Year 10 English - Danse Macabre
W. W. Jacobs
William Wymark Jacobs (8 September 1863 – 1 September 1943), was an English author of short stories and novels. He is now best remembered for his macabre tales "The Monkey's Paw" (published 1902 in the collection of short stories The Lady of the Barge) and "The Toll House" (published 1909 in the collection of short stories Sailors' Knots). However the majority of his output was humorous in tone. His favourite subjects were marine life: "men who go down to the sea in ships of moderate tonnage" said Punch, reviewing his first collection of stories, Many Cargoes, which achieved great popular success on its publication in 1896.
(Click Here for W. W. Jacobs Biography)
"The Monkey's Paw" PodcastJohn Lithgow Podcast Reading “Tales in Verse, and a Chiller” ("The Monkey's Paw" starts on 29 minutes of 60 minute Podcast).
"The Monkey's Paw," The story involves Mr. and Mrs. White and their grown-up son, Herbert. Sergeant-Major Morris, a friend of the Whites who has been part of the British force in India, leaves them with the monkey's paw, telling of its mysterious powers to grant three wishes, and of its journey from an old fakir to his comrade, who on his third and final wish, wishes for death. |