He took the paw, and dangling it between his forefinger and thumb, suddenly threw it upon the fire. White, with a slight cry, stooped down and snatched it off.
“Better let it burn,” said the soldier, solemnly.
“If you don’t want it, Morris,” said the other, “give it to me.”
“I won’t,” said his friend, doggedly. “I threw it on the fire. If you keep it, don’t blame me for what happens. Pitch it on the fire again like a sensible man.”
The other shook his head and examined his new possession closely. “How do you do it?” he inquired.
“Hold it up in your right hand and wish aloud,” said the sergeant-major, “but I warn you of the consequences.”
William Wymark Jacobs (1863–1943) was an English author best known for his 1902 story “The Monkey’s Paw,” first published in Harper’s Monthly, then collected in his The Lady of the Barge that same year. A humorist by trade, Jacobs here delivers something far darker: a parable of wishcraft and consequence, so lean it feels chiseled, and as compact as it is catastrophic. In a rain-slick English parlor, a cursed talisman changes hands — from soldier to family, from caution to curiosity. What begins as maternal grief abruptly curdles into spiritual trespass, and the price is steep. The paw grants three wishes, yes, but each one is a rung down the ladder to ruin. The warning is clear: the paw does not punish, it fulfills — and in that fulfillment lies the profane undoing.
Test Your Might
Available on backorder
Arriving Soon-ish! Available NOW for pre-order (backorder) — expected to ship mid to late December.
“‘The Monkey’s Paw’ is a thrilling and tragic tale.” —Boston Evening Transcript
“Ghastly in the extreme.” —The Liverpool Mercury
“Powerful in conception and thoroughly artistic in execution.” —New-York Tribune
“‘The Monkey’s Paw’ is of a very weird, uncanny, blood-curdling sort and the reader must indeed be hardened who can finish it without a new sensation or feel an impression that will be abiding.” —The Buffalo Commercial
“A weird and unusual story.” —The Harrisburg Telegraph
“An uncanny story of a malevolent relic.” —The Brisbane Courier
“‘The Monkey’s Paw’ is calculated to give thrills and tremors to the most indifferent reader. It is a semi-superstitious tale, written very much in the vein employed by Edgar Allen Poe in his weird masterpieces and shows splendid originality as well as virile force of expression.” —The Nassau Literary Magazine
“Intensely gruesome.” —The Evening Star
“Well calculated to give a nervous person ‘the creeps.’” —The Baltimore Sun
“A striking tale, ‘The Monkey’s Paw,’ reaches a high level. It appears to be a new version of an old story, ‘The Three Wishes,’ but the transformation from the old to the new is so complete as to amount to genius. The tale is a masterpiece.” —The Bendigo Independent
Want to be kept in the loop about new Heathen Editions, receive discounts and random cat photos, and unwillingly partake in other tomfoolery? Subscribe to our newsletter! We promise we won’t harass you – much. Also, we require your first name so that we can personalize your emails. ❤️
@heatheneditions #heathenedition
Copyright © 2025 Heathen Creative, LLC. All rights reserved.