Captains All and Others

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Pages: 95

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About this book

A night-watchman introduces a world of sailors who grumble about the sea while looking for easier lives ashore. In the opening story, Sam Small's sudden interest in clean clothes and a toothbrush alerts his friends Peter Russet and Ginger Dick. Their pursuit leads to Mrs. Finch's little shop, where Sam is being addressed as a captain. The friends quickly join in, giving their teasing a respectable public face.

W. W. Jacobs builds this collection of ten humorous stories around talk, money, courtship and the trouble people make for one another. Another excerpt follows George through a theatre outing and a costly cab ride with Gerty and Ted. Spoken rhythms and carefully timed replies give ordinary encounters their comic force. Readers interested in British social comedy and life around the waterfront will find stories in which a small boast or an apparently generous gesture can become an awkward expense.

About the author

W. W. Jacobs

W. W. Jacobs (William Wymark Jacobs, 1863 to 1943) was an English writer born in London, the son of a wharf manager. He drew on that dockside world for comic stories of sailors and night watchmen, though he is best remembered for the chilling tale "The Monkey's Paw."