From archive (archive)
From: ecl@mtgzy.UUCP (Evelyn C. Leeper)
Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ
Subject: WAGNER, THE WEHR-WOLF by G. W. M. Reynolds
Date: 18 Jan 88 16:52:17 GMT




		  WAGNER, THE WEHR-WOLF by G. W. M. Reynolds
    Dover, 1975 (originally published 1846), ISBN 0-486-220005-2, $3.50
		      A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		       Copyright 1988 Evelyn C. Leeper

     Like VARNEY THE VAMPIRE (which I reviewed last year), this is not your
normal horror novel.  It's old (almost 150 years) and it's deceptively long
(though it's only 150 pages, they are 8-1/2" by 11" with very small print,
or about 120,000 words).  Unlike VARNEY THE VAMPIRE, however, people are
sure who wrote it.  E. F. Bleiler, in his introduction, describes Reynolds
as being involved in one "cause" after another, including the temperance
movement, the early women's liberation movement, and various political
causes.  Much of his philosophy comes through in this novel, particularly
his campaign against the anti-Semitism of his time.

     WAGNER, THE WEHR-WOLF is much more readable than VARNEY THE VAMPIRE.
It doesn't have the padding that VARNEY has.  There are two reasons for
this.  The first is that it is shorter and hence less in need of padding.
The second is that Reynolds apparently used every plot thread that occurred
to him while he was writing the novel (which, like so many of that time,
appeared as a series of installments in magazines).  So a plot includes
helpless maidens being thrown into brutal convents, shipwrecks on desert
islands, the Faust legend, the Rosicrucians, the imperial Turkish court, the
Inquisition, and a lot lot more I can't remember.  You see, Wagner falls in
love with Nisida, the deaf-mute daughter of the Count of Riverola, who dies
leaving his estate to his son Francisco, whom he hates, unless Nisida
recovers before her thirty-sixth birthday.  Francisco loves Flora, Nisida's
maid, who was orphaned early in life, as was her brother Alessandro, who got
a position in the foreign service and was sent to Turkey, where he became an
apostate and rose to become the Grand Vizier.  Meanwhile, Nisida has Flora
thrown into the Carmelite convent to keep her away from Francisco, and there
Flora meets the Countess of Arestino, who had pawned her husband's jewels
with the Jewish pawnbroker Issachar ben Solomon to get money for her lover,
Manuel d'Orsini, to pay his gambling debts.  But The Count of Arestino
discovered this and had her thrown into the convent, while Manuel and the
bandit Stephano go to Issachar's house, where they fight a duel, so that
when the police come they find blood on Issachar's floor and accuse him of
sacrificing Christian children children and hand him over to the
Inquisition.  Meanwhile, Wagner has been thrown into prison and is about to
be executed and Nisida has been captured by Stephano, who was carrying her
off when their ship was ship-wrecked on a desert island.  Just before the
execution, Wagner turns into a wolf, scares everyone, and escapes.  Then he
hears that Nisida has been carried off and then ship-wrecked, so he goes
searching for her, runs into a storm, and gets ship-wrecked on--you guessed
it--the same island.  Of course, this is because the Devil has diverted his
ship so that he could tempt him as he did Faust (from whom Wagner got his
lycanthropy), but Wagner resists so an angel appears who sends him to the
Rosicrucians.  You got that?  Anyway, Nisida is rescued by the Grand Vizier,
who is really Alessandro, and returns to Florence, as does Wagner in a boat
conveniently abandoned by the Turks.  Meanwhile, at least three of the main
characters are in the hands of the Inquisition, Nisida is still plotting
against Flora, the Turkish army is at the gates of the city, and things are
generally heating up.

     Never let it be said that the plot lags.  The writing is florid, but
not overly so.  Many, but not all, of characters are one-dimensional--but
then with this many characters, that's hard to avoid.  Those who prefer
clean-cut "Campbellian" prose will not find this their cup of tea, but for
students of the Gothic horror novel, it's a must-read.

					Evelyn C. Leeper
					(201) 957-2070
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