A
short story by
Jack London about a
bad tempered dog named Bâtard and his equally
cruel owner the
Frenchman Black Leclère. The
major question of the story is why these two characters hang around each other. Bâtard
bites Black Leclère whenever he can and Black Leclère
beats the
poor dog. But in spite of this, they are
inseparable. All of Black Leclère friends say he should
kill the dog, but he is
obsessed with
overpowering it. Bâtard’s
instincts, must tell him to
run away from such a
bad master, but he keeps coming back (probably for the same reason.)
In true London fashion
nature wins out in the end Black Leclère dies at the
jaws of his own dog.
This is a
wonderfully grim tale set in a
cold northern prospecting city. It’s about
hate, and oddly enough,
love.