It is in June 1764 that a savage animal appears in Gévaudan, today called Lozère. Very quickly, it sows terror among the inhabitants of this austere region, with its harsh winters, its famines and its plagues. The survivors of its attacks will tell you without hesitation that it’s not an ordinary wolf, but another unknown animal which they call “The Beast”.
It attacks primarily children guarding livestock, killing them with a disconcerting boldness. It outsmarts all the traps set for it, and escapes all the hunts for it undertaken by the greatest specialists sent by King Louis XV. After four years of devastation, the Beast “will fall” under the bullets of a peasant named Jean Chastel and the attacks will stop forever.
Until the date June 19, 1767, this diabolical series will have caused the known deaths of 78 people. In a detailed argument, the author shows that this event is more complicated than the standard and agreed-upon narrative that is so often presented.
This new book presents unpublished additional information to better understand this complicated affair which has deeply scarred this period of our history.
Year of publication of the presented edition : 2022 (June, 14) (302 pages)
Editor : Maïa
ISBN : 9782384410750
The author :
Born in Vaucluse in 1948, the son of farmers, Hervé Boyac became a forest ranger because of his passion for nature. Self-taught, his love for the wilderness for 25 years, and for wolves for 25 years, led him to different countries tracing wolves and wildlife in general. An active member of the association FERUS which defends these great predators, he advocates for the accepted return of the wolf to our country.
His interest in this legendary animal also led him to work on the Beast of Gévaudan for almost 20 years now, and to publish the book “The Beast of Gévaudan”, advocating for the wolf in 2004. In this now book about the Beast of Gévaudan he exonerates this iconic and still unloved animal. He has participated in many television shows, given many lectures, and contributed to many written publications.
Through many hikes that he took to the sites of the attacks, alone or accompanied by others, he immersed himself in those places, verified the distances and the travel times, noted certain details of the geology and place-names, and revealed indications of human activity during the period of the Beast.
