The Compleat Werewolf

"The Compleat Werewolf" is a 1942 fantasy short story by Anthony Boucher. It was first published in Unknown Worlds.

Synopsis

When philology professor Wolfe Wolf learns a magic word that can transform him into a wolf, the consequences are not what he expected.

Reception

"The Compleat Werewolf" was a finalist for the 1943 Retro-Hugo Award for Best Novella.[1]

Kirkus Reviews called it a "giddy burlesque",[2] while the SF Site listed it among Boucher's "best stories".[3] Brian Stableford described it as an example of "preliminary de-historicization followed by re-accommodation to American pragmatism".[4]

Its presence in the 2013 anthology Unnatural Creatures brought it to renewed attention, with Publishers Weekly stating that it was "astonishingly silly";[5] however, Tor.com felt that it was "a little out-of-step and dated",[6] and the A.V. Club noted that "cramming Nazis, werewolves, Indian rope tricks, and talking cats into one narrative (is) quite a feat, but still takes too long" compared to more modern stories.[7]

References
  1. 1943 Retro-Hugo Awards, at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved March 16, 2019
  2. THE COMPLEAT WEREWOLF, reviewed at Kirkus Reviews; published November 1, 1969; subsequently posted online; retrieved March 16, 2019
  3. The Compleat Boucher, reviewed by Peter D. Tillman, at the SF Site; published 2000; retrieved March 16, 2019
  4. The Fantasy Hall of Fame, ed. Robert Silverberg, reviewed by Brian Stableford, originally published in The New York Review of Science Fiction #121 (September 1998); archived in News of the Black Feast and Other Random Reviews, published March 1, 2009; note that the text misspells it as "Complete"
  5. Unnatural Creatures , reviewed at Publishers Weekly; published April 8, 2013; retrieved March 16, 2019
  6. Griffins, Unicorns, and Yet Weirder Chimerae: Unnatural Creatures, edited by Neil Gaiman and Maria Dahvana Headley, reviewed by Karin L. Kross, at Tor.com; published April 17, 2013; retrieved March 16, 2019
  7. Neil Gaiman: Unnatural Creatures, reviewed by Noah Cruickshank, in The A.V. Club; published April 22, 2013; retrieved March 16, 2019
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