The Monkey's Paw and Other Tales of Mystery and the Macabre [Paperback]

W.W. Jacobs JACOBS (Author), Gary Hoppenstand (Compiler)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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. It's not a mere object lesson, though: the powerful mood of mourning and despair is what makes it so memorable. Jacobs also emphasizes the dangers of mocking the supernatural. In the superb tale "The Toll House," for example, four men pull the familiar stunt of staying in a supposedly haunted house overnight. They tease each other while drinking whiskey and playing cards to while away the time, and one of them tugs on the servants' bell as a joke. Later on the man who pulled the bell is all alone in the dark, pursued by ominous footsteps, rushing about in a panicky search for the stairs. And in "Jerry Bundler," an actor tries to pull a prank on a man who is fearful of ghosts by dressing up as a renowned local spirit. He pays for his impudence in a way that is not supernatural, but the reader's left wondering what forces contrived the tragic chain of events.

It's a delightful collection of stories, distinguished by Jacobs's ability to infuse horror into the simplest, most prosaic of situations, his excellent sense of pacing in the short story form, and his sardonic sense of humor. --Fiona Webster

From Booklist

W. W. Jacobs (1863^-1943) was a very entertaining and certainly prolific British writer of short stories. Eighteen of his admirably rich stories are gathered in this collection, which shows off to advantage his absolute mastery of the form. Obvious in his stories is a vein of humor, regardless of whether they are conventional mysteries or tales of the macabre or the supernatural. Jacobs' traditional setting is the Thames River, his traditional characters the people who earned their living at riverside or at sea. (His father was a wharf manager.) Economical in presentation and thus in effect, these stories will be at home in the hands of any admirer of the form, and any public library with active story collections should seriously consider its purchase. Brad Hooper

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Academy Chicago Publishers; New edition edition (August 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0897334418
• ISBN-13: 978-0897334419
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #472,892 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A mix of the good and the so-so, June 15, 2010

By 

Steven Warfield (Scotia, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Monkey's Paw and Other Tales of Mystery and the Macabre (Paperback)

I selected this based solely on the merit that I had heard of (and heard of references to) "The Monkey's Paw" story for some time, and having seen that Jacobs usually sprinkled some humor into his stories I was intrigued.

The title story is good, and definitely deserving of the various riffs that have been done to it over the years. As for the rest of the stories, they tend to fall into either "kinda' strange" territory (and usually dealing with some sort of nautical theme) or "the killer gets nervous and then comes undone and the police catch up with him."

On the plus side, it was a quick read, so the stories that aren't quite as punchy as the others do go by quickly. I also would note that the humor is very dry - to the point where you very well might miss it if not paying attention - so bear that in mind as well.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still haunting after all these years..., July 25, 2006

By 

Barbara L. Lemaster "Bibliophile" (Pompano Beach, Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Monkey's Paw and Other Tales of Mystery and the Macabre (Paperback)

I was first introduced to Jacobs's work by my high-school English teacher, who had us read "The Monkey's Paw" along with assorted works by Edgar Allan Poe. Jacobs is first and foremost a humorist, but he handles human psychology and psychopathy well in this collection of his short stories. Also must-reads, aside from the title, are "The Well," "The Toll-House," "The Interruption," and if you like morbid humor with your mystery, "The Vigil."

8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars greatness and uninventiveness, April 8, 2003

By 

jan erik storebø (norway) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Monkey's Paw and Other Tales of Mystery and the Macabre (Paperback)

some of his stories are truly great. the monkey's paw and toll-house. some pretty good. his brother's keeper and jerry Bundler. but when he doesn't have much of a plot, the result is sad. uninventive. and awfully obvious. at his best his plot is excellent, his descriptions good, the suspence of the characters marked well.