Can you suggest similar books to The Monkey's Paw?

not a book, actually, but a short story. (in the episode they made it into a book.) what do you mean by “similar”?

How about any of Stephen King’s short stories? They are all entertaining and chilling reads.

The first three books look like they’d have chilling tales besides The Monkey’s Paw that you might enjoy.

There are many collections of ghost stories and spooky tales such as “The Monkey’s Paw” (which is a very short short story, and I can’t image how it could possibly be improved by stretching it into a 2-hour script). I would suggest finding an anthology that has that story in it. The others in the collection will be stories that the editor thought were similar. I have several such collections myself, and the titles are all about the same.

Although Poe didn’t write The Monkey’s Paw, I find Poe stories to be similar. Poe anthologies are inexpensive because the copyright has lapsed, so you could probably find an inexpensive one at a local bookstore.

I like @Jeruba‘s suggestion to find an anthology with The Monkey’s Paw in it.

Here is one to get you started. (There are lots of other ones on this page, too!)

Lovecraft is good, too, but much wordier than Poe.

Ahhh, yes, @evegrimm, but only Lovecraft is Lovecraft.

I read my way straight through Poe by the age of 12 (my father had his complete works in 18 or 20 small volumes; he introduced me to “The Raven” when I was about seven) but didn’t discover Lovecraft until I was in college—a whole new delight. Because my father and I shared a taste for stories of the macabre, we gifted one another with numerous books in and related to the genre over the years. I don’t know how many collections I’ve read. “The Monkey’s Paw” turns up frequently in anthologies because it is such a perfect gem of its kind. Here’s one collection that was on our bookshelf when I was a kid. I remember it well, and I’m sure it would be just as thrilling today.

The best combination ever is Lovecraft (especially the Cthulhu mythos) and Holmes.

Neil Gaiman’s A Study in Emerald (third link on that page—.pdf) is a great example of this, but definitely not the only.

@evegrimm—I assume you must be aware of this, right?

@MacBean, yes, of course. :D

@evegrimm—Just had to make sure. Never would’ve forgiven myself if you didn’t know about it and I failed to mention it. <3

@MacBean, <3 right back atcha!