The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthelf
My rating: 4/5 cats
well, that was creepy.
this is a tiny little novella about great big evil.
it starts off all lovely, describing the natural beauty of a remote swiss village. you know the type:
Above the mountains rose the sun, shining in limpid majesty down into a welcome but narrow valley, where it woke to joyous life creatures that had been created to take pleasure in the sunshine of their days.
etc, etc.
but of course, like any good horror novel, this bucolic paradise masks ancient horrors.
but first, let’s talk about the family gathered for a christening, and the big deal that is being made, with all the food and the manners and the festivities and the humorous rituals of passive-aggressive nature with its, “if you don’t stuff yourself i will assume it is because you hate my cooking” etc etc. and it is funny. you almost forget you have been promised a horror novel(la).
but all the funny is going to cease once storytime begins. see, this house where everyone has gathered has this eyesore of an incongruous pole sticking up in the corner of the room. and grampa’s going to explain what it is and why it is there and why it should NEVER be removed.
what follows is a wonderfully, gleefully dark fairytale-like story about what happens when you make a pact with the devil and try to shirk your side of the bargain.
nothing good, i tell you.
unless you like giant spiders growing out of your face.
giant, venomous spiders that shoot out and attack all the livestock and villagers.
it’s pretty amazing, and for a book written in 1842, it holds up pretty well. it doesn’t have a lot of good things to say about ladies, but i’d rather be someone who did (or tried to do) what was necessary even if it was unpleasant than someone who tried to break promises. i don’t like unbaptized babies anyhow.
spiders. growing out of your face.
just wonderful.
