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The Black Spider
Translated by H.M. Waidson
ISBN: 9781847499240
128 pages
RRP: Original price was: £7.99.£6.39Current price is: £6.39.
After one of their own people repeatedly fails to live up to a pact with the Devil, a petty and morally bankrupt village community is plagued by a swarm of deadly black spiders. Using a complex narrative structure, Gotthelf’s cautionary novella shrewdly dissects the iniquitous social dynamics of rural life.
First published in 1842, The Black Spider displays its author’s talent for dark satire and realism, as well as the visionary powers of his imagination.
Find out more about our Gothic Collection
Part of 101-Page Classics series of Great Rediscovered Classics
REVIEWS
Best of all though is its enduring power as a parable about good and evil, fear and courage, while Gotthelf … emphatically demonstrates through his clever shifts of tone and language the allure of story as an art form in this daring novella that reads as if the storyteller were sitting in the room, remembering the facts and watching our faces.
The Irish Times
Evil abounds in this dire, bone-freezing short story by a Swiss pastor ... The Black Spider is scary as hell . . . He [Gotthelf] does something only the best horror writers, and the best preachers, can do: he puts the fear of God in you.
New York Times
