The Monkey's Paw and Other Tales of Mystery and the Macabre by W.W. Jacobs.
Title: The Monkey's Paw and Other Tales of Mystery and the Macabre.
Author: W.W. Jacobs.
Genre: Short stories, horror, humour, crime.
Country: England.
Language: English.
Publication Date: 1894, 1897, 1902, 1903, 1907, 1912, 1914, 1915, 1922, and 1925 (this collection 1997).
Summary: A collection of 18 short stories. In The Monkey's Paw (1902), when an old man doesn't heed warnings and uses a monkey's paw that allegedly grants its bearer three wishes, he realizes too late that the wishes come at a terrible cost. In The Well (1902), a young man on the verge of marriages is haunted by a dark deed having to do with his cousin's attempt to blackmail him for money. In The Three Sisters (1914), hauntings and betrayal abound when the older sister passes away and leaves all her money to the youngest, leaving the middle feeling vengeful and resentful. In The Toll-House (1907), four friends spend the night in a haunted house, but an innocent prank has tragic consequences. In Jerry Bundler (1901), a conversation about the supernatural among a group of men gathered at night at an inn devolves into tragedy as the men grow more and more paranoid. In His Brother's Keeper (1922), a man who commits a murder of passion begins to be haunted by his conscience as well as his somnambulism. In The Interruption (1925), a man who has murdered his wife for the inheritance is black-mailed by a suspicious house-keeper, but gets into even deeper trouble when he sets out to get rid of her. In The Library (1902) is a story where a man murders his business partner in a fit of rage, but runs into a problem when he attempts to plan out his next moves. In Captain Rogers (1902), a man from a now-wealthy inn-keeper's distant criminal past resurfaces and blackmails him to make his own fortune, but pushes his luck too far when he begins to make advances on the inn-keeper's step-daughter. In The Lost Ship (1897), decades since a ship is assumed lost at sea, a weak sailor shows up on his mother's doorstep, holding within him all the mysteries of the disappeared vessel. In Three at Table (1902), a man takes refuge in a solitary cottage overnight, but is chilled when his hosts ask him to take his dinner in the complete darkness because of their son's "light sensitivity," something the man soon comes to suspect as a lie. In The Brown Man's Servant (1897), a novella, a pawnbroker's life is threatened when he purchases an incredibly rare and expensive diamond, but is warned there are those after it who will stop at nothing to get it back. In Over the Side (1897), a ship's crew faces a superstitious fear when a strange castaway comes over the side right after an occult-wise and creepy crew-man dies under mysterious circumstances. In The Vigil (1912), when a weathered soldier refuses to consent to his daughter marrying a young man who is not a soldier himself, the young man challenges the father to a supernatural contest of bravery. In Sam's Ghost (1915), a night watchman on a wharf believes he's being haunted by a recently deceased man's ghost when he refuses to give up the dead man's gold watch and chain. In Mid-Atlantic (1894), a captain of a ship is in for a shock when he gets a premonition to change course and, upon doing so, coming across a castaway who is less than grateful for his "rescue." In Twin Spirits (1901), a proprietress of a failing inn whose husband's debaucherous and irresponsible behaviour is threatening their livelihood gets some help from a cunning friend teaching her husband a lesson he won't soon forget. The Castaway (1903), a man who comes back from the sea after being lost for dead has to contend with a suspicious mother-in-law and a malicious psychic to save his reputation.
My rating: 7.5/10.
My review:
♥ "To look at," said the sergeant-major, fumbling in his pocket, "it's just an ordinary little paw, dried to a mummy."
He took something out of his pocket and proffered it. Mrs. White drew back with a grimace, but her son, taking it, examined it curiously.
"And what is there special about it?" enquired Mr. White as he took it from his son, and having examined it, placed it upon the table.
"It had a spell put on it by an old fakir," said the sergeant-major, "a very holy man. He wanted to show that fate ruled people's lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow. He put a spell on it so that three separate men could each have three wishes from it."
~~The Monkey's Paw.
♥ "I've never understood it," continued Wilfred Carr, yawning. "It's not in my line at all; I never had enough money for my own wants, let alone for two. Perhaps if I were as rich as you or Croesus I might regard it differently. ..Not being as rich as Croesus-or you," resumed Carr, regarding him from beneath lowered lids, "I paddle my own canoe down the stream of Time, and, tying it to my friends' door-posts, go in to eat their dinners."
"Quite Venetian," said Jem Benson, still looking out of the window. "It's not a bad thing for you, Wilfred, that you have the door-posts and dinners-and friends."
♥ Long before anybody else was astir he arose and stole softly downstairs. The sunlight was stealing in at every crevice, and flashing in long streaks across the darkened rooms. The dining-room into which he looked struck chill and cheerless in the dark yellow light which came through the lowered blinds. He remembered that it had the same appearance when his father lay dead in the house; now, as then, everything seemed ghastly and unreal; the very chairs standing as their occupants had left them the night before seemed to be indulging in some dark communication of ideas.
~~The Well.
