My husband is trying to find a short story he read in school. A man catches a magic fish and is granted three wishes. His wife wishes for their dead son to be resurrected, and her wish is granted.
Ring any bells?
Julie
Yup, except I think either you’re confusing “The Fisherman and his wife” with “the monkey’s paw,” or you’ve read a unique take on the story, since I’ve read several versions of the story with no dead sons.
http://stellar-one.com/tales/fisherman_and_his_wife_Brothers_Grimm.htm
Yeah. it’s an old old folk story.
Usually called “The Fisherman’s Wife.”
The fisherman is forced to go back and ask for more and more riches from the magic fish, until the fish becomes exasperated and takes all of his largess back, leaving the fisherman and his wife as impoverished as before.
The “dead son resurrected,” though, is from W.W. Jacobs’ very very famous short story “The Monkey’s Paw,” which is a completely different thing.
Thank you both.
What’s funny, is we were talking about stories that had scared us. I had said that I remembered “The Monkey’s Paw” being scary, and he asked me what it was about. I didn’t remember! I just could remember a dried monkey’s paw that caused something evil to happen.
He’ll be delighted to read it. Thanks again.
Julie