On Tuesday, we summarised ‘The Monkey’s Paw’, W. W. Jacobs’ popular and widely anthologised short horror story about a mummified paw which has the power to grant three wishes to three men. Now, it’s time to offer some words of analysis and commentary on this intriguing and brilliantly constructed tale. […]
‘The Monkey’s Paw’ by W. W. Jacobs (1863-1943) is a miniature classic of the horror genre. In just ten pages, Jacobs provides suspense, a building sense of menace, and real drama, as well as bringing in such themes as family tragedy and the problems with imperialism. Mainly, though, it’s a […]
We remarked at the end of our summary of ‘After the Race’ – a short story from James Joyce’s 1914 collection Dubliners – that there isn’t exactly much ‘plot’ to summarise. So how might we gesture towards a literary-critical analysis of this challenging story? Many of the stories in James […]