Frank Stockton's short story "The Lady, or the Tiger?" first published in 1882, tells the story of a "semi-barbaric" princess who is thrown into a difficult situation: having to decide whether her lover will marry another woman, or face a ravenous tiger.
Frank Stockton first wrote the story (originally titled "In King's Arena") in order to provoke discussion at a literary party. It received such a positive reception from his peers that he formally published it in Century Magazine in July 1882. It immediately met with resounding success. Since then, as journalist Fred Abrams noted in 1977, Stockton's story "has fascinated generations of Americans."
When Stockton published "The Lady, or The Tiger?" in Century Magazine, the magazine had only been in operation for about a year. It soon grew in stature and respectability, eventually publishing short fiction by such notable authors as Mark Twain and Henry James. Century Magazine continued to publish until its demise in 1930. Throughout the years, the most well-known, anthologized, and adapted short story to appear in its pages was "The Lady, or the Tiger?" by Stockton. It was so well known that the story's title became part of the common vernacular to describe a situation akin to being trapped between a rock and a hard place.
"The Lady, or the Tiger?" remained Stockton's most famous story throughout his career. Edwin W Boven writes in his 1903 biography of Stockton that "this famous story did more than any other of the author's many clever productions to enhance his reputation as a story-teller." The story was so celebrated, in fact, that Stockton complained that it ended up derailing his career. Boven writes, "the story set a standard among the magazines which Stockton, however earnestly or industriously he labored, found it well-night impossible to live up to." In a letter to his friend George Cary Eggleston, Stockton complained, "After I had written that story. . . I proceeded to write with all my might. But presently the stories began coming back to me with editorial regrets that they did not seem equal to 'The Lady, or the Tiger?' In other words, I found I had ruined my own market by furnishing one story which I could not quite live up to."
Many readers have wondered at the solution to the story's central question. Stockton himself refused to give away the answer while he was still alive. In his book A Critical Biography, Stockton's biographer Martin IJ Griffin notes that "Stockton refused to reveal the solution to the problem when questioned directly." His response to such questions was generally the following: "'If you decide which it was—the lady, or the tiger—you find out what kind of person you are yourself.'"
Part of the reason for why "The Lady, or the Tiger?" has endured is that it has been adapted over and over again throughout the years. It was adapted into a play almost immediately after its publication. You can also find the premise of the story in a song by the band They Might be Giants, a Catwoman episode of the Batman TV series, and the TV show Let's Make a Deal.
