2020 September: The Monkey's Paw and Other Tales of Mystery and Macabre

[Patrick, From USA Sci-fi/Fantasy & Horror]

Many people have encountered the story "The Monkey's Paw," anthologized nearly 70 times in horror collections alone. Most do not know, however, that its author, W.W. Jacobs, was an immensely popular writer from the 1890s through the Second World War, selling many tens of thousands of copies of his 13 short story collections. His craftsmanship was admired by such authors as G.K. Chesterton and Evelyn Waugh.

Jacobs mostly wrote humorous short stories about humble seafaring folk, but "The Monkey's Paw" is by no means his only tale of the macabre. This collection contains 18 stories with subjects including haunted houses, vengeful ghosts, guilty murderers and people faking supernatural phenomena.

"The Monkey's Paw" is, of course, a moral tale about how there's always a price to pay if you interfere with what's natural.

Enjoy!!

[Samantha, Cajun Literary Belle]

A great spooky book to kickstart the fall season. I’m excited.

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

Re Monkey's Paw- Be careful what you wish for!

[Jazzy]

There is an Alfred Hitchcock Hour show about The Monkey's Paw too, modernised of course, and the son is a racecar driver. You can see it on youtube.

[Georgina]

I’ll join you for this one, I’m trying to squeeze a lot in this month so I may be a late starter though.

[Georgina]

I’ve finished, I hadn’t realised how short this was. It’s a classic and I enjoyed it.

[Jazzy]

It's a short story, usually accompanied by many more short stories in one book. I did enjoy the whole book, some of the stories were scary but rather enjoyable.

[Georgina]

I just got an ebook of the one story, I’ll see if I can find the full book as I’d like to read more.

[Jazzy]

I got a copy second hand for a couple of quid.

The Monkey's Paw and Other Tales of Mystery and Macabre

[Georgina]

Thanks Jazzy, I can’t find it at a decent price anywhere but I’ve found the full collection that the ebook I had was taken from on Gutenberg so I’ll start with that and keep my eyes peeled in the local charity shops and used bookshops 👀📚

[Bernard]

I had this read to me at school. I was of course hiding behind a sofa.

[Jazzy]

They had sofas at school?

[Shaina]

I just started this book the day before yesterday. Enjoying it so far. I'm going slow with a story a day.

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

The Monkey's Paw would be a great story to read out loud and create a lot of suspense in the last few pages. Great story!

[Jazzy]

When we were kids (Me, Scott, and Diane - in age order) my mum and her friend, Mrs. Martin, who also had three kids (Kim, Jerry, and Bobby - also in age order) used to tell us spooky stories.

We were begging Mrs Martin to tell us a scary story, so she started one about some strange boxes left in a dark alleyway, then she said, there were these six kids and named us all and the last was Bobby, when Jerry put his hand on his mother's arm and said - Don't put Bobby in it, he'll ruin everything!

[Patrick, From USA Sci-fi/Fantasy & Horror]

Anyone have a favorite story so far?

[Jazzy]

I really liked the nautical stories.

[Canavan]

Joining the discussion rather late — I just looked at the first few stories over lunch today.

“The Monkey’s Paw” is one of those stories with which the public is so familiar that I fear it has over time lost a bit of its power; it’s difficult to realize until you actually sit down to re-read it what an almost perfectly told gem it is.

If you enjoy podcasts, Will Ross and Mike Taylor talk at length about this particular Jacobs story, its influences and what it, in turn, has influenced in an episode from “A Podcast to the Curious” (devoted largely to the writings of M. R. James, but also touching on the stories of similar authors from roughly that same period). See here.

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[Canavan]

Aside from “The Monkey’s Paw”, there are a handful of Jacobs stories in this Gary Hoppenstand-compiled book that have been anthologized a slew of times over the decades; that handful would include both “The Toll-House” and “The Well”.

