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The Sign of the Spider: An Episode
Laurence Stanninghame walks out of his unhappy marriage in England to pursue adventure in Johannesburg. Things seem to be looking up for Stanninghame, on the cruise to South Africa he meets the beautiful Lilith Ormskirk, and when he arrives in Johannesburg he quickly makes his fortune. But things just as quickly take a turn for the worse when Stanninghame's luck deserts him and he loses everything. Left with seemingly no choice but to put a gun to his head, Stanninghame sets out with a slave trader, Hazon, into the country of the mysterious tribe of the Ba-gcatya, the People of the Spider. Stanninghame is a hardened adventurer, undaunted by danger or death. But even he is unprepared for the horror he encounters when he is marked out as a sacrifice to the monstrous spider-god of the Ba-gcatya! A thrilling mixture of adventure, romance, and horror, The Sign of the Spider (1896) is nonetheless pervaded throughout by a sense of Mitford's profound pessimism and disillusionment. Although he has long been largely forgotten or dismissed as an imitator of H. Rider Haggard, Mitford is a masterful storyteller, and The Sign of the Spider is one of his finest. This edition includes an introduction and notes by Gerald Monsman, the foremost Mitford scholar.
276 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1897
About the author
Bertram Mitford
229 books2 followersBertram Mitford was an English essayist and novelist, many of whose works were set in South Africa.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 7, 2021
full post here:
http://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/2021...
like a 3.6 rounded to a 4
"Every conventionality violated, every rule of morality, each set aside, had brought him nothing but good..."
The back-cover blurb describes The Sign of the Spider as a "thrilling mixture of adventure, romance, and horror." It was the combination of "adventure" and "horror" that was the draw for me, and while I'm not a huge reader of monster-type horror fiction, in this book it works.
A most unhappy, dissatisfied Laurence Stanninghame who is "just touching middle age," has decided that he's had enough of his "awful life," and has booked passage to Johannesburg to try his luck in the "boom." Some of his acquaintances had done the same and had "made their pile," so why shouldn't he have a shot at the same? He has also become a bit tired of the "warfare" with his wife, a woman who had many fine qualities, but who was also his equal in will. Once "eager, sanguine, warm-hearted..." he has become as this story begins, "indifferent, sceptical, with a heart of stone of the chronic sneer of a cynic." Perhaps this change has come about because Laurence is one of those people for whom "everything he touched seemed to go wrong," but now he's decided that it's time to "cast in the net for the final effort." As you might guess from the cover blurb, things go south quickly.
As with other books written during this time period, The Sign of the Spider is incredibly difficult to read today because of its racism and subject matter, but when all is said and done it is a story of one man's journey as he discovers, he calls it, "the consistent and unswerving irony of life as he had known it." I have to say that I thought I'd be reading a sort of rugged pulp adventure story complete with a cryptid arachnid thrown into the bargain, but what I got instead was a story that has a depth I was not at all expecting.
Save the excellent introduction for last, but most certainly do not skip it, as it adds even more to the reading of this novel.
With the acknowledgment that it's tough going subjectwise, I can certainly recommend this novel.
http://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/2021...
like a 3.6 rounded to a 4
"Every conventionality violated, every rule of morality, each set aside, had brought him nothing but good..."
The back-cover blurb describes The Sign of the Spider as a "thrilling mixture of adventure, romance, and horror." It was the combination of "adventure" and "horror" that was the draw for me, and while I'm not a huge reader of monster-type horror fiction, in this book it works.
A most unhappy, dissatisfied Laurence Stanninghame who is "just touching middle age," has decided that he's had enough of his "awful life," and has booked passage to Johannesburg to try his luck in the "boom." Some of his acquaintances had done the same and had "made their pile," so why shouldn't he have a shot at the same? He has also become a bit tired of the "warfare" with his wife, a woman who had many fine qualities, but who was also his equal in will. Once "eager, sanguine, warm-hearted..." he has become as this story begins, "indifferent, sceptical, with a heart of stone of the chronic sneer of a cynic." Perhaps this change has come about because Laurence is one of those people for whom "everything he touched seemed to go wrong," but now he's decided that it's time to "cast in the net for the final effort." As you might guess from the cover blurb, things go south quickly.
