Bâtard

Bâtard is a short story by Jack London, first published in 1902 under the title "Diable — A Dog" in The Cosmopolitan before being renamed to "Bâtard" in 1904. The story follows Black Leclère and Bâtard, two "devils", one in man and the other in a wolfdog. Their intense hatred of each other forms the plot as they both want to kill the other, despite having a master and pet relationship. At the end, Batard ends up killing his owner, but is later killed himself.

This short story is a study of an animals reaction to it's treatment by man. There were complaints of the way the dogs behavior was described and London followed up on the same theme withThe Call of the Wild.

Etymology

"Bâtard" means bastard or mongrel and "diable" means devil in French. Both are descriptive of the dog.

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