It’s been quite a while since I last read “The Well”. (view spoiler)[It’s admittedly a by-the-numbers tale of spectral vengeance, but I think it’s really well told. One of the things I like about it is that the supernatural features are kept to a bare minimum. If not for the interlude at the well involving Benson and Olivia, during which the latter hears someone whisper, “Jem, help me out”, one might almost be convinced that Benson’s eventual comeuppance was due to nothing more than bad luck. (hide spoiler)]

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[Jazzy]

Yes The Well is a stunner!

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

I just finished reading The Well-it is creepy.

[Canavan]

In “The Three Sisters” Jacobs treats us to a story that’s kind of a mash-up of (view spoiler)[two popular tropes, one involving gaslighting, and (possibly?) another dealing with spectral vengeance. It’s clear that Tabitha maliciously acts to scare her sister, Eunice, to death; it’s a trifle less clear (to me at least) what happens to Tabitha almost immediately thereafter. On the surface, it appears that she runs afoul of her dead older sister, Ursula. But one could, I think, make a convincing argument that in actuality she merely falls prey to her own guilt. Tabitha, after all, is the only who really “sees” Ursula; Mary does not, although at one point she seemingly feels her presence. (hide spoiler)]

I personally find “Sisters” to be one of Jacobs’ lesser tales, perhaps because it has such a rushed feel to it, especially in its closing moments.

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[Canavan]

“The Toll-House” remains one of my favorite haunted house stories, although the precise nature of the haunting remains a wee bit obscure. (view spoiler)[In the intro to this collection Hoppenstand notes that “few actual ghosts” populate Jacobs’ tales, and that’s more or less true here. Meagle and company initially experience the sort of hard-to-explain events that traditionally populate stories of the supernatural — mysterious laughter heard, doors unaccountably shut which should be open —, but the only solid manifestation of the supernatural comes when Lester and White lapse into an unconscious state and when Barnes unknowingly pursues Meagle up and down the corridors of the house. (This pursuit sequence is really well done.) (hide spoiler)]


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[Canavan]

“Jerry Bundler” is one of Jacobs' more popular stories, having appeared over the years in a number of ghostly anthologies, although (view spoiler)[one could make the case that it’s not truly a ghost story at all.

Like a few of Jacobs’ tales, it features a phony ghost; more specifically, it makes use the narrative trope in which a ruse or trick involving a sham ghost has tragic consequences. (One of my favorite such stories is Michael Arlen’s 1924 story, “The Gentlemen from America”.) The Jacobs story does a good job of showing how an ill-considered prank results in a group of people evolving from seeming rationality to a panicked state that results in the death of one of their number. (hide spoiler)]

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[Bernard]

Canavan wrote: "In “The Three Sisters” Jacobs treats us to a story that’s kind of a mash-up of [spoilers removed]

I personally find “Sisters” to be one of Jacobs’ lesser tales, perhaps because it h..."

He stole the title from Chekhov!

[Canavan]

“His Brother’s Keeper” is a (view spoiler)[crime drama of the type told from the perpetrator’s point of view. I’ve read a number of such stories written during the Edwardian era; this one more or less follows the formula. Usually he or she makes some fatal mistake which allows the authorities to swoop in and nab them; in this story it is Keller’s own feelings of guilt which prove his undoing. As noted before, this theme pops up in a number of Jacobs’ tales. The manner in which Keller’s subconscious state betrays him is a bit silly, but the story competently told. (hide spoiler)]

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[Canavan]

“The Interruption” is (view spoiler)[another crime drama. Back when I was reading a number of H. Russell Wakefield’s collections, I came across quite a few stories of this ilk — men and women at one another’s throats (sometimes literally) over money matters. I didn’t particularly care for this example of the subgenre. (hide spoiler)]

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[Patrick, From USA Sci-fi/Fantasy & Horror]

Glad everyone enjoyed these stories!

[Shaina]

I just finished the book. I loved all the stories. I found 'The Vigil' really funny ( I was laughing out loud ). I found this compilation very interesting and would like to read more of this stuff. My favourite spooky stories were ' The Toll House ', ' Monkey's Paw ' and ' Jerry Bundler '.

I'm sure I wouldn't have read this if not for this group. Thank you for selecting this anthology.

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

I'm glad you enjoyed it, Shaina.