If you acclimate to the narration, it's enjoyable

What did you like best about this story?

The stories themselves are mostly very good, assuming that you like the peculiarly Victorian way of telling stories of the strange--a heavy dose of realistic and detail, a slow burn, and a delightfully eerie atmosphere. Personally, I love them. They're dated, yes (at least in terms of social politics), but read as literature of the era, they're usually interesting, at times fascinating, and occasionally gripping.

I did find these stories a little less rich and interesting than those in the "Ghosts, Werewolves and Vampires" book, probably because that one has more variety of ghoulish monster, as one might expect.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Dobson's narration matches the stories, but she sounds like she's always on the brink of a major revelation, which is weird. To be honest, however, it grows on you over time. She sounds as though she's reading the dramatic opening narration to an episode of television, which seems horribly grating at first. However, this is the second book of hers that I've listened to, and I have to say that her pace is good, her voice is not (to me) unpleasant, and if the undulation in her emphasis is uncomfortable at first, I now find it comfortable and somewhat effective for the genre. No, she doesn't do accents (much), but her approach is serviceable.

Any additional comments?

I recommend listening to Dobson in the preview (or in a couple previews for a couple books by her). If your reaction is something along the lines of, "Hm, I almost like this but eek, the rhythm of her delivery is really weird and akward," it might be worth a try. I've come around to it with time, and I got to listen to a lot of great stories not otherwise available by audiobook.

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4 people found this helpful

Wonderful

Great classic short stories. Not very scary and perfect narrator. I wish there were dozens of these collections.

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