The White Wolf (original: Le loup blanc) was written by Paul Féval. Féval (1816-1875) was a popular French author of swashbucklers, historical novels, and crime thrillers.

The White Wolf is a short novel set in the forest of Rennes, in Brittany, in the first half of the eighteenth century. In these years Brittany has been conquered by France but is restive under its rule, and the last remaining lord of Brittany, Nicolas Treml, Monsieur de Tremlay, is discontented. He is so unhappy that he leaves behind his infant grandson George (Nicolas’ son and heir was killed) and rides to the castle of Villers Cotterets and challenges Philip d’Orleans to a duel to decide the fate of Brittany. Treml is laughed at, disarmed, and sent to the Bastille. There is no “after” with the Bastille, and Nicholas dies there. Back in Brittany the cunning and sneaky Hervé de Vaunoy tries to drown George. Nicolas made Hervé the guardian of George and of the Tremlay castle and lands while Nicolas went to see Philip d’Orleans, and after George’s disappearance Hervé claims that George is dead and then takes control of the Tremlay castle and lands and lives it up, marrying and having children and generally treating the local Bretons poorly. But all is not lost. The amiable albino fool Jean Blanc is a hoop maker who lives in the forest of Rennes, caring for his ailing father (a former servant of Nicolas Treml) and acting as a loyal Breton. Blanc did not trust de Vaunoy and watched him, so that Blanc saw de Vaunoy try to drown George. Blanc rescues George but then suffers from an epileptic fit, and when he recovers George is gone. Soon after, de Vaunoy and his troops search Blanc’s hut for gold. They allow Blanc’s father to die in agony in front of Blanc, and then torch the hut. The horrified Blanc flees into the forest of Rennes. He meets a sweet local woman and they fall in love and have a child, but she dies eighteen months after meeting him, and he is forced to raise his beautiful daughter by himself. He pretends to be “Pelo Roman,” a humble charcoal burner, but in fact he is The White Wolf, the leader of the White Wolves, a band of anti-French Breton outlaws, all of whom wear masks made of wolf skin. Whenever they are oppressed by de Vaunoy, they fight back, stealing money from de Vauony or destroying one of his homes and generally hurting him as he hurts them. Twenty years after disappearing, George returns to Rennes unaware of his background. The predictable turns of events follow, culminating in George being reinstated to his lands and title, Blanc avenging his father’s murder on de Vaunoy, and George marrying Blanc’s daughter Marie.

The White Wolf was either the first or second of Féval’s novels–first published, but perhaps the second written. (In an 1881 letter to a friend he claims it was his first novel, though it’s unclear whether he meant first written or first published).¹ Whatever the case, The White Wolf, though not Féval’s greatest success, was nonetheless popular and enough that Féval would be commissioned to write The Mysteries of London, which would go on to be enormously successful for Féval and the commissioning editor, Anténor Joly.

The White Wolf is brief, quick-moving, and efficiently told. Féval provides a welcome amount of historical contextualization and does a good job of describing the landscape of Brittany as it was in 1719. Féval strikes a good balance between action, characterization, and the type of narratorial commentary which can make the likes of Victor Hugo (see: The Hunchback of Notre Dame) such a chore to read. But Féval’s style is dated and a bit stodgy, and The White Wolf lacks a certain vigor and life. The White Wolf is an early example of the dual identity costumed hero, that staple of twentieth century pulp and comic book fiction. Robert Montgomery Bird’s Nick of the Woods preceded The White Wolf by only a few years, although Féval would not have known of Bird’s novel.

Print: Paul Féval, The White Wolf, transl. Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier. Tarzana, CA: Black Coats Press, 2019.

¹ William Bradley Holley, “Fantastic Encounters: Identity, Belief and the Supernatural in Works by Paul Féval,” (PhD diss., University of Alabama, 2011), 4.