♥ It was the last night in the old house, and all the wild spirits of the marshes, the wind and the sea seemed to have joined forces for one supreme effort. When the wind dropped, as it did at brief intervals, the sea was heard moaning on the distant beach, strangely mingled with the desolate warning of the bell-buoy as it rocked to the waves. Then the wind rose again, and the noise of the sea was lost in the fierce gusts which, finding no obstacle on the open marshes, swept with their full fury upon the house by the creek. The strange voices of the air shrieked in its chimneys, windows rattled, doors slammed, and even the very curtains seemed to live and move.
~~The Three Sisters.
♥ "For my part I have a sort of half-and-half belief in the supernatural."
"All sensible people have," said Lester.
~~The Toll-House.
♥ He ate well, and, to his surprise, slept well, but every morning misery opened his eyes for him.
♥ He was back in the silent house, upon which, in the fading light of the summer evening, a great stillness seemed to have descended. The atmosphere of horror had gone and left only a sense of abiding peace. All fear had left him, and pain and remorse had gone with it. Serene and tranquil, he went into the fatal room, and, opening the window, sat by it, watching the succession of shadowy tableaux that had been his life. Some of it good and some of it bad, but most of it neither good nor bad. A very ordinary life until fate had linked it for all time with that of Martle's. He was a living man bound to a corpse with bonds that could never be severed.
~~His Brother's Keeper.
♥ She closed the door behind her with the quietness of the well-trained servant; Goddard, steadying himself with his hand on the rail of the bed, stood looking into the future.
♥ In a confused fashion he was trying to think. Accident or not, the fall of the glass had served its purpose. Were there such things as accidents? Or was Life a puzzle-a puzzle into which every piece was made to fit? Fear and the wind... no: conscience and the wind... had saved the woman.
~~The Interruption.
♥ He got up and nervously paced the room again. It was not so simple, now that it meant so much, as he had thought.
~~In the Library.
♥ "Life is sweet," said the other.
"Aye," assented Gunn, "so sweet that you will share things with me to keep it."
"No," said the other, with great calm. "I am man enough to have a better reason."
♥ "Where is it, damn you?" said Gunn, from between his teeth.
Mullet opened his eyes again, glanced fearfully round the room, and whispered. Gunn, with a stifled oath, bent his ear almost to his mouth, and the next moment his neck was in the grip of the strongest man in Riverstone, and an arm like a bar of iron over his back pinned him down across the bed.
"You dog!" hissed a fierce voice in his ear. "I've got you-Captain Rogers at your service, and now you may tell his name to all you can. Shout it, you spawn of hell. Shout it!"
He rose in bed, and with a sudden movement flung the other over on his back. Gunn's eyes were starting from his head, and he writhed convulsively.
"I thought you were a sharper man, Gunn," said Rogers, still in the same hot whisper, as he relaxed his grip a little; "you are too simple, you hound! When you first threatened me I resolved to kill you. Then you threatened my daughter. I wish that you had nine lives, that I might take them all. Keep still!"
He gave a half-glance over his shoulder at the silent figure of the nurse, and put his weight on the twisting figure on the bed.
"You drugged the hang, good Gunn," he continued. "Tomorrow morning, Gunn, they will find you in your room dead, and if one of the scum you brought into my house be charged with the murder, so much the better. When I am well they will go. I am already feeling a little bit stronger, Gunn, as you can see, and in a month I hope to be about again."
~~Captain Rogers.
♥ Women who had waited, and got patient at last after years of waiting, could not endure these additional few hours. Despair was endurable, but suspense!
~~The Lost Ship.
&hearts The side entrance, up a narrow alley, was surmounted by the usual three brass balls, and here Mr Hyams' clients were wont to call. They entered as optimists, smiled confidently upon Mr Hyams, argued, protested shrilly, and left the establishment pessimists of a most pronounced and virulent type.
♥ The cat, with its forepaws tucked beneath it, was dozing on the counter. Business had been slack that morning, and it had only been pushed off three times. It had staked out a claim on that counter some five years before, and if anything was required to convince it of the value of the possession it was the fact that it was being constantly pushed off. To a firm-minded cat this alone gave the counter a value difficult to overestimate, and sometimes an obsequious customer fell into raptures over its beauty. This was soothing, and the animal allowed customers of this type to scratch it gently behind the ear.
♥ After that, in a spirit of dogged fatalism, he sat still and waited. To his disordered mind it seemed that footsteps were moving about the house, but they had no terrors for him. To grapple with a man for life and death would be play; to kill him, joy unspeakable. He sat still, listening. He heard rats in the walls and a babel of jeering voices on the staircase. The whole blackness of the room with the devilish, writhing thing on the floor became invested with supernatural significance. Then, dimly at first, and hardly comprehending the joy of it, he saw the window. A little later he saw the outlines of the things in the room. The night had passed and he was alive!
He raised his half-frozen body to its full height, and, expanding his chest, planted his feet firmly on the bed, stretching his long body to the utmost. He clenched his fist, and felt strong. The bed was unoccupied except by himself. He bent down an scrutinised the floor for his enemy, and set his teeth as he thought how he would tear it and mangle it. It was light enough, but first he would put on his boots. He leant over cautiously, and lifting one on to the bed, put it on. Then he bent down and took up the other, and, swift as lighting, something issued from it and, coiling round his wrist, ran up the sleeve of his shirt.
