Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf
In 1847, George W. M. Reynolds unleashed what may be the first werewolf novel in English literature, and it remains ferociously alive. Old Fernand Wagner, broken by grief and despair, accepts a devil's bargain: a year of youth and beauty in exchange for becoming a monster. When the moon rises, the shepherd transforms into something ravenous and inhuman. He loves Nisida, a woman of ice and mystery whose family harbors a secret so terrible it threatens to shatter everything. They flee Florence, running from the Inquisition and the vast reach of the Ottoman Empire, but can anyone truly escape a curse that lives in the blood? This is sensation fiction at its most raw, penny dreadful tradition elevated to genuine horror, a Faustian bargain soaked in moonlight and blood. Reynolds was once the most famous author in England, and this is his masterpiece of dread.
