[This blog spoils almost the entire story.]
The story of "Spurs" centers around a wealthy midget named Jacques Courbé who falls deeply in love with a beautiful horse-rider named Jeanne Marie. The problem was that she was presently in love with the circus' strongman, Simon Lafleur. And here we have the major hurdle of the story: the choice between lust and money.
Jeanne lusts after the body of the strongman, but she would be potentially living in the lap of luxury if she were to marry a rather unsightly midget instead. Neither one of these choices are particularly moral. In both cases, she is thinking very selfishly.
But in the end, money wins out. Thinking she can easily handle someone so tiny and silly looking, she choses to marry the midget and so leaves the circus forever. But as it turns out, Jacques is a slave-driver of a husband, and he uses his pet wolf to enforce his laws. From this point on, it turns into horror story where she lives a miserable life and forced to work like cattle on his large estate.
I won't spoil the full details of all the ways he dominates her, but I will hint that the title of the book, "Spurs" actually does mean something, and the connotations of it are very shocking. The very idea of it made me gasp a bit.
As I said earlier, "Spurs" was adapted into a film called "Freaks" in 1932. Although it has some similar scenes from the story, it is really it's own thing. It's just as good, however, and if you can find a copy of it, you really should give it a watch. I actually like both the story and the movie for entirely different reasons.
"Spurs" is a short story that I definitely recommend. It is an easy read--not hard to understand at all. Apparently, this author has fallen out of favor for much of the last century. Nobody is really interested in publishing his works. It's really a shame. This was a great piece of literature.
This blog was written on April 16, 2023.
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The premise of SPURS is very primal: a female attraction to male prowess. The strongman has physical prowess but the wealth of the midget is the "hunter with the most game to offer." The wily hunter proved too wily for the supposedly clever woman.
ReplyDeleteAs small as he was, he did have all of the power. She got distracted by an optical illusion.
DeleteInteresting, I've seen "Freaks" but I didn't know it was based on a short story. It's a shame that the author is being cancelled by publishers. With a choice between lust and money what could go wrong? haha.
ReplyDeleteThe story was quoted in the opening credits. That's how I found out about it. It's something I tend to look for when seeing a movie.
DeleteThe love of money causes many problems. People will put themselves in the most dangerous situations to obtain it. Such things rarely turn out as expected.
ReplyDeleteShe was a horrible person who achieved a horrible ironic fate.
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