40 Fun Facts About The Monkey's Paw

Which animated sitcom spoofed The Monkey's Paw with a wish for world peace that lets aliens enslave Earth?

The Simpsons gave Homer a cursed paw bought in Morocco in Treehouse of Horror II. His last wish, for a turkey sandwich, goes wrong as well: the turkey is dry.

In The Monkey's Paw, which game are Mr White and his son Herbert playing in the parlour as the story opens?

Chess opens the story with a warning: Mr White plays recklessly, putting his king into sharp and unnecessary perils. He loses, just as he will later lose by gambling on a wish.

Which Stephen King novel, the one he says scared him most, was planned as a retelling of The Monkey's Paw?

Pet Sematary began when King's daughter's cat was killed on a busy highway in Maine. Three days after burying it, he imagined a family whose cat came back to life.

In The Monkey's Paw, what sum does Mr White ask for when he makes his first wish on the paw?

Two hundred pounds is all he asks for, because he feels he already has everything he wants. The identical sum arrives the next day, after his son is killed at work.

In The Monkey's Paw, what does Sergeant-Major Morris suddenly do with the paw after describing its curse?

Throws it on the fire, and when Mr White snatches it out, Morris tells him it would be better to let it burn. He warns his host not to blame him for what happens next.

In The Monkey's Paw, which country does Sergeant-Major Morris tell tales of after 21 years away as a soldier?

India is where the old soldier's adventures took place, and Mr White says he would like to see its ancient temples and jugglers. Morris tells him he is better off where he is.

Which English author, famous in his day for comic tales of sailors and dockside life, wrote The Monkey's Paw?

W. W. Jacobs spent much of his boyhood on the Thames waterfront, where his father managed a wharf. Most of his fiction was humorous, which makes his best-known story the odd one out.

In The Monkey's Paw, how is Herbert White killed at work on the day after his father's first wish?

Caught in machinery is all the firm's messenger will say, after first assuring the Whites that Herbert is 'not in any pain'. His mother thanks God before she grasps the meaning.

In The Monkey's Paw, what does Mrs White beg her husband to use the second wish for?

Their son alive again is her demand, about a week after the funeral, when she suddenly remembers that two wishes remain. Mr White calls it foolish and wicked, but he obeys.

In The Monkey's Paw, what does Mr White do in the seconds before his wife gets the front door open?

Makes his final wish, on his knees, after groping for the paw on the floor. The story never gives its words, only that the knocking stops at once.

In The Monkey's Paw, what kind of holy man does Sergeant-Major Morris say put the spell on the paw?

A fakir, in Morris's words 'a very holy man', enchanted the paw so that three separate men could each have three wishes. Mr White becomes the third and last of them.

In The Monkey's Paw, what did the man who enchanted the paw want to show rules people's lives?

Fate was the lesson: the spell was meant to show that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow. The first wish duly comes true in the cruellest way possible.

In The Monkey's Paw, what does Mr White say the paw did at the moment he made the first wish?

Twisted like a snake is how he describes it, after dropping the paw with a shuddering cry. His wife blames his fancy, but he is still swearing to it at dinner the next day.

In The Monkey's Paw, what does Mr White tell his wife is making the noise when the knocking begins?

A rat, he says in a shaking voice, claiming it passed him on the stairs. His wife is not fooled: at the next loud knock she screams her son's name.

In The Monkey's Paw, what can Mrs White not reach when she rushes to open the front door to the knocking?

The bolt is too high for her, so she drags a chair against the door to stand on. Those few seconds give her husband time to find the paw.

In The Monkey's Paw, what does the street lamp shine on when the Whites finally get the door open?

A deserted road, quiet under a flickering lamp, is the story's closing image. Readers are left to decide whether anything was ever standing outside.

In The Monkey's Paw, what did the paw's first owner use his third wish to ask for?

Death was the first owner's last request, and it is how the paw passed to Morris. Morris says he never learned what the man's first two wishes were.

In The Monkey's Paw, how does Mr White react on hearing how much the firm will pay for Herbert's life?

He faints, falling 'a senseless heap' to the floor. The sum offered matches his wish exactly, even though the firm admits no blame for the accident.

Which comedy duo starred in Our Relations, a film based on a story by the author of The Monkey's Paw?

Laurel and Hardy each doubled as a long-lost twin brother in Our Relations, credited to the short story The Money Box. The original tale has no twins in it at all.

In The Monkey's Paw, which book of tales does Mrs White say the talk of three wishes sounds like?

Arabian Nights is her light-hearted verdict as she gets up to set the supper. Nobody in the family takes the old soldier's warning seriously that evening.

