Many Cargoes

by W.W. Jacobs

William Wymark Jacobs was an English author of short stories and novels. He is now best remembered for his macabre tales The Monkey's Paw, and The Toll House (in the collection of short stories The Lady of the Barge). However the majority of his output was humorous in tone.

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1896

About the author

William Wymark Jacobs was an English author of short stories and novels. Quite popular in his lifetime primarily for his amusing maritime tales of life along the London docks (many of them humorous as well as sardonic in tone). Today he is best known for a few short works of horror fiction. One being "The Monkey's Paw"(published 1902). It has in its own right become a well-known and widely anthologized classic.


~Literary Works

Many Cargoes (1896)
The Skipper's Wooing (1897)
Sea Urchins (1898) /aka More Cargoes (US) (1898)
A Master of Craft (1900)
The Monkey's Paw (1902)
The Toll House (1902)
Light Freights (1901)
At Sunwich Port (1902)
The Barge (1902)
Odd Craft (1903) : contains The Money Box, basis of Laurel and Hardy film Our Relations (1935)
Dialstone Lane (1902)
Captain's All (1905)
Short Cruises (1907)
Salthaven (1908)
Sailors' Knots (1909)
The Toll House (1909)
Ship's Company (1911)
Night Watches (1914)
The Castaways (1916)
Deep Waters (1919)
Sea Whispers (1926)

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book of short stories about sailors onshore was a favorite of my grandfather's, who grew up in Portsmouth in the 1880-1890s. He undoubtedly knew something about the life. His father, retired from the Navy, for many years was the publican of The Eagle, a popular watering hole on the Isle of Wight (that probably handled more tourists than knockabout seamen.) It's centered on a dockside pub where the same people come to tell each other stories and let the night watchman cadge a pint from them. I enjoyed these quite short stories a lot in my 20s. A genre similar to Para Handy Tales, which came a generation later and are more maritime than dockside.

Jacobs is most famous for the short horror story The Monkey's Paw. These are folksy and fun instead.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I'm reading this book by the author "The Monkey's Paw," and I'm thinking, "Not bad." About half way through I decide to post my progress on Goodreads and I find I've already read it, less than two years ago, and given it 2 stars. I couldn't remember ANY of it. More proof that I'm losing my mind. Then I recheck. The book I'd read before was "MORE Cargoes," not "Many Cargoes." Same author, similar stories about sailors trying to pull a fast one on each other, and problems ensuing. But at least I'm not crazy...yet.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another of the lovely books now available online or as ebooks. I was expecting something grimmer based on the few stories I'd read by W.W. Jacobs in the past. Instead, I found a delightful collection of shipping stories, most of them humorous. The author gave me a good idea of what being a British coastal sailor a hundred years ago must have been like.

[Timons Esaias · Rating 4 out of 5]

It should first be mentioned that the Dodo Press edition of this book is fairly awful, and should be avoided. It's one of those bad scan jobs, with unindented paragraphs spaced apart, and much of the punctuation screwed up. Find an original edition on bookfinder.com, if possible. Avoid this one.

I enjoyed this a good deal. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been reading mostly-depressive modern literary short stories at the same time. I was reading these at one story per day, and I suggest not doing that. Immersion in Jacobs's humorous universe is healthier.

The stories are gently comical, and all have to do with skippers and/or mates on small British ships in the coastal carrying trade, people who are not very sophisticated, and who get themselves into all sorts of trouble as a result. Their attempts to get out of the holes they are in almost always begin with more digging.

I don't think I'd ever read a W. W. Jacobs story before picking up this collection, , [later correction: Jacobs is the author of the famous horror story "The Monkey's Paw" which I've read.] but my attention was drawn to the book by Noel Perrin's immortal A Reader's Delight, and I'll mostly defer to his essay. (Serious lovers of interesting writing should all own copies of Perrin.) I'll be looking for other Jacobs collections, though I think I'll stick to original editions.

One final note: only one grimace.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first of Jacobs collections of sea faring yarns to be published. All humorous in tone and all about small time sailors, perhaps lacking some of the polish and often much shorter than his later stories, these are still charming, light reading.

[Rob McMonigal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book from just before the turn of the 20th Century. See my review here: http://trebro.livejournal.com/277541....