Customer Reviews

The Wolves of Paris

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Once again Daniel P. Mannix shows his prowess as a historical documentor. The author of "Those Who Are About To Die" and "The Hell Fire Club" takes us back to France in the middle ages and an ancient Paris under siege from a pack of bloodthirsty wolves. More than just a historical account, Mannix, in his typically engrossing style takes us into the life of the wolf pack, revealing to the reader the lifestyle of a wolf in medieval europe, and the unforseen outcome when nature's boundries are crossed. A bit more heavily fictionalized than Mannix's other works, and somewhat anthropomorphic, but if you're a nature lover with an interest in mideval history this ones for you. Warning: graphically violent...otherwise it wouldn't be Mannix.

This is nature writing, animal protagonists, all that, though not anthropomorphic, as in Watership Down. The animals here are animals, with animal thoughts and feelings, nothing more. And yet this book is compelling. I've read it multiple times, and it never fails to bring me in.

From the back cover (a fairly good synopsis for once):

It was the winter of 1439. No human dared enter or leave the besieged city of Paris. Not because of war. Not because of the bitter cold. But because of a wild horde of wolves led by a gigantic, legendary man-eater.

Driven by starvation, emboldened by the taste of human corpses acquired from the never-ending wars of men, the wolves of Paris answered the rallying cry of the courageous dogwolf Cortaud, who'd been branded a werewolf and captured with the help of a trained leopard - only to escape and terrorize the countryside.

Across a frozen, war-blighted landscape the noble wolf and his faithful mate Silver led the ravenous pack into the city itself, spreading fear and death, and challenging the most powerful hunter of all, Bosselier, whose trap was destined to end the life of the killer-wolf . . . or his own.

I take umbrage only to the characterization of Cortaud as `noble.' Mannix at no point falls into the trap of making the protagonists of the story (Cortaud and Silver) the heroes. In fact, there really are no heroes, making for a more accurate, if grim, bit of writing.

The story is true - a pack of wolves headed by a giant red wolf dubbed Cortaud (Cut-Tail) did indeed invade Paris during the winter of 1439 in search of food, after terrorizing the countryside for weeks. This is essentially a fictional account of true events, and as I was familiar with the tale, and am interested in stories of maneaters of all kinds, I picked this book up secondhand last year and read it.

Mannix's familiarity with both the humans and the animals, as well as the countryside and political climate of the times, makes for an authoritative narrative with no trace of uncertainty or hesitation. Though one knows that much of it is fictionalized, one never doubts that the author is telling the truth. Though his dialogue is stilted, there is perhaps two pages of it in the whole book, and that is really the only criticism I could make.

If stories of wolves and maneaters are your thing, you have your book right here. Read it if you can get a copy.

The Wolves of Paris is a conundrum. It is a fictional novel, and author Daniel Mannix makes this clear. There is a tale, documented in history, about a pack of wolves terrorizing people living near Paris hundreds of years ago. Mannix bases his novel on this subject. The novel primarily is from the wolf perspective, and that perspective is based on the acquisition of food, the protection of territory, the escape from and avoidance of injury, and the finding of mates and the raising of pups. This is not a book about talking wolves, wolves wearing clothes, werewolves, or even "weird wolves." In fact, one of the most interesting aspects of this book is that Mannix worked hard to bring accurate elements of wolf biology into the story, and even explained the predation on humans by the alpha wolf as a consequence, in part, of its hybrid parentage. I don't want to give more away here.

An entertaining yarn that doesn't make wolves either angels or demons...

Mr. Mannix Doesn't hold back in any way when describing the lives of wolves. All the blood, anger, and sexuality is displayed. This is what makes D.P.M. such a great author. Though The Fox and the Hound remains my favorite,this is still extremely good.

The story deals with a wolf pack during the Middle Ages in northern France. It is fictionalised account of a real historical event but is largely related from the perspective of the wolves. Europe at the time, 1439, was entering the period known as the Little Ice Age. In the wake of the recurring plague and almost constant warfare life was quite harsh for most people and Mannix describes conditions well. I would have preferred the tale to have been completely from the perspective of a human but the author manages to pull it off anyway. Wolves are interesting animals but are not the gentle, almost human creatures depicted by tree-huggers. Wolf attacks on humans were not uncommon in Europe before modern times, and, even in modern times, in the aftermath of WW2 the wolf population exploded in eastern Europe and Russia. They became such a threat that the Soviet Army mounted a campaign to exterminate them, killing over 100,000 wolves between 1945 and 1950. Although the vision of large wolf packs roaming over the landscape of western Europe might seem rather romantic to us in these crowded times Mannix shows us that it was a time of real terror for people who struggled to survive even without that threat.

This was an interesting tale - told mostly from one wolf-mix's P.O.V. Being an older book, its look into how wolf packs operate was a bit dated. New research has emerged after this book's 1978 publication. Still, it was pretty exciting and Courtrand was certainly a sympathetic anti-hero. Other books like Dorothy Hearst's _Promise of the Wolves_ and David Clement-Davies' _The Sight_ did a better, more entertaining and education job with the same subject matter, though the medieval setting was unique, and well-researched. I enjoyed this, but just didn't really love it. I was mostly annoyed at how this story could have been told in a better, and more thrilling, way.

Anyone who enjoyed reading Jack London's "The Call of the Wild" will enjoy this book. Based on a real incident in 1400's France in which a pack of wolves led by an animal the locals called Cortaud (Cut-Tail) entered the city of Paris and killed a number of people, it is a fictionalized but completely plausible account of how this may have occured.

There is nothing anthropomorphic about this animal. Just as "The Call of the Wild" is told from the "point of view" of the dog Buck in a realistic way without attributing human emotions to him, so is this story told from the wolf's point of view. The result is a very interesting and absorbing tale which not only gives the reader insight into the real habits of wolves and other animals, but offers an unblinking view of medieval human life and values as well. And the view ain't for the faint hearted!

In real life author Mannix spent years hunting and observing many types of wild animals both on his own and with some of the most accomplished hunters and trackers of his time. He observed how these hunters operated, their tactics, how they used dogs, traps, their knowledge about the habits of their quarry, etc. These experiences, as well as his own historical research, inform his narrative with an absorbing realism that is rarely matched.

Highly recommended, but be warned. These animals (and people) aren't Disney characters!

Medieval Paris, a moving story, the mind of both wolf and man...that more could you want. I read this book for the first time in 1978 and have just reread it. It was a fresh now as it was then. Wonderful story telling, wonderful writing. I cannot recommend this book high enough. It is certainly worth the read and certainly worth adding to your library.