It is well known that Gilbert contributed a large number of comic verses to the magazine Fun and others under the pen name "Bab" which subsequently became known as The Bab Ballads. It is, perhaps, less well known that he also wrote a number of short stories.

Many of the short stories which appeared in Fun were unsigned but were identified as Gilbert's in "W.S. Gilbert's Contributions to Fun, 1865-1874" by John Bush Jones, published in the Bulletin of the New York Public Library, vol 73 (April 1969), pp253-266. This is a comprehensive list of Gilbert's contributions as marked up in the"Proprietor's Copy" of Fun.

Thanks to Adam Cuerden for seeking out these pieces of prose by Gilbert and to Anthony Porter for help with preparing the electronic versions.

• The Astounding Adventure of Wheeler J. Calamity (Fun Christmas Number, 1865)

• The Comic Mythologist (Fun, 5 November 1864)

• The History of the Gentleman Born at an Advanced Age (Warne's Christmas Annual, 1866)

• The Key of the Strong Room* (A Bunch of Keys, Where They Were Found and What They Might Have Unlocked. Tom Hood's Christmas Book, 1865. — included in Foggert's Fairy and other Tales re-titled "Johnny Pounce". )

• Ruy Blas — A Preposterous Piece of Nonsense for Private Representation. (Warne's Christmas Annual, 1866)

• Unappreciated Shakespeare* (Originally published in Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, Christmas Number, 9 December 1882 and reprinted in Foggerty's Fairy and other tales, London: George Routledge and Sons, 1890)

• A Sensation Novel, by a Small Boy (Fun Almanack, 1866)

• A Stage Play (Hood's Comic Annual, 1873)

• Vice Triumphant (Fun, 11 November 1865)

• I Expostulate (Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News, 4 Dec. 1886)

* These, and other short stories, were collected together by Gilbert in 1890 and published as Foggerty's Fairy and other Tales. This book may be ordered from Lulu.

Alternatively, you may read the book at the Internet Archive.

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Page modified 30 July 2020