Les chasseurs luttent contre la Bête du Gévaudan

Bernard Soulier

In the footsteps of the Beast of Gevaudan and its victims

During 3 years (1764-1767), the residents of the Gevaudan and of one part of the Auvergne are the prey of an awful scourge : a ferocious animal, with an extreme aggressiveness -misidentified by witnesses- is attacking, hurting and devouring people!


Authorithies consider it extemely seriously and the best hunters are going to track the beast. All the kingdom of France is vibrating to the stories of these events, amply reported in the press of this period. Books of this bloody and truthful chapter are numerous from novels to reasoned arguments and more recently represented in some comics (Jean-Claude Bourret, journalist and writer).


The first goal of this historical study is to update the list of people killed by the beast of Gévaudan, list which can often varies according to the immagination of the authors, between 80 and 120 victims.

In order to do it, the author relied on documents of this period and only of these because ithe truth is probably hidden somewhere inside and is just waiting to emerge, people who saw this drama when it was played are, until proven otherwise, in the best position to talk about it.


This book, moreover its interest in the list of victims, resumes the main points of the story of the beast and offers the authors's view concerning facts and the nature of the animal or of animals involved for something which remains one of the hugest puzzle in the french History, everything always under a historical perspective.


Year of publication of the presented edition : 2011 (232 pages)

Editor : Les Éditions du Signe


Purchased at The house of the Beast à Auvers - 15€

Bernard Soulier  In the footsteps of the Beast of Gevaudan and its victims 2011

The author :

Bernard Soulier, an amateur historian from Gévaudan, has been working for 30 years to shed light on this great mystery in the history of France. He is also president of the association of Auvers "In the country of the beast of Gévaudan". He also collaborates with Jean Richard of the Macbet Saugues association, notably for the The gazette of the Beast.

Bernard Soulier  In the footsteps of the Beast of Gevaudan and its victims 2011

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