Short Cruises
1907
The opening story of this collection is a masterpiece of domestic farce. Mr. George Henshaw returns home to find his wife convinced she spotted him on a bus with another woman. What follows is a glorious cascade of lies as Henshaw recruits his friend Ted Stokes to construct an elaborate alibi involving a fictional stranger named Alfred Bell. The scheme spirals into mistaken identities, frantic improvisation, and a wife who isn't fooled for a second. Jacobs understood something essential about domestic life: the lies we tell to survive it, and how quickly they collapse under their own weight. This collection captures Edwardian England at its most absurd and endearing. The humor lives in the gaps between what people say and what they mean, in the desperate creativity of ordinary men trying to escape ordinary consequences. Jacobs writes with a light touch and sharp ear for dialogue that feels remarkably contemporary despite the century between us. Though he's best remembered today for "The Monkey's Paw," his comic short stories were enormously popular in their day and remain wonderfully funny.
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