Poaching
In “The Champion of the World” Claud Cubbage’s schemes turns to poaching. Unlike his attempts to fix dog racing, this is not done for the purpose of making money, but for a much more profound sort of social critique against Victor Haze, described as “rich beyond words…He loathed all person of humble station, having once been one himself.” Claud’s intent to bring Mr. Hazel down a peg or two through a prank in which poaching becomes a symbol of revolt against economic disparity as a marker of social status.
Jackie
Jackson is the name, Jackie the nickname. He is Claud’s pride and joy, his one true love. Only coincidentally, it seems, does Jackie also exist at times as a means for Claud to carry out one of his many doomed-to-fail schemes. Claud is not a bad person, but he is also perhaps not perfectly described as a good person. His many and varied schemes and scams prove this so. But Jackie, above all else, proves symbolically that Claud has a big heart and actually is, fundamentally, decent, because the dog is as loyal to Claud as Claud is to the dog.
The Chippendale Commode
Not a commode in the sense of a toilet, but an elegant chest with drawers situated upon fluted legs and constructed by Thomas Chippendale himself. The Holy Grail of antiques furniture one hopes to find overlooked and under-appreciated in some home where the owners are relatively clueless. The cluelessness of the owner—an unlikeable farmer named Rummins—is the key to Cyril Boggis being able to negotiate purchase at a tiny fraction of the worth of the furniture. Unfortunately for Mr. Boggis, that very same cluelessness is what leads to Mr. Boggis being extremely disappointed by his negotiation since—out of benevolence rather than malevolence—the entire thing is chopped to piece in order to fit into the undersized vehicle of the antiques dealer masquerading as a minister. The Chippendale Commode thus becomes a symbol of the timeless and seemingly never-ending chasm between the city slicker and the country bumpkin who invariably gets the better of him.
Licorice
“The Ratcatcher” is a particularly nauseating story due to its particularly nauseating title character. The worst part of the story—hard as it may be to believe—is not, however, the Ratcatcher’s assertion that “Rat’s blood is what the big factories…use to make lickerish.” This assertion effectively becomes a symbolic representative of what would come to be known as the “urban legend.” Even today, decades after the original publication of this collection, an internet search on “is rat blood used in making licorice” returns a substantial number of hits debunking a seemingly crazy idea that apparently many readers have taken seriously.
The Maggot Factory
Claud Cubbage is in love. No, not with Jackie; that’s another kind of love. One that is presented as perfectly normal. Claud loves Clarice Hoddy, but Clarice’s father is none too happy with the idea of his daughter marrying a scheme. So, at a dinner arranged specifically for the purpose of determining how Claud plans to financially care for his daughter should marriage result, Claud, on the spot, whips from the back pocket of his little scheming brain a convoluted story about a maggot factory. Yes, it is disgusting and absurd, but while Claud cannot quite manage to bypass the disgusting part and so loses the battle, he is able to transform the absurdity into something sound pretty close to reasonable and manages to war by leaving for the night with Clarice still his intended. In doing so, Claud turns his entirely fictional operation into a symbol of business success in which millions are made simply by spinning a story that is believable enough.
