A Tiger's Skin

William Wymark JacobsProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 24K 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.A Tiger's Skin by W. W. JacobsAuthor: Jacobs, W. W. (William Wymark), 1863-1943,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Apr 1, 2004

Editor's review

Also by W. W. Jacobs, "A Tiger's Skin" is available as a free e-book from Project Gutenberg. Jacobs's short stories often treat the schemes, misunderstandings, and embarrassments of ordinary people in a light tone, typically closing with a wry twist. This one is brief and well suited to casual reading of English short fiction, or to readers curious about British popular narrative style in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As you read, note the tone and subtext in the dialogue and how the narrator sets up the humor. Because public-domain e-books come without notes, try guessing at period expressions from context first and look them up afterward. Overall, it works best as leisure reading and language practice rather than as a classic long work demanding deep interpretation.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy short, humorous stories and want light reading
Learners who need English short fiction for extensive reading practice
Readers interested in British public-domain literature and popular narrative
Busy people who want to finish a story in about fifteen minutes

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer long novels and grand narratives
Beginners who need sentence-by-sentence notes and a structured language course
Readers looking for suspense, thrills, or strong dramatic conflict

Reading tips

Read through once without looking up words, focusing on the characters and the direction of the story.
On the second pass, mark tone words and idioms in the dialogue and look them up together.
After finishing, try summarizing the plot and the final twist in two or three sentences.

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

How does this story relate to the tiger skin in the title?

The source material provides no plot summary, so the specific role of the tiger skin cannot be confirmed. It is best to read the text directly, watch for how the title image appears in the narrative, and judge for yourself afterward whether it serves as a key clue or a source of humor.

Can I read it on my phone?

Yes. It is an e-book released by Project Gutenberg and can be opened on a phone, tablet, or computer. Its short length makes it easy to read in segments, and it can also be downloaded for offline reading.

Do I need to know the author's background before reading?

Not necessarily. Jacobs's short stories are usually understandable on their own, so you can go straight to the text. To appreciate his humor better, you might briefly learn afterward about his tendency to write about sailors and ordinary townspeople.

Comments

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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.