Short Stories: The Vintage Collection

By: Saki, Thomas Hardy, Kate Chopin, James Thurber, P. G. Wodehouse, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Narrated by: Derek Jacobi, Martin Jarvis, Hugh Laurie, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Rupert Degas

The fifth volume in CSA Word's massively popular complete and unabridged ‘Short Stories’ collection is bound to please. With something for everyone this collection of classic stories read by only the best-suited and most established readers will delight the ears as a vintage wine excites the gullet; The Vintage Collection is audible gold.

Full story listing:

• 'The Old Couple' - Alphonse Daudet, read by Stephen Fry 13.49
• 'Pat Hobby Does His Bit' - F. Scott Fitzgerald, read by Kerry Shale 14.46
• 'A Tale of Negative Gravity' - Frank R. Stockton, read by Nicky Henson 41.50
• 'The Kiss' - Kate Chopin, read by Rupert Degas 06.54
• 'A Double Tragedy' - Louisa May Alcott, read by Derek Jacobi 53.48
• 'The Boar Pig' - Saki, read by Barbara Leigh-Hunt 12.06
• 'Sredni Vashtar' - Saki, read by Robin Bailey 11.15
• 'The Werewolf' - Frederick Marryat, read by Robin Bailey 48.23
• 'At the Article of Death' - John Buchan, read by Iain Cuthbertson 16.28
• 'The Toys of Peace' - Saki, read by Rupert Degas 12.25
• 'The Son’s Veto' - Thomas Hardy, read by Joanna David 38.24
• 'The Wrong Black Bag' - Angelo Lewis, read by Rupert Degas 25.45
• 'The Foolhardy Mouse and the Cautious Cat, - James Thurber, read by Liza Goddard 03.15
• 'The Cat and the Lifeboat' - James Thurber, read by Richard Griffiths 04.51
• ,The Owl and the Pussycat' - Edward Lear, read by Liza Goddard 01.22
• 'A Terribly Strange Bed' - Wilkie Collins, read by Robin Bailey 39.10
• 'Providence and the Butler' - P. G.Wodehouse, read by Martin Jarvis 19.50
• 'The Box Tunnel' - Charles Reade, read by Rupert Degas 17.33
• 'On Eating and Drinking' - Jerome K. Jerome, read by Hugh Laurie 13.39
• 'To Catch a Thief' - E. W. Hornung, read by Rupert Degas 50.28
• 'The Locket' - Kate Chopin, read by Rupert Degas 14.33

©2009 CSA Word (P)2009 CSA Word

Not so gripping stories

The stories apart from only a few were not gripping at all. Perhaps seeing PG woodhouse as one of the authors I had high hopes.

OVERALL, A GOOD CHOICE WITH SOME GREAT NARRATION

Enjoyed about half of the stories, particularly Thurber and Saki and skipped over the period/Victorian pieces, worth the cost, as provided me with good escape and if you like literature you'll enjoy more than half.

Soothing

I liked all of the stories and loved most of them. I listened to the book several more times at bedtime after the initial listening. It helped to relax me for sleeping. It became my "go to" book.

Superb Collection and Production

Cannot recommend this one highly enough. All the stories have been excellent. Funny often, witty, everything you could want, with a great mix of authors and narrators- all well matched. Huge scope and variety. These are not ones you'll get necessarily everywhere else but they are perfect as short stories. They really show what the form can do. But without relying on those few short stories you'll have been forced to read in every grade at every school. Head and shoulders above other collections I've tried so far. Even the eras are mixed- older to modern. Congratulations to the compilers, producers, and narrators for really doing justice to great authors! And my thanks.

I loved these!

I had such a great time listening to this collection of short stories. These particular stories are quite old and many are written by some of the best authors of the time, notably, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Thurber, Thomas Hardy, Kate Chopin, to name a few. They almost all have an ironic twist at the end, and all are micro novels of great entertainment. I recommend them highly.

hotchpotch assortment of forgettable tales

i chose the title mainly based on the list of luminary authors and readers. i found the stories of no relevance to each other and generally of little dramatic interest . Quality of reader performance is also inconsistent.

The short story genre has come a long way

I got about half-way through so consider this review in that light. Those I read were, I think, older stories, probably 19th century. I guess it was the style back then for the author to describe the characters and speak the plot directly to the reader rather than allow the characters emerge from their words and actions and the plot to evolve dynamically from the interaction of the characters. Much of what little dialog there is is rendered in exaggerated tones, more like caricature than natural speech. I am sure there are aficionados of this literature. I am not among them.

Short stories available only from Audible

This collection is, on the whole, entertaining, if not terribly even in terms of the quality of the stories. The quality of the reading itself is, on the whole, superb. The collection's great weakness is that it lacks anything in the nature of a table of contents. This renders it all but impossible to select stories and read them in no particular order, which is, I think, the very charm of the medium. In fact, the only way in which to learn the title and author of a particular piece is to listen to these hurriedly uttered at the outset of its recording, and if one should wish to find that story again, in order to reread it or to recommend it to another, the task would be onerous. Even were the title and the author's name evident on the screen where time elapsed is tracked, that would be a signal improvement. I wouldn’t listen to another collection of this or any other sort, were I not assured that this particular shortcoming had been redressed.

Not bad but Narration rushed

Narration lacked the necessary pauses. Most annoying was the lack of silent space between each story. I suppose one could hit 'pause' but there was never time enough before the title of the next story was announced thereby eclipsing that wonderful post-story lingering. Stories were good.