~~The Brown Man's Servant.
♥ Of all classes of men, those who follow the sea are probably the most prone to superstition. A float upon the black waste of waters, at the mercy of wind and sea, with vast depths and strange creatures below them, a belief in the supernatural is easier than ashore, under the cheerful gas-lamps. Strange stories of the sea are plentiful, and an incident which happened within my own experience has made me somewhat chary of dubbing a man fool or coward because he has encountered something he cannot explain. There are stories of the supernatural with prosaic sequels; there are others to which the sequel has never been published.
♥ He was a morose, sallow-looking man, of about forty, with a strong taste of the supernatural, and a stronger taste still for frightening his fellows with it. I have seen Bill almost afraid to go on deck of a night for his trick at the wheel, after a few of his reminiscences. Rats were a favourite topic with him, and he would never allow one to be killed if he could help it, for he claimed for them that they were the souls of drowned sailors, hence their love of ships and their habit of leaving them when they became unseaworthty. He was a firm believer in the transmigration of souls, some idea of which he had, no doubt, picked up in Eastern spots, and gave his shivering auditors to understand that his arrangements for his own immediate future were already perfected.
~~Over the Side.
♥ "I don't mind," said the young man; "and perhaps you'll think a little better of me, Mr Ward. If I do what you're afraid to do-"
Mrs Ward and her daughter flung themselves hastily between the sergeant-major and his intended sacrifice. Mr Farrer, pale but determined, stood his ground.
~~The Vigil.
♥ Some men might ha' told the police about it-but I never cared much for them. They're like kids in a way, always asking questions-most of which you can't answer.
♥ "Hullo!" he ses. "'Ave you seen the ghost again?"
"I 'ave not," I ses, drawing myself up. "'Ave you?"
"No," he ses. "We missed it."
"Missed it?" I staring at 'im.
"Yes," he ses, nodding. "The day after you came out screaming, and cuddling me like a frightened baby, it shipped as A.B. on the barque Ocean King, for Valparaiso. We missed it by a few hours. Next time you see a ghost, knock it down fust and go and cuddle the police afterwards."
~~Sam's Ghost.
♥ "By this time we had got to the ship, which had shortened sail, and the cap'n was standing by the side, looking down upon the stranger with a big, kind smile which nearly send him crazy.
"'Welcome aboard, my pore feller,' ses he, holding out his hand as the chap got up the side.
"'Are you the author of this outrage?' ses the man fiercely.
"'I don't understand you,' ses the cap'n, very dignified, and drawing himself up.
"'Did you send your chaps to sneak me out o' my boat while I was having forty winks?' roars the other. 'Damme! that's English, ain't it?'
"'Surely,' ses the cap'n, 'surely you didn't wish to be left to perish in that little craft. I had a supernatural warning to steer this course on purpose to pick you up, and this is your gratitude.'
"'Look here!' ses the other. 'My name's Cap'n Naskett, and I'm doing a record trip from New York to Liverpool in the smallest boat that has ever crossed the Atlantic, an' you go an' bust everything with your cursed officiousness. If you think I'm going to be kidnapped just to fulfil your beastly warnings, you've made a mistake. I'll have the law on you, that's what I'll do. Kidnapping's a punishable offence.'
"'What did you come here fort, then?' ses the cap'n.
"'Come!' howls Cap'n Naskett. 'Come! A feller sneaks up alongside o' me with a boat-load of street-sweepings dressed as sailors, and snaps me up while I'm asleep, and you ask me what I come for. Look here. You clap on all sail and catch that boat o' mine, and put me back, and I'll call it quits. If you don't, I'll bring a lawsuit agin you, and make you the laughingstock of two continents into the bargain.'
.."I never saw the skipper so upset afore, but I heard him tell Mr McMillan that night that if he ever went out of his way again after a craft, it would only be to run it down. Most people keep pretty quiet about supernatural things that happen to them, but he was about the quietest I ever heard of, an', what's more, he made everyone else keep quiet about it, too. Even when he had to steer nor'-nor'-west arter that in the way o' business he didn't like it, an' he was about the most cruelly disappointed man you ever saw when he heard afterwards that Cap'n Naskett got safe to Liverpool."
~~In Mid-Atlantic.
♥ "You might have been killed in trying to jump out of that window," said Mr Cox; "fancy the feelings of those two deceitful women then."
"Fancy my feeling!" said Mr Piper, with a shudder. "Playing with fire, that's what I call it. My niece is coming this afternoon; it would serve her right if you gave her a fright by telling her you had killed me. Perhaps it would be a lesson to her not to be so officious."
~~Twin Spirits.
♥ Mrs Gimpson hesitated. It is never pleasant to submit one's superstitions to the tests of the unbelieving, but after the attitude she had taken up she was extremely loath to allow her son-in-law a triumph.
~~The Castaway.