Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

Fifty great classic short stories selected from the works of the best writers of the last century.

Patricio Lafcadio Tessima Carlos Hearn (1850-1904) was the son of a British father and Greek mother. He spent his early life in England, Ireland, France and America before moving in 1890 to Japan, where he married and settled. His most famous works are retellings of Japanese and Chinese folktales, in particular those of a ghostly or macabre nature. 'The Story of Chugoro' is the tale of a young man who is enticed into the clutches of a vampiric frog.

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer of outstanding short stories known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise endings. In this story two old friends had promised to meet up exactly 20 years to the day since their last meeting in New York. One of the friends has travelled a thousand miles to be there...and is now waiting for his childhood companion. Will he turn up?

In this story, when a position is granted to a member of the household of the King's beloved, which M. de Perrot had coveted for his own son, a round of intrigue begins. M. de Perrot enlists the narrator, M. de Rosny, to arrange for the king to stop at his house in Poissy for a glass of wine the next day after hunting. This turns out to be a ruse, to engineer an apparently chance encounter between the monarch and de Perrot's very beautiful and charming niece. But M. de Perrot's son overhears the plot and has other ideas....

Edmund Gill Swain (1861-1938) was an English cleric and author of ghost stories. He was a longtime friend of M. R. James, and his ghost stories show James' influence. 'The Eastern Window', 'The Man with the Roller', 'The Rockery'.

Kipling’s Just So Stories are among the most enduring classic children’s tales. They follow the traditional genre of stories which explain how unusual natural phenoma came about, often using fantastic and highly magical explanations. Kipling himself was born and spent his very early life in India, and some of the inspiration for these stories comes from traditional tales he heard from his ayah and the family’s other servants.

Sixty-five short stories by the master storyteller, Saki.

Edred and Elfrieda Arden belong to an ancient noble family which has fallen on hard times. Orphaned and living with their aunt who takes in lodgers at the seaside, life is dull and frustrating. But when Edred suddenly inherits the title of Lord Arden - and a medieval ruined castle to go with it, the adventures are only just starting. The children discover a magic spell through which they meet the Mouldiwarp - a white mole who is also the emblem of the Ardens.

A creepy collection of 50 classic ghost, horror and mystery stories which will keep you up all night. 1. "The Well" by W. W. Jacobs; 2. "This Is All" by Barry Pain; 3. "The Beast with Five Fingers" by W. F .Harvey; 4. "The Reticence of Lady Anne" by Saki; 5. "The End of a Show" by Barry Pain; 6. "The Dabblers" by W. F. Harvey; 7. "The Room in the Tower" by E. F. Benson; 8. "August Heat" by W. F. Harvey; 9. "The Idiot" by Arnold Bennett; 10. "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe...and many more.

Beatrice Harraden (1864-1936) was a British writer and suffragette. 'A Bird on Its Journey' is the story of a mysterious young Englishwoman hiking alone through Switzerland. When she arrives at a mountain hotel, she discovers that the piano is badly out of tune. The young woman, although she is travelling with only a small knapsack, has brought with her a tuning hammer, and she proceeds to tune the piano.

A medieval tale of the trial of a werewolf in southern France. A strange wandering beggar-boy meets a group of French girls who are tending their flocks. He frightens the girls with dreadful stories of souls in Hell and explains that he is a werewolf and describes how at night he ravages the country and devours sheep and children. The boy is arrested and brought before the courts. His testimony is alarmingly frank and astonishingly well corroborated by the evidence of other witnesses.

Kipling’s classic tale taken from the Just So Stories. When all the other animals are learning their place in the world, the crab sneaks off and plays his own game. The havoc which ensues can only be put right with the help of a powerful magician.

The true crime story of Henri Désiré Landru, master of murder and the art of making love, captivated the whole of Europe for almost two years. Landru is known to have murdered at least a dozen women for their savings and their furniture. Moreover, the uncanny fascination which he held for his victims from the moment he fixed them with his strangely compelling eyes, has never been properly explained.

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels, and is credited as being the father of science fiction. 'The Cone' is a sinister story of betrayal, revenge, murder and horror. The ironmaster who manages the huge blast furnaces outside Newcastle shows the friend who has betrayed him with his own wife around the ironworks. A very dangerous environment to be alone with an enemy....

A superb collection of stories that will enthral both young and old. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is one of the world's great storytellers, exhibiting astounding versatility in his narration, as he ranges between science fiction (in "When the World Screamed"), mystery and adventure (in "The Lost Special"), horror (in "The Leather Funnel"), action and heroism (in "The Croxley Master") and the ghostly occult (in "The Brown Hand"). This outstanding collection will keep listeners on the edge of their armchairs for 10 hours of breathless excitement and suspense.

Edward Alexander Crowley (1875-1947) was a British occultist and writer who wrote as Aleister Crowley. His stories and novels shocked Victorian England with their focus on demonic magic and sexual deviance. The Vixen is a traditional werewolf story but with Crowley's typical cruel and savage erotic twist on the classic theme.

Edward Alexander Crowley (1875-1947) was a British writer, poet, magician and follower of the occult who wrote under the name Aleister Crowley. His works scandalised Victorian England with their diabolical and deviantly sexual themes. 'The Drug' is the story of a man who accepts a strange drug from an alchemist and goes on a terrifying psychic trip.

Kipling’s classic tale taken from the Just So Stories. The young elephant has an unfortunate encounter with a crocodile, which results in his nose being stretched, which is how he got his trunk.

Adeline Virginia Woolf (January 1882-1941) was an English writer and one of the preeminent modernists of the 20th century. Her stories often appear as streams of consciousness as the writer's attention is drawn by things around her, memories and insights which bubble up in her brain and interruptions from the outside world. Includes 'A Haunted House', 'The Mark on the Wall', 'The String Quartet' and 'Kew Gardens'.

Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) was one of the most successful and respected English novelists. Malachi's Cove tells the story of Mally, the granddaughter of an old seaweed collector, who takes over the family trade as her "Dada" becomes too old and infirm to carry on. Mally is plagued by interlopers from local farms who come down to collect seaweed in her cove. One in particular, Barty Gunliffe, she resents above all others.