Companion volumes <i>Classic Readings on Monster Theory</i> and <i>Primary Sources on Monsters</i> gather a wide range of readings and sources to enable us to see and understand what monsters can show us about what it means to be human. The first volume introduces important modern theorists of the monstrous and aims to provide interpretive tools and strategies for students to use to grapple with the primary sources in the second volume, which brings together some of the most influential and indicative monster narratives from the West.

"This monster of a two volume reader is exactly what we have long needed: a comprehensive and timely collection of the work that founded monster studies as well as the research that enabled it to become among the most exciting areas of interdisciplinary inquiry within the humanities. But there's more: a wide ranging collation of primary sources spans cultures and centuries. Capacious, inclusive, and brilliantly edited, this two volume set articulates the history of monster studies and promises its vigorous future." - Jeffrey J Cohen

<div>1. The Battle of Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and Humbaba, from <i>The Epic of Gilgamesh</i></div><div>2. The Nephilim, Goliath, Behemoth and Leviathan, and The Beasts of the Apocalypse, from the Bible</div><div>3. Selections from <i>Theogony</i> by Hesiod</div><div>4. Odysseus and His Men Encounter the Cyclops, from <i>The Odyssey</i> by Homer</div><div>5. Bust of Polyphemus</div><div>6. Monstrous Peoples and Beasts, from <i>The Natural History</i> by Pliny the Elder</div><div>7. Lycaon and Cadmus, from <i>Metamorphoses</i> by Ovid</div><div>8. Selections from <i>City of God</i> by St. Augustine of Hippo</div><div>9. <i>The Táin Bó Cúailnge</i> (<i>Cattle Raid of Cooley</i>) </div><div>10. <i>Wonders of the East</i></div><div>11. Illuminations of the Donestre, Huntress, and Boar-Tusked Women from <i>Wonders of the East</i></div><div>12. Introduction, Fight with Grendel, the Attack by Grendel's Mother, Fight with Grendel's Mother, and Fight with the Dragon, from <i>Beowulf </i></div><div>13. Modern Images of Grendel by J. H. Frederick Bacon, Julio Castro, Leonard Baskin, and Gareth Hinds</div><div>14. <i>Bisclavret</i> by Marie de France </div><div>15. <i>Völsunga saga</i> (<i>Saga of the Volsungs</i>)</div><div>16. <i>The Life of St. Christopher</i></div><div>17. Illumination of Saint Christopher </div><div>18. The Alliterative <i>Morte Arthure</i></div><div>19. <i>Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</i> </div><div>20. <i>On Monsters</i> by Ambroise Paré</div><div>21. Illustrations of Figure of a Foal with a Human Head; Portrait of a Marvelous Monster; Example of Too Large a Quantity of Semen; Figure of two twin girls, joined together by the posterior parts; Figure of a man from whose belly another man issued, from Ambroise Paré, <i>On Monsters</i></div><div>22. Selections from <i>The Faerie Queene</i> by Edmund Spenser</div><div>23. Selections from <i>The Tempest</i> by William Shakespeare</div><div>24. Images of Caliban by John Hamilton Mortimer and Charles A. Buchel</div><div>25. <i>A Discourse Concerning Prodigies: Wherein the Vanity of Presages by them is Reprehended, and their True and Proper Ends are Indicated</i> by John Spencer</div><div>26. Selections from <i>Paradise Lost</i> by John Milton</div><div>27. <i>Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus</i> by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley </div><div>28. Frontispiece to <i>Frankenstein</i> by Theodor Richard Edward von Holst</div><div>29. "William Wilson" by Edgar Allan Poe</div><div>30. "Goblin Market" by Christina Rossetti</div><div>31. Illustration of Buy From Us With Golden Curl engraved by Charles Faulkner after design by Dante Gabriel Rossetti</div><div>32. "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll</div><div>33. Illustration of Jabberwocky by John Tenniel</div><div>34. "The Damned Thing" by Ambrose Bierce</div><div>35. Selections from <i>Dracula</i> by Bram Stoker</div><div>36. Frontispiece to Bram Stoker, <i>Dracula</i> by "Nathan"</div><div>37. "Ancient Sorceries" by Algernon Blackwood</div><div>38. "The Call of Cthulhu" by H.P. Lovecraft</div><div>39. Sketch of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft</div><div>40. "Shambleau" by C.L. Moore</div><div>41. Trolls and Smaug, <i>The Hobbit, or There and Back Again</i> by J.R.R. Tolkien</div><div>42. "It" by Theodore Sturgeon</div><div>43. "Fever Dream" by Ray Bradbury</div><div>44. "The Faceless Thing" by Edward D. Hoch</div><div>45. Selections from <i>Grendel</i> by John Gardner</div><div>46. "Secret Observations on the Goat-Girl" by Joyce Carol Oates</div><div>47. Selections from <i>Oryx and Crake</i> by Margaret Atwood</div><div>48. Slender Man</div><div>49. SCP (Special Containment Procedures) Foundation</div>