Beasts (novella)

For the 1976 novel by John Crowley, see Beasts (Crowley novel).

Beasts is a novella by Joyce Carol Oates and was originally published in 2001.

Beasts

First edition
Author	Joyce Carol Oates
Cover artist	Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare, 1781
Language	English
Publisher	Carroll & Graf Publishers
Publication date	29 Nov 2001
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	80
ISBN	0-7867-0896-4
OCLC	48513006

Plot summary

Set in an apparently idyllic New England college town in the 1970s, Beasts is the story of Gillian Brauer, a talented young student obsessed with her charismatic anti-establishment English professor Andre Harrow. The book is presented as a middle aged Gillian's reflections of her time at college.

Knowing that other girls preceded her does not deter Gillian from being drawn into the decadent world of Professor Harrow and his wife, Dorcas, the outrageous sculptor of primal totems. Gillian soon tumbles into a nightmare of carnal desire and corrupted sexual innocence.

Dorcas and Andre regularly drug Gillian without her consent. One of the drugs that the pair give Gillian are quaaludes. Gillian discovers that Andre and Dorcas have sexually explicit photographs of other young people that they have drugged and used in order to fulfill their own sexual desires. Towards the end of the novella, an intoxicated Gillian burns Andre and Dorcas alive, but she is never tried for the incident. It is revealed that Gillian currently has a teaching job.