Les chasseurs luttent contre la Bête du Gévaudan

Pierre Antoine Courouble

The judgment of the Beast

Pierre Antione Courable deploys his pen to a magnificent work of art containing some forty color reproductions of the works of the artist Gérard Lattier dedicated to the Beast of Gévaudan. The author offers us one of the most original and imaginative texts. 


Starting from real facts, he leads the reader through a maze of a trial which reenacts the testimony of essential witnesses in the affair of the Beast of Gévaudan, which made headlines and justifiably terrified the population from 1764 to 1767 under the reign of Louis XV. 


In 13 chapters, the work relates a trial in absentia of the Beast in which actors of the period intersect, like the bishop of Mende or the knight Antoine, along with forgotten personalities like the historian Alain Decaux or the psychiatrist Karl Gustav Jung as well as witnesses from today like the journalist Jean-Claude Bourret or the wolf specialist Daniel Jumentier. 


This grand work contains 43 color illustrations which accompany the same text in 13 chapters as the so-called pocket version published by Samerlin, “The Trial of the Beast of Gévaudan,” but without the appendix of Jean-Claude Bourret. 


Year of publication of the presented edition : 2022 (July, 12) (170 pages) - 25€

Editor : Les Éditions du Chassel

ISBN : 9791090929159


The works are available in bookstores in the south of Ardèche, where you can find the editions of Chassel, or from the publisher’s web site. The Samerlin editions can be ordered directly from the author by email mermoz07@gmail.com (+4€ shipping costs) or on Amazon. This latest version will be available as a digital ebook or Kindle book at the end of August, 2022. 

Pierre Antoine Courouble - The judgment of the Beast - 2022

The author :

Pierre-Antoine Courouble, born in 1960, in Lesquin a commune in the Nord department, Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, now lives in Joyeuse in the Ardèche department, Rhône-Alpes region. After studying law, economics and educational sciences, he campaigned in ecology to return in the 2000s to his first loves: education and writing. Teacher and press correspondent.

Pierre-Antoine Courouble is an active member of the CPPJ where he initiated the creation of two museums in the Duchy of Joyeuse (L’Espace Historique et Légendaire in 2002, the house of caricature and humorous drawing in 2003). Scriptwriter and actor, he created and implemented the spectacle of the theatrical visits to the Duchy of Joyeuse in 2002, which have been going on ever since and have been developed for tour operators.


His website : https://courouble.info

Pierre Antoine Courouble - The judgment of the Beast - 2022

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