in England, and the Master of thePenny Dreadful.