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The Sign of the Spider is a classic British adventure novel, first published in 1896. Bertram Mitford takes the genre of imperialistic adventure stories and turns it on its head, creating an anti-hero as protagonist and weaving throughout the story a deliberate look at racial attitudes and cultural differences within colonial-period Africa. (Note: this book does contain racial epithets within the context of creating racist characters and so would not be suitable for younger readers.) Mitford doesn't shrink from showing humanity at its worst, but manages to spin a tale that is compelling in plot and characterization.

This novel is also classic cryptofiction. The arachnid-beast that provides the climax struggle is arguably one of the most fascinating creatures to appear in an early adventure novel.

In reprinting this text, my primary interest is its relevance to cryptozoological fiction, an expression of cultural speculation that unknown species still lurk hidden from scientific acknowledgment. Early stories of mystery animals are usually of the adventure type, as with H. Rider Haggard’s wildman story, Heu-Heu, or the Monster (1924). A subtype would be the boy’s adventure story, such as Ernest Glanville’s In Search of the Okapi (1904), where a band of youthful hunters encounter a “tree-lion,” a new species of feline with membranous gliding wings. As cryptozoological fiction, The Sign of the Spider (1896) is a worthy novel, introducing a fascinating creature that is both realistic and horrific. While the author takes his time developing the story, the eventual encounter and struggle are one of the best of this type ever written. (And noted as such, when that chapter was reprinted in Hugh Lamb’s horror anthology, A Tide of Terror.)

From a literary perspective, The Sign of the Spider is very much a product of its times, representative of books published just prior to the 1900s. As the new century approached, authors and artists expressed the turmoil and unease coming from expectations of societal changes, and shifted their perspectives toward decadence rather than optimism. This attitude, expressed as fin de siècle, directs our attention to harsher realities and anti-romanticism. Mitford wrote many novels on African subjects, and may mistakenly be taken as a generic British Imperialistic adventure writer. As noted in Michael Lieven’s (May 1998) online article in Paradigm, “Contested Empire: Bertram Mitford and the Imperial Adventure Story,” Mitford used the adventure genre to highlight colonial attitudes and difficulties arising from simplistic perspectives on race and culture. His characters do not follow stereotypes of gung-ho heroes and evil savages; yet he doesn’t stoop to portray either culture as idealistic or free from human tendencies. The protagonist in this story is an anti-hero, and Mitford deliberately created characters that are uncomfortable to empathize with—this reprint is unbowdlerized, so is recommended for an adult readership. This opaque narration, where the writer allows characters their own perspectives rather than forcing his own, creates a richer tale and more to consider than is usually found in adventure novels.

Enjoy the story.