Resultado narrado por "Cathy Dobson" em Todas as categorias

The House-Surgeon is a strange tale about a haunted house. Not that there is an actual ghost in evidence. Indeed, nobody has ever died in the house since it was originally built. But a strange all-pervading depression haunts the place intermittently which overwhelms its occupants. When the current owner of the house tells the strange tale of the house to a fellow passenger, Mr. Perseus, on a trans-Atlantic steamer, he invites him down to the house to experience the horrible phenomenon himself.

A clause in the will of an old embittered aunt means that our hero has to choose between two women, cousins of his, of whom one is conventional and submissive and the other beautiful, erotic and unconventional. Trysts are held in the Italian garden in the presence of a stone dragon, a symbol of emotion frozen for all time, just as in a conventional marriage. The hero makes his choice, and unleashes a series of events which will not disappoint affectionados of the tragic gothic melodrama.

A group of travellers are telling increasingly tall tales about horse thieves and robbers...but one traveller's story trumps the lot. It is the story of a miserly farmer who steals a meeting house and carries it off. But his plans do not go at all as he expects...

'The Bowmen' is perhaps the most famous of Machen's tales. It is the iconic story of an incident from the First World War trenches. Faced with inevitable death and defeat, a battalion of English soldiers is saved by the mysterious and miraculous intervention of Saint George and a company of English bowmen who had last fought at Agincourt.

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. 'In the Avu Observatory' is a story about a scientist working at a remote observatory in a remote forest in Borneo. One night, the astronomer's assistant, Woodhouse, is attacked by a huge bat-like creature in the middle of the night. In the pitch black of the observatory, he suddenly finds himself fighting for his life against...what?

Stephen Crane (1871-1900) was a prolific American poet, novelist and short story writer. He is recognised by modern critics as one of the most innovative writers of his generation. 'The Open Boat' is probably Stephen Crane's best known and most admired story. It tells the adventure of four sailors, the captain, the oiler, the cook and the correspondent, who are sole survivors of a shipwreck at sea in a small rowing boat off the coast of Florida.

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799 – 1837) was a Russian author of the Romantic era who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. He was notoriously sensitive about his own personal honour and is believed to have fought as many as twenty-nine duels... the last of which proved fatal for him.A duel is the crux of his masterful short story "The Pistol-Shot" - but it is a duel with a difference.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was an English writer best known for his fictional priest-detective, Father Brown. In 'The Mistake of the Machine', Father Brown pits himself against an early polygraph device to solve a highly puzzling crime.

Charles Dickens' brilliant comic adventure of a lamplighter, Tom Grig, who is called into the house of an eccentric astronomer who is searching for the philosopher's stone. He declares that the stars have foretold that Tom will marry the astronomer's niece and inherit the secret of the philosopher's stone, which will make him the richest man on earth.

Aboard the English gunship Lido in the Caribbean, orders are received from the Admiral of the fleet to intercept a French ship, the Gloire, and also to hunt down a pirateer, a ship which sails under the name of The Slapping Sal, captained by mutineers under the leadership of the notorious villain Hairy Hudson. It is not many hours before Lido finds herself engaging with both of these ships, in a breathtaking and bloody sea-battle which ends in a most unusual way.

Poe's famous detective story which is credited with inspiring an entire genre. The first case of the celebrated private detective, Dupin. When two women are found murdered in the most gruesome and mysterious circumstances in their apartment in the Rue Morgue, the Parisian police are baffled. Not only is one of the corpses stuffed feet first up a chimney in a room locked from the inside, but the other is hideously mutilated and lying in the yard outside.

The descendents of the deceased horse dealer have fallen on hard times and are being evicted from the family stud farm. The three brothers and one sister are sitting around the breakfast table, discussing what each of them will do in the face of their sudden destitution. Only the horse dealer's daughter, Mabel, remains silent. She has made up her mind what to do...but will not communicate with the others. A visit from Jack Ferguson, the local doctor shifts the focus to this character.

"The Outsider" is one of Lovecraft's earliest and creepiest stories. A man exists alone in a mysterious dark castle, with no memory of how or why he is there. One day he decides to climb the highest tower in the hope of seeing the sky...and in doing so briefly learns the terrible, ghastly, unbearable truth....

Kipling’s classic tale taken from the Just So Stories. The stickly prickly hedgehog and the slow solid tortoise devise an exercise regime which will enable them to avoid becoming lunch for the painted jaguar. The effects surprise everyone, especially the painted jaguar.

Alexander Pushkin's greatest short story. Hermann, a young German officer serving in the Engineers regiment, is obsessed by gambling, although he never indulges in it himself. One night he hears a tale about how a wealthy 87-year-old Countess in St. Petersburg once learned the secret of how to win on three cards from the Duc d'Orleans. He becomes obsessed with learning the secret himself. In pursuit of this aim, he becomes enamoured of the Countess' companion, the beautiful Lizaveta.

Kipling’s classic tale taken from the Just So Stories. In the old days, the Rhinoceros's skin used to fit him quite tightly... but after getting cake crumbs inside it, Rhino was forced to scratch himself - and his skin got baggier and his temper grumpier.

Running away from a failed love affair, the lead character of the story, a very shy, bashful man, finds himself snowed up in a remote coaching inn called The Holly Tree. He spends much of the next seven days recalling strange tales of inns around Great Britain, Europe and America and remembering those which he has himself visited. After several days he overcomes his shyness sufficiently to ask the boot-boy for a drink and a chat.

The Yellow Wallpaper is Charlotte Gilman's best known work. Written from the perspective of a woman suffering post-partum psychosis, it draws the listener into a world which is both terrifying and fascinating, where strange events occur and where even the wallpaper takes on a sinister and creepy significance. The narration and language are masterful, but it is the way the listener is invited to empathise and almost experience the mental illness first hand which make a lasting impression.

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (1842 - 1914) was an American writer famous for his dark and cynical writings, which earned him the nickname Bitter Bierce. He is famous also for his mysterious demise. He wrote a letter to a friend, which he closed by saying, "As to me, I leave here tomorrow for an unknown destination," and then he vanished without a trace, his disappearance becoming one of the most famous in American literary history.

Stoker became famous as a writer of horror and supernatural fiction, including his 1897 best seller Dracula. 'Dracula's Guest' was written as an action-packed chapter in Dracula, but it was never included in the final manuscript. It was published in 1914 as a standalone tale after Stoker's death.