Greed

In short stories including “Parson’s Pleasure,” “Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat,” and “The Champion of the World,” the author explores the dangers and consequences of greed and avarice. In all three of these examples, the characters are driven by their desire for wealth, for power, for satisfaction, or for revenge. Despite their conviction that their greed will never amount to punishment, all of the characters in these stories find their plans thwarted by unexpected individuals or happenstances.

In the context of “Parson’s Pleasure,” for example, the main character Cyril Boggis’s obsessive desire for riches and fame acts as the driving force behind the narrative plot, its tensions and stakes. At the start of the story, the narrator says that Cyril was “well aware” of his talent as a salesman, and would use his gift “shamelessly on every possible occasion; and often...