Husbandry

William Wymark JacobsProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 26K words
Chapters: 3

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Husbandry by W. W. JacobsAuthor: Jacobs, W. W. (William Wymark), 1863-1943,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Mar 1, 2004

Editor's review

Husbandry is another short work by W. W. Jacobs, released as a free eBook by Project Gutenberg. Jacobs excelled at putting ordinary townsfolk at the center of his stories and generating laughs through brisk dialogue and unexpected twists; the title points to a domestic, household-management theme, and the story most likely turns on family livelihood and characters' scheming in a comic narrative. Its value lies not in grand themes but in the vivid voice and structural craft of Edwardian popular short fiction, and it also offers writers a lesson in how to pull off a twist within a short space. The text is a public-domain eBook with plain formatting; treat it as light reading you can pick up and put down at will, focusing on the rhythm of the dialogue and the narrator's restrained humor. If the period background is unfamiliar, a quick look at suburban English life and household finances of the time will make the story easier to enter.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who prefer British humor and slice-of-life short stories
Writers interested in studying twist structure in short fiction
Self-learners who need light English reading material
Readers interested in Edwardian popular fiction

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking intense dramatic conflict and strong suspense
Readers who want a heavily annotated edition with background notes
Readers with weak English who rely on sentence-by-sentence translation

Reading tips

After reading, summarize the plot, then analyze which passage contains the twist.
Copy out amusing lines of dialogue and imitate their tone for speaking practice.
Read it together with other stories by the same author and compare the character types he favors.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What is the story about?

Judging by the title and the author's usual style, it deals with domestic life and livelihood, depicting ordinary people's scheming and circumstances in a humorous tone. The specific plot must be confirmed from the original text; the available information gives no further detail.

Is the style consistent with the author's other work?

Jacobs is known for humorous short stories, and this belongs to the same body of short fiction; readers can expect brisk dialogue, ordinary townsfolk, and a twist ending, though the specific technique requires reading the original to appreciate.

Does the eBook formatting affect reading?

The Project Gutenberg edition is mainly plain text with simple formatting and no modern notes. The main text is unaffected, but background explanations must be sought elsewhere; a dictionary or introductory material is recommended.

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About the author

William Wymark Jacobs Author · British · 1863–1943

William Wymark Jacobs (1863–1943) was a British short-story writer, born in London in 1863 and died there in 1943. In his early years he lived around the Thames docks and was familiar with the lives of sailors and dockworkers, which led him to write a great many humorous sea stories, often in a light and witty tone. His best-known work, The Monkey's Paw, is a classic horror short story included in The Lady of the Barge (1902); noted for its tight suspense and sudden twists, it is still widely anthologized in horror collections. The library holds 109 of his works, including The Lady of the Barge and Others, Ship's Company, A Tiger's Skin, Captains All, and Night Watches; his common category is inspirational growth. Public information is limited and details of his life are largely unavailable, yet his fiction is distinctive in subject, blending humor with horror, and has had a lasting influence on later short-story writing.