A family gets a dried paw that grants three wishes, and the first wish comes with a price.
A short, tight horror story that a reader can finish in under half an hour and remember for years. It leaves the final wish to your imagination. Four and a half out of five (our opinion, draft for review).
Every guide comes as a video and a full written article. Pick the one you need: the review is spoiler-free, the ending explained is not.
This is the full text of W. W. Jacobs's The Monkey's Paw (1902), read aloud word for word in about 25 minutes. The video highlights each word as it is spoken, so you can follow the original wording, and adds a…
The Monkey’s Paw is a short horror story by W. W. Jacobs, first published in 1902. A retired soldier brings a dried monkey’s paw to an English family, saying it grants three wishes to three men, and warning them against it. It is in the public domain, and we worked from the free Project Gutenberg text (ebook 12122).
The audiobook. Our Study Edition audiobook reads the whole story word for word with a synthetic voice, highlights each word on screen, and adds a cast list, five hard words and a short recap after each part. This page has the recaps in writing, with full spoilers.
A short, tight horror story that a reader can finish in under half an hour and remember for years. It leaves the final wish to your imagination. Four and a half out of five (our opinion, draft for review). Read it if: you want a classic horror story you can finish in one sitting; you like stories where the dread comes from a quiet choice; you are studying it and want the text and hard words in one place. Skip it if: you want a lot of plot or many characters; stories about grief and a child's death are a hard line for you.
