Jeremias Gotthelf was the pseudonym of Albert Bitzius (1797-1854), a Protestant pastor and one of Switzerland's most prolific writers of fiction. For all the didacticism of his work, he is admired for the power of his psychological observation, the human interest of his plots and the liveliness of his narrative style.

Die Schwartze Spinne is the Novelle for which Gotthelf is most widely known. It is richly symbolic and imaginative tale with levels of meaning well beyond the simple triumph of Good over Evil.