Its political commentary is a little more simplistic than Dracula's rumination on Victorian sexual psychology. It's easy to see author Guy Endore read Crime and Punishment and Jekyll and Hyde. A surprisingly large portion of the book focuses on the conception of the titular werewolf, going into detail on how his mother was raped by a priest and how his adoptive father, from whose third person POV much of the story is told, vacillated between a passionate commitment to socialism and a desire to join the priesthood. Endore's point about the disintegration of institutions of family, religion, and government are clear; without these things, the beast locked in the human heart cannot be ruled.
Considering it was written only 35 years after Dracula, it's surprising how sexually explicit it is. I like Bertrand's, the werewolf's, confusion as the horrible deeds he commits at first seem to be dreams. Yet he quickly starts to think pragmatically, wondering if he should save an arm or a leg of a recent kill to snack on later. Horror world problems.
Twitter Sonnet #1780
A traitor's speech was hidden under snow.
Beneath the blanket years, rebellion cooled.
And yet the roots and stones persist to know.
The branches cut could never yet be ruled.
A golden hour struck the heavy gate.
Decisions quick and grim compel the guard.
Deployed, the ranks of anxious archers wait.
The stranger strikes again her gauntlet hard.
A gaping pit awaits the spies and fools.
Rejection turns a wheel for water pipes.
Grotesque encounters fill the scrying pools.
The dungeon halls reverb with bootless gripes.
The moon intrudes with white and empty beams.
Forgotten places harbour howling dreams.
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