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William Wymark JacobsProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.6

Word count: 267K words
Chapters: 27

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.More Cargoes by W. W. JacobsAuthor: Jacobs, W. W. (William Wymark), 1863-1943,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jun 12, 2008

Editor's review

W. W. Jacobs was a celebrated British short-story writer, best known for his humorous tales of harbors and sailors. More Cargoes continues in his signature vein: the settings are mostly docks, ship cabins, and ordinary streets; the characters are sailors, shipowners, and everyday small folk; and the comedy arises from mismatched dialogue and awkward situations, satirical without being unkind. As a public-domain eBook from Project Gutenberg, it preserves the narrative rhythm and colloquial flavor of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century English short fiction—short in length, each piece complete, and well suited to fragmented reading. For readers curious about the tradition of British humorous short stories, it is a low-cost entry point; for English learners, it can serve as material for experiencing colloquial dialogue and understated irony. Note that some slang and period background now feel unfamiliar; there is no need to agonize over every word—just grasp the characters' scheming and its undoing.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy British humor and satirical short stories
Literature lovers interested in harbors and sailors
Learners who want to experience spoken English and irony through short fiction
Casual readers who need short, easy-to-put-down pieces

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer long, continuous plots with a strong main storyline
Those expecting serious maritime reportage or technical detail
Those with little patience for old-fashioned slang and background

Reading tips

Read one or two stories at a time; they need not be continuous—focus on the turns in dialogue.
After reading, recall "who is scheming against whom, and where it falls through"—this is key to understanding the humor's structure.
When slang is dense, read first for the gist, then look up only a few words that recur.
Compare with other harbor stories by the same author to see his habitual character types and comic patterns.

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

Do these short stories have a continuous plot?

Judging from the title and the author's usual practice, the stories are mostly independent, sharing a harbor-and-sailor setting and a similar comic style rather than a single through-line. They can be read separately without worrying about missing earlier installments.

Can readers with average English manage it?

The stories are short and the plots straightforward, but the dialogue contains much old-fashioned colloquialism and slang, so a first reading may be bumpy. Focus first on characters' intentions and the gist, look up only a few words, and concentrate on "misunderstanding and reversal"—that is easier than translating word by word.

Why is it said to suit fragmented reading?

Each story is complete in structure and limited in length; finishing one yields a complete punchline or reversal without relying on long-term memory of earlier text. One or two stories on a commute or before bed suffice, and picking it up again after a break does not hinder understanding.

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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.