For October 25
Plot:
Medical student Richard Bracquemont tells the police inspector he has a plan to help solve the mystery of three recent suicides. He’ll move into the room where they occurred, #7 of the Hotel Stevens, Rue Alfred Stevens (Paris 6). Against his better judgment, the inspector accepts. He has a phone installed and calls twice daily, morning and evening. He’s especially eager to have this business solved. The last man who died was one of their own who had volunteered. He was a marine sergeant who chased sea pirates in places like Tonkin and Annam (Vietnam).
Bracquemont has no plan. He doesn’t even have a plan for a plan—but he figures this will give him a chance to do some studying.
One day, he sees her in a window in the building across the way from his room. She’s beautiful. He’s surprised that she’s spinning on a spindle. Do people still use spindles? They exchange nods. And smiles. He knows without being told that her name is Clarimonda.
His books stop being so important.
When the inspector calls, Bracquemont tells him he’s found a clue he won’t discuss just yet. He’s looking out the window, smiling and exchanging gestures with Clarimonda…
Thoughts:
This story is gothic in atmosphere. Most of the narrative is told in diary entries by Bracquemont with heavy foreshadowing. Early in the story, Bracquemont watches two spiders mate, after which the female spider pursues and consumes the male spider.
“Well for me that I am not a spider,” he writes.
Uh-huh.
The name “Clarimonda” hearkens back to an 1836 story by Théophile Gautier, “La Morte Amoureuse” (“The Dead Lover”). English translations are titled “Clarimonde” and “The Dead Leman,” among others. In Gautier’s story, a priest lives a second life at night with a dream vampire lover named Clarimonde.
Both Gautier and Ewers’ stories speak of the femme fatale, those naughty women who seduce men to destruction.
Bracquemont knows precisely what he’s gotten himself into. At several points, he explains that he could extricate himself—if he wanted to. He writes of attraction and love, coupled with fear and revulsion.
This is a creepy story, but it is also suffused with black humor. Its weak point is the ending, which is predictable. Nevertheless, I liked it, though I was screaming, “Get you derrière out of there, you âne!” for most of the read.
Bio: Hanns Heinz Ewers (1871-1943) was a German writer, filmmaker, traveler, cabaret artist, and actor. Many of his works remain untranslated from German. In the English-speaking world, he’s most closely associated with horror. He was involved with the Nazi Party in its early days, but apparently they didn’t take to his kind. He liked to date guys, for one thing. His most well-known novels are the Frank Braun series, which are not for the kiddies and involve witchcraft, sadism, and other gruesome stuff.
The story can be read here. (p. 237 Internet Archive. Must be logged in)
This story can be listened to here:(42:45)
Title: “The Spider” (Original German “Die Spinne” (1908))
Author: Hanns Heinz Ewers (1871-1943)
First published in English: The International, December 1915
Length: novelette
Reviews of Old and New Stories. Mostly Old 