As with other books written during this time period, The Sign of the Spider is incredibly difficult to read today because of its racism and subject matter, but when all is said and done it is a story of one man's journey as he discovers, he calls it, "the consistent and unswerving irony of life as he had known it." I have to say that I thought I'd be reading a sort of rugged pulp adventure story complete with a cryptid arachnid thrown into the bargain, but what I got instead was a story that has a depth I was not at all expecting.
Save the excellent introduction for last, but most certainly do not skip it, as it adds even more to the reading of this novel.
With the acknowledgment that it's tough going subjectwise, I can certainly recommend this novel.
September 24, 2009
Pessimism, complete contempt of social structures, and a demon-god vampire spider, like Shelob. All in all, quite enjoyable.
December 6, 2017
A little slow to start up but picks up halfway. Similar to King Solomon's Mines.
October 10, 2021
Gruesome.
September 28, 2018
Laurence Stanninghame deserts his wife and three children in England to find his fortune or die trying in Johannesburg. After failing to make money in speculations he turns his hand to a "butchery bit of business."
Stanninghame starts out as merely a dislikeable Victorian chauvinist. 'Without being a misogynist, he had no great opinion of women.' He behaves as though his wife doesn't exist and takes a fancy to a woman called Lilith, a far from incidental name.
After hitting rock bottom he joins forces with a notorious hardnut and becomes a 'coldly pitiless trafficker in human misery,' a slaver. At he point he decided to watch as a boy was devoured by a crocodile because firing a shot would have warned the villagers that his slavers were in the vicinity. Nice guy.
Cannibal orgies, Zulu massacres, an archway of human heads in various stages of decomposition - Stanninghame comes across all these delights before being captured by a ferocious lost tribe called the Ba-gcatya and earning himself an introduction to their pet spider.
The entire novel simply gloried in an appalling type of morality. Mitford left me agog at how an author could sit down to scribble this kind of nastiness, yet fascinated enough to keep reading. Would he eventually condemn the actions of his protagonist in uncertain terms? Not a bit of it.
H. Rider Haggard for misanthropes.
Stanninghame starts out as merely a dislikeable Victorian chauvinist. 'Without being a misogynist, he had no great opinion of women.' He behaves as though his wife doesn't exist and takes a fancy to a woman called Lilith, a far from incidental name.
After hitting rock bottom he joins forces with a notorious hardnut and becomes a 'coldly pitiless trafficker in human misery,' a slaver. At he point he decided to watch as a boy was devoured by a crocodile because firing a shot would have warned the villagers that his slavers were in the vicinity. Nice guy.
Cannibal orgies, Zulu massacres, an archway of human heads in various stages of decomposition - Stanninghame comes across all these delights before being captured by a ferocious lost tribe called the Ba-gcatya and earning himself an introduction to their pet spider.
The entire novel simply gloried in an appalling type of morality. Mitford left me agog at how an author could sit down to scribble this kind of nastiness, yet fascinated enough to keep reading. Would he eventually condemn the actions of his protagonist in uncertain terms? Not a bit of it.
H. Rider Haggard for misanthropes.
October 29, 2008
This is an interesting adventure story, written around the same time as Heart of Darkness. Many of the same themes, and even phrases are used here, such as the chapter titled "The Horror." Conrad, though, is a better writer. Mitford does well with the adventure, the descriptions of the natives and their cannibalism, and so on. The romance portions of it leave me flat, however. Also, I did not connect to any of the characters, and the victorian writing style is a little cumbersome. It seems that Mitford is trying to imitate Henry James at some points, and not very successfully. Overall, an interesting read, but only for those interested in literature of British imperialism/colonialism, or in the development of victorian literature.
January 22, 2016
This novel evolves into a new genre several times throughout as a heady romance is mixed with adventures among cannibalistic tribes, the antihero of the tale always striving to reject societal artificiality while simultaneously lusting after the "fortune" he's set out to make.
October 20, 2016
Boring and super racist
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews