Join us in celebrating spooky season with the scariest story we’ve read all year.

October’s read-aloud is a creepy classic: “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs.

William Wymark Jacobs (1863 – 1943) was an English short fiction author. Professionally, he served as a post office clerk for several decades before retiring young and focusing on his publishing career. In addition to his short works, Jacobs was a dramatist who frequently adapted his stories for the stage.

Many of Jacobs’ creative works were humorous in nature, but his best-known publication is unquestionably “The Monkey’s Paw,” a supernatural tale of the power of wishes and fate.

Want to read along? Click here to read the story on Project Gutenberg.

Sound effects included in this video were downloaded from Freesound.com and incorporated in accordance with the Creative Commons Attributions License. No copyright infringement and/or commercial usage is intended.

Thank you to the Friends of the Bloomfield Township Public Library for sponsoring the closed captioning of this video.

A new read-aloud will be published every month on the Adult Services Vimeo page, so keep an eye out for new titles! Material selected for these read-alouds are in the public domain and are sourced from Project Gutenberg, so that listeners can read along if they would like.