In The Monkey's Paw, what does Mrs White jokingly ask her husband to wish for on her behalf?

Four pairs of hands is her request, made while she is busy setting the table. Morris grabs Mr White's arm in alarm, and the family bursts out laughing.

In The Monkey's Paw, what does Herbert tease his father to wish to become so he can't be henpecked?

An emperor is Herbert's suggestion, and it gets him chased round the table by his mother, armed with an antimacassar. He keeps joking right up until the wish is made.

In The Monkey's Paw, which instrument does Herbert play for effect as his father makes the first wish?

Piano chords from Herbert, played with a wink at his mother, turn the wish into a family joke. A fine crash greets the words, cut short by his father's cry.

In The Monkey's Paw, what does Herbert say the sum his father wishes for would be just enough to do?

Pay off the house is the idea: Herbert says clearing it would make his father quite happy. Mr White has just admitted he has all he wants and can't think what to ask for.

In The Monkey's Paw, what does Herbert see in the dying coals that makes him reach for a glass of water?

An ape-like face, 'so horrible and so simian' that he stares in amazement, is the last of several he sees. Groping for the water, he grasps the paw instead.

In The Monkey's Paw, Morris says the wishes come true so naturally they could be put down to what?

Coincidence is the word Mr White quotes from Morris at breakfast. He clings to it once more when his wife insists the first wish was truly granted.

In The Monkey's Paw, what does Morris gruffly tell Mr White to wish for if he must wish at all?

Something sensible is all the advice he will give, after seizing Mr White's arm in alarm. By then he has already urged his host to get rid of the thing.

In The Monkey's Paw, which drink does Mr White pour for Morris, whose eyes brighten at the third glass?

Whiskey loosens Morris's tongue: by the third glass he is telling tales of wars, plagues and strange peoples. Mrs White later grumbles about his 'bibulous habits'.

In The Monkey's Paw, what is Mrs White doing by the hearth while her husband and son play their game?

Knitting placidly, the white-haired Mrs White still spots her husband's reckless moves and comments on them. She consoles him afterwards that he may win the next game.

In The Monkey's Paw, what is the weather like outside the Whites' parlour on the evening the story begins?

Cold and wet weather, with a rising wind, sets the mood from the first sentence. Mr White grumbles that the pathway outside is a bog.

In The Monkey's Paw, which firm employs Herbert White and sends a man to his parents with terrible news?

Maw and Meggins sends a well-dressed stranger who pauses three times at the gate before he can bring himself to come in. He stresses that he is only obeying orders.

In The Monkey's Paw, what does Mr White confess was the only way he could recognise his son's body?

His clothing was all that identified Herbert, a detail Mr White had kept from his wife. He blurts it out to stop her, adding that their son has been dead ten days.

In The Monkey's Paw, what does Mr White admit he gave Sergeant-Major Morris in exchange for the paw?

A trifle is all he will own up to, colouring slightly as he says it. Morris didn't want payment and pressed him once more to get rid of the thing.

In The Monkey's Paw, what does the postman bring the morning after the first wish, to Mrs White's annoyance?

A tailor's bill is all that arrives, and Mrs White, who had scurried to the door, mutters about retired sergeant-majors who drink. The wish is answered later that day.

In The Monkey's Paw, what is the name of the White family's home, given in the opening sentence?

Laburnam Villa, as the story spells it, stands in a muddy, out-of-the-way spot where only two homes are let. That isolation matters when the knocking starts.

In The Monkey's Paw, what does Mrs White notice the hesitant stranger at the gate is wearing?

A new silk hat, glossy and smart, makes her think at once of the money her husband wished for. She whips off her apron and hides it under a chair cushion.

Which story collection by the author of The Monkey's Paw reprinted the tale in book form in 1902?

The Lady of the Barge came out in October 1902, a month after the story's magazine debut. The Monkey's Paw sits second of its twelve stories, straight after the title tale.

Which magazine first published The Monkey's Paw in September 1902, shortly before it appeared in a book?

Harper's Monthly was published by Harper and Brothers of New York, an American home for a very English tale. Its author had also been selling stories to London's Strand Magazine since 1898.

The author of The Monkey's Paw spent twenty years in which day job before his stories let him quit?

Post Office clerk was his trade from 1879 to 1899, in the Savings Bank. A fellow novelist was astonished in 1898 to hear he had turned down £50 for six short stories.

Which Dracula star narrated The Monkey's Paw for BBC radio in a series billed as his Fireside Tales?

Christopher Lee read it for the BBC in 2004, one of his Fireside Tales. He had played Count Dracula in seven Hammer films, beginning in 1958.