Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

'Good Lady Ducayne' is a sensational tale of a young woman, Bella Rolleston, who secures a job as a paid companion to a very elderly and wealthy aristocratic lady who offers her a handsome salary, a winter travelling on the Italian Riviera and the Italian Lakes and very little to do. It all seems too good to be true. And when Bella learns that the old lady's previous two companions died under mysterious circumstances and she herself is becoming paler and sicker...it does seem as though something sinister is afoot.

"Twenty-Six Men and a Girl" is a short story written by the Russian writer Maxim Gorky in 1899, and is one of his most famous. It is a pioneering tale of social realism (the story predates Soviet socialist realism), and is a lament of lost ideals. Twenty-six men slave away in a cellar, making kringles, looked down on by all around them, including the bread bakers. Their only joy in their lives is the 16-year-old Tanya, who visits them every morning to collect kringles.

William Wymark Jacobs (1863 - 1943) was an English author of short stories and novels. His most popular works in the early part of the last century were his humorous tales set around the docks of Wapping and in the tap-room of the infamous Cauliflower tavern. Many of his stories were written in a Cockney vernacular and were keenly observant of character. His most famous horror stories are "The Monkey's Paw" and "His Brother's Keeper" both of which have been included in numerous anthologies.

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. 'The Robe of Peace' is a story which explains the mysterious disappearance of New York's leading swell, the fashion king Johnny Bellchambers.

Over 50 great classic short stories, each around 20 minutes in length - perfect for short journeys, bedtime listening and those moments in between.... 'The Khitmatgar' by B. M. Croker, 'The Mummy of Thompson Pratt' by Charles John Cutcliffe Hyne, 'The Ghost at the Blue Dragon' by William J. Wintle, 'A Tropical Horror' by William Hope Hodgson, 'Miracles' by Barry Pain, 'The Dust That Was Barren' by P. C. Wren, 'His Unconquerable Enemy' by W. C. Morrow, 'A Tiger’s Skin' by W. W. Jacobs....

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.

A brilliant and humorous short story by Wilkie Collins, in which an elderly lady, whose Victorian sensibilities on morals and propriety are finely honed, finds herself living next door to Major Namby, the ultimate neighbour from hell.

The Voice in the Night is an uncanny story about a ship becalmed in fog in the middle of the Pacific. In the night, the watch hears a voice hailing the ship. It would seem to be a lone man in a rowing boat, but the individual does not wish to be seen. He is starving and urgently wants food - but despite this, he will not approach the ship and vehemently rejects the idea of being rescued. Instead they have to float some provisions out to him in a crate, which he takes off to a nearby island where his fiancée is dying of hunger.

Frederick Marryat’s The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains is a unique literary work that stands out amidst the body of work of an author best known for pioneering the genre of the sea story. Excised from Marryat’s novel The Phantom Ship (1839) and published separately as The White Wolf it represents the first appearance of a female werewolf in Victorian literature. Krantz, a fugitive from justice, takes refuge in the Hartz mountains with his three children and lives by hunting in the forest and subsistence farming.

Dear old Raggedy Ann! The beloved rag doll who comes to life and along with the other toys in the nursery has a series of exciting adventures. Generations of children have listened round eyed and open mouthed as Raggedy Ann flies away on a kite, rescues the family dog from the pound, helps the hens hatch out chicks and lands up in the paint pot. Johnny Gruelle (1880-1938) was an American artist, cartoonist and children's author. One day his daughter Marcella found a dusty, faceless rag doll in the attic.

The Frog is a variant on the Frog Princess. Three brothers are told by their mother to set specific tasks for their sweethearts to complete, to see whether they will make suitable brides. The youngest lad does not know any girls, but a mystery frog proves amazingly adept at all the trials set her by her future mother-in-law.

A rich anthology of forty-five great stories by some of the most renowned storytellers in the world. Saki, O. Henry, Edgar Allan Poe, Barry Pain, Guy de Maupassant, M. R. James, A. J. Allan, Guy Boothby, Jerome K. Jerome and many more giants of the piterary world contribute to this collection of tiny tales which pack a huge punch.

A glittering collection of 36 short stories by Edwardian satirist Hector Hugh Munro, who wrote under the pseudonym "Saki". Beasts And Super-Beasts includes many of Saki's best loved tales, exemplifying his witty and multi-layered storytelling, satirizing the habits and morals of British society of his day.

A medieval legend about an evil curse, a love triangle and a dreadful tragedy. Harald and Alfred are love rivals for the hand of the beautiful Ysault. While Ysault favours the noble Harald, she does not know that Harald is under a terrible curse, inherited from his wicked grandfather. The region is being ravaged by a vicious werewolf which carries off livestock and children, but mysteriously only on nights when Harald is away from the castle. Alfred notices this strange coincidence and determines to take advantage of the insight to beat his love rival.

O. Henry's poignant ghost story of a young man seeking his lost love in the city. When he rents a furnished room in the lower West Side, he senses from a mysterious and familiar scent that his lost love has recently stayed there. The ghostly essence of his lover exercises a very strange and sinister effect on him.

A fascinating collection of short stories by some of Australia's best classic writers.

An absorbing set of stories set in Victorian and Edwardian London. Old Fags by Stacy Aumonier, The One Million Pound Bank Note by Mark Twain, The Omnibus by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, A Circular Tour by W. W. Jacobs, The Hired Baby by Marie Corelli, Juxtapositions by Stacy Aumonier, Mixed Relations by W. W. Jacobs, The Inconsiderate Waiter by J. M. Barrie, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Talking Horse by F. Anstey Guthrie, London Street Markets by Henry Mayhew,

A golden collection of gems from classic German literature, ranging from early Sturm und Drang, through Gothic horror, to some of the finest stories from later German Romanticism.

Ellis Parker Butler (1869-1937) was an American author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays. He is best known for his famous short story "Pigs Is Pigs", in which a bureaucratic stationmaster insists on levying the livestock rate for a shipment of two pet guinea pigs, which soon start proliferating exponentially.

A gripping collection of outstanding American classic short stories by some of America's greatest writers: 'A Ghost Story' by Mark Twain; 'Pomegranate Seed' by Edith Wharton; 'Pigeons from Hell' by Robert E. Howard; 'Pickman's Model' by H. P. Lovecraft; 'The Adventure of the German Student' by Nathaniel Hawthorne; 'Absolute Zero' by Morgan Robertson; and many more.