Magazine and Book Illustrations for The Were-Wolf

Clemence Housman published The Were-Wolf twice in her lifetime: first as a story in a popular magazine and then as a book. Each time the novella was accompanied by a unique set of illustrations that shaped its reception. This essay examines the contrasting meanings for The Were-Wolf created by their accompanying illustrations, modes of production, and publication venues. 

Robert Louis Stevenson, celebrated author of Treasure Island  (1882-3), Kidnapped (1886), and "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886) was a lifelong connoisseur of "penny dreadfuls": illustrated serial fiction that targeted working-class readers. In Stevenson's childhood, his nurse Alison Cunningham often read dreadfuls to him. In adulthood, Stevenson was haunted by one serial in particular. This was A Mystery in Scarlet by “Malcolm J. Errym,” the pseudonym of James Malcolm Rymer (1814-84).