Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

A delightful collection of 10 of Guy de Maupassant's most famous tales: "The Parrot", "The Love of Long Ago", "Mademoiselle Fifi", "Miss Harriet", "An Uncomfortable Bed", "A Queer Night in Paris", "My Uncle Jules", "The Piece of String", "The Necklace", and "Found on a Drowned Man".

Max Carrados is called in to investigate a mysterious ghost which haunts an empty flat in Massingham Mansions in London. Every night gaslights are seen in the apartment, even though the gas has been disconnected. Also water runs in the bath every night, even though the water supply has been turned off. Carrados quickly realises that the detectives on the case are barking up the wrong tree....

Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction and a close associate of D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. Set in 1915 in France, 'An Indiscreet Journey' is a tale of travelling behind the lines in war-torn Europe, where soldiers and civilians are living a strange precarious existence.

John Buchan (1875-1940) was a Scottish writer, barrister, and member of Parliament and later become Baron Tweedsmuir and governor-general of Canada. While he was most famous for adventure stories, such as 'The Thirty-Nine Steps', he was also popular for his supernatural stories, of which 'The Far Islands' is a prime example. The young boy, Colin, throughout his isolated childhood on the western coast of Scotland, has dreams of a strange path out to sea which leads into a mysterious sea fog.

Mary Postgate is a horrifying story, and like much of Kipling's work it can be interpreted in different ways. It was written as propaganda in 1915 during World War I against the background of German atrocities and massacres in France, and just after German aircraft had engaged in bombing raids on English towns. Mary Postgate was intended to inspire English readers with just such cold-blooded courage and ruthlessness as Mary herself displays.

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and short story writer. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, 1928 and 1930. 'The Lady's Maid's Bell' is a classic ghost story about Alice Hartley, a servant who takes up a new position in a remote country house as companion to an invalid lady. Almost immediately she realises that there is something not quite right in the house.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer, now best remembered for his science fiction novels and often credited as being the father of science fiction. 'The Country of the Blind' is the strange story of a mountain guide who accidently falls off a cliff ledge in the Andes. He survives the fall unhurt, and finds himself in a remote valley where a tribe lives completely cut off from the rest of the world.

A comprehensive and varied collection of the best vampire stories from the Victorian era by the greatest Gothic writers of the time. Includes: 'The Horla' by Guy de Maupassant; 'Mrs. Amworth' by E. F. Benson; 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' by John Keats; 'Dracula's Guest' by Bram Stoker; 'The Bride of Corinth' by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; 'Will' by Vincent O'Sullivan; 'Ken's Mystery' by Julian Hawthorne.

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.

A thoroughly engaging collection of great classic tales by the very best American authors. 1. 'From Beyond' by H. P. Lovecraft 2. 'The Mysterious Card and the Card Unveiled' by Cleveland Moffett 3. 'Pigs Is Pigs' by Ellis Parker Butler 4. 'The Club of One-Eyed Men' by Arthur Somers Roche 5. 'Afterward' by Edith Wharton 6. 'The Furnished Room' by O. Henry 7. 'A Descent into the Maelström' by Edgar Allan Poe 8. 'Regret' by Kate Chopin 9. 'The Terrible Old Man' by H. P. Lovecraft 10. 'The Dumb Man' by Sherwood Anderson

A thoroughly engaging collection of classic short stories from some of the greatest writers who lived.

Stranded in London during the summer vacation period and caught up in a sudden rain shower, two friends sought shelter in an archway. One of them vaguely remembered having heard that there was a club down this alleyway. From this point events become very strange. A mutual friend appears, who is able to introduce the two into the mysterious club. All the members are well known figures in London society...and they are all there for a bizarre and terrifying ceremony. Each member must open an old book, and whoever turns up the black page will face an unknown and horrifying fate.

'Major Wilbraham' is the extraordinary tale of a respectable ex-army officer whose mysterious death is shrouded in the greatest mystery of all. What could have led to Major Wilbraham to behave like that? Causing a scene on Piccadilly, staying out all night in Green Park with a street fighter and a prostitute, causing a fight at Covent Garden Market in which he was fatally injured....

Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author and mystic, best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy and horror fiction. 'Torture' is a horror story about a schoolboy with a dangerous secret fantasy.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer, now best remembered for his science fiction novels and often credited as being the father of science fiction. 'The Valley of Spiders' is the creepy tale of three men who ride into a remote and deserted valley in pursuit of a fleeing woman they are tracking. Before long they discover that the valley holds a terrifying secret...it is the home of a myriad of huge spiders. Will any of them get out of the valley alive?

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 Stolen Bacillus' is the tale of an eminent bacteriologist whose test-tube of live cholera bacteria is stolen by an anarchist who plans to release it into London's water supply.

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole (1884-1941) was a New Zealand-born English novelist famous for his skill at scene setting and vivid plots. He was a best-selling author in the 1920s and 1930s and remains popular to this day. 'The Last Trump' is an engaging and tense story about a man who believes he has calculated the exact date and time of the end of the world. It will occur at 11:45 p.m. on January 20, 1929.

William Hope Hodgson (1877-1918) was an English author of horror, fantastic fiction, and science fiction. Hodgson used his experiences at sea to lend authentic detail to his short horror stories, many of which are set on the ocean. He became one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th century. He died in World War I at age 40. 'A Tropical Horror' is the vivid story of a ship which is attacked by a hideous sea serpent.

The Tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table are of Celtic origin. It is believed that King Arthur lived in the sixth century, just after the Romans withdrew from Britain. Minstrels and storytellers travelled through the land in the centuries after this, telling tales of chivalry and heroism, and the legends of King Arthur grew up across Britain and parts of Europe. Andrew Lang's collection of Arthurian legends is one of the most complete and comprehensive ever written and is more accessible than most.

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the leading ghost-story writer of the 19th century and was central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era. "Green Tea" is an iconic gothic horror story which tells the story of a tea-drinking clergyman, haunted by a terrifying black monkey, which follows him wherever he goes, urging him to dreadful deeds and blighting his life in every way.