The Lady of the Barge
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This masterful collection offers both the chilling supernatural horror of 'The Monkey's Paw' and a rich tapestry of ironic, morally complex tales that reveal the dark side of human nature.
Edition details
Book Summary
A collection of haunting and darkly comic tales, W. W. Jacobs's *The Lady of the Barge* explores greed, fate, and moral ambiguity through stories of cursed talismans, blackmail, murder, and romance. From the iconic horror of 'The Monkey's Paw' to the sly humor of 'A Mixed Proposal,' the book captures the eerie and ironic undercurrents of everyday life.
The collection opens with the title story, where barge captain Gibbs reluctantly allows a young woman aboard, sparking marital and romantic tensions. The most famous tale, 'The Monkey's Paw,' follows the White family as a cursed paw grants wishes with tragic consequences: a wish for money leads to their son's death, and a desperate wish to revive him forces a terrified father to undo it. In 'The Well,' Jem Benson descends into a well to retrieve a fortune, only to be pulled up with a corpse. Other stories blend crime and dark humor: a man murders his partner with a Japanese sword in 'In the Library'; a retired policeman comically investigates a stolen brooch in 'Cupboard Love'; and a sailor is haunted by a disfigured son in 'Three at Table.' Themes of deception, class tension, and the inescapable past recur throughout, as characters face the consequences of their greed and moral compromises.
Reading guide
Go deeper in The Lady of the Barge
Character guides, themes, chapter companions — plus Character Web, narrative arc, and theme heatmap teasers that unlock fully beside the text in BetterReads.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Closing
This excerpt is the dramatic climax because it presents the emotional and psychological peak of anticipation a…
Bill Hicks
A bargee skipper whose fierce religious argument with a passing schooner mate sets the comic tone for a domestic surprise aboard the Arabella.
Nick Gunn
A maimed, menacing stranger who descends on an old shipmate's inn, calling in a fifteen-year-old debt with a grin and a pistol.
Trayton Burleigh
A young mate and brother-in-law to the skipper, whose cheerful announcement of a lady guest plunges the barge into quiet uproar.
Jimmy Fletcher
A young bargeman whose romantic errand and easy manner stir the Arabella's crew into a tangle of domestic complications.
Mr. Negget
A wily, matchmaking presence whose persistent scheming nudges the barge's passengers toward entanglements they never planned.
Mr. Halibut
A diplomatic and persistent figure whose patient maneuvering keeps the barge's quarrels from tipping into outright disaster.
Greed and Its Consequences
The pursuit of wealth and material gain leads to moral decay, betrayal, and tragedy, as seen in stories like 'The Monkey's Paw,' where a wish for money results in a son's death, and in the tale of the sailor who hides money in a mattress, leading to conflict and deceit.
Fate and Superstition
Characters grapple with supernatural forces and the idea that fate is inescapable, as in 'The Monkey's Paw,' where a cursed talisman grants wishes with horrific outcomes, and in the story of the 'something' in the marshes, which inspires fear and dread.
Class and Social Mobility
The book explores rigid social hierarchies and the desire to rise above one's station, as seen in the barge skipper's discomfort with a female passenger, the carpenter's envy of his sister-in-law's inheritance, and the pretensions of the doctor and solicitor forced into menial labor.
Deception and Betrayal
Characters frequently deceive one another for personal gain, as in the blackmail plot involving letters in 'The Well,' the sailor who hides money from his shipmates, and the innkeeper's past crimes catching up with him through an old shipmate.
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