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What happens when a wish or fear takes hold—and begins to rule every choice?
In The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories, Grant Allen gathers thirteen tales of mystery, obsession, and the unexpected. Strangeness and strong desire drive these short pieces. Each offers a story small enough for a single sitting, with the uneasy pleasure of not knowing what comes next.
Allen writes novels and magazine tales as well as essays on science and nature. Here, his short fiction belongs to a Victorian world whose manners and social rules shape what people say and do. The prose asks you to settle into its longer sentences and give its surprises room to work.
What you’ll discover
- Desire takes hold Explore how a wish, fear, or fixation can begin to govern a person's choices.
- The pull of mystery Enter tales built around strangeness, where uncertainty gives you a reason to keep reading.
- Surprise in small spaces Find the pleasure of the unexpected within stories you can finish in one sitting.
- Victorian manners and pressures Notice how social rules shape the words and actions of people within these tales.
- An uneasy reading hour Settle into formal prose and odd stories that invite you to linger with uncertainty.
Who will love it
Readers who love Victorian magazine fiction, fireside shivers, sharp puzzles and comic romances will enjoy this collection, especially its narrators who reveal more than they intend.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Ordinary encounters turn into mysteries
- Attraction carries an unexplained warning
- Fear can outrun the evidence
- A missing coin threatens a name
- Love unsettles a neat theory
- Charm conceals reasons for fear
- Obsession makes dishonesty feel reasonable
- Written words can deepen a mistake
- Small clues reveal what people value
Who’s who
- Harry TristramA young Devonshire gentleman who meets Césarine Vivian at a theatre fire and cannot free himself from her influence.
- Harold TaitA young coin collector who owns a rare gold Wulfric and is accused of stealing its twin from the British Museum.
- Cecil MitfordA Colonial Office clerk who spends two years chasing a pirate's secret and will risk his savings and his honesty to find it.
- Cyril MilliterA professor of anatomy and a lay preacher whose confident sermon against evolution is followed by a surprise in a quarry.
- Ernest and Harold CarnegieIdentical twins whose lives run two weeks apart until both fall in love with Isabel Walters.
- Olga DavidoffA merchant's daughter from Tobolsk who marries the polished Baron Niaz and follows him to his mountain fort.
- Harry PallantA young barrister who secretly answers letters for a penny weekly and devotedly loves his wife Louie.
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The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories
by Grant Allen · 1887
A rare gold Wulfric coin drops in the British Museum, and Harold Tait stands in the dock for it.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“Only two gold coins of Wulfric of Mercia exist anywhere.”
In short
What would you do if a stranger on a night train lent you a rug, asked after your mother, and then admired your bag of silver coins? One young man in this book spends the whole night on a mattress with a poker beside him, certain he will be murdered by morning.
The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories at a glance
- Reading time
- About 8 h 20 min6 h 35 min fast, 9 h 55 min slow
- Length
- 118,900 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1887by Grant Allen
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A theatre fire binds two strangers together
The title story opens in London at the Ambiguities Theatre. Harry Tristram, a young man of twenty-two, sits beside his old friend Irene Latham. Next to him sits a striking dark woman named Césarine Vivian, and he feels drawn to her and repelled at once.
A fire breaks out on stage. While the crowd fights for the doors, Césarine stays calm, then insists on going back for her opera glasses. Harry follows to drag her to safety. Within a week he has asked her to marry him, almost without knowing how it happened.
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Details
- First published
- 1887
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 9 h 30 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Allen, Grant. The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-beckoning-hand-and-other-stories.
Allen, G. (2026). The beckoning hand, and other stories. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-beckoning-hand-and-other-stories (Original work published 1887)
Allen, Grant. The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-beckoning-hand-and-other-stories.
@book{allen2026beckoning,
author = {Allen, Grant},
title = {The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-beckoning-hand-and-other-stories},
note = {First published 1887}
}
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What is The Beckoning Hand and Other Stories about?
It is a collection of thirteen short tales by Grant Allen, mixing mystery, comedy and horror. Recurring subjects include secrets between lovers, mistaken identity, strange inheritances, treasure hunts, trials and confessions, with each story shaped around one sudden turn.
What stories are in The Beckoning Hand and Other Stories?
Besides the title story, the volume holds Lucretia, The Third Time, The Gold Wulfric, My Uncle's Will, The Two Carnegies, Olga Davidoff's Husband, John Cann's Treasure, Isaline and I, Professor Milliter's Dilemma, In Strict Confidence, The Search Party's Find and Harry's Inheritance.
When was The Beckoning Hand and Other Stories written?
The collection gathers thirteen Victorian short stories of mystery, obsession and surprise. Most stories had already appeared in magazines such as Cornhill, Longman's, English Illustrated and Belgravia, while the title story had first been printed in a provincial newspaper's Christmas supplement.
The author
Grant Allen
1848–1899 · British novelist and science writer
Grant Allen was born near Kingston, Canada, in 1848 and died in Surrey, England, in 1899. He lived in Canada, Jamaica and England. He wrote about science and evolution, as well as novels and short stories. His books include Physiological Aesthetics (1877) and the novel The Woman Who Did (1895).
“Only two gold coins of Wulfric of Mercia exist anywhere.”
More by Grant Allen
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