The Lady of the Barge

The Lady of the Barge is a short story collection by W. W. Jacobs, first published in 1902.

Set along waterfronts, parlors, and quiet lanes, these tales mix maritime comedy with the macabre. Jacobs’s most famous piece here, The Monkey’s Paw, anchors the book’s mood: ordinary lives jolted by uncanny forces, where a casual wish or clever ruse can spiral into dread.

Throughout the collection, Jacobs favors tight setups, twist endings, and ironic comeuppance. Dockside gossip, domestic quarrels, and small-time schemes become engines for fate, chance, and the price of desire, delivered with crisp dialogue and a steady, sardonic wink.

Read today, the volume offers a brisk snapshot of Edwardian popular fiction. While some pages reflect the attitudes of its era, its enduring appeal lies in Jacobs’s knack for turning familiar scenes into tingling suspense and wry humor.

"The master of the barge Arabella sat in the stern of his craft with his right arm leaning on the tiller. A desultory conversation with the mate of a schooner, who was hanging over the side of his craft a few yards off, had come to a conclusion owing to a difference of opinion on the subject of religion."