Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

Adeline Virginia Woolf (January 1882-1941) was an English writer and one of the preeminent modernists of the 20th century. 'The Mark on the Wall' is a description of a chain of thoughts inspired by catching sight of a mysterious mark on the wall. It does not matter what the mark actually is.... What is important is the imaginative images and philosophical considerations which it stimulates in her brain.

Katherine Mansfield's heartbreaking story of playground bullying. The Kelvey children are excluded from the schoolyard crowd because they come from a poor family with more than a hint of disreputableness about them. When the Burnell children are given a doll's house and invite their school friends two by two to see it, only the Kelveys are excluded. Until one day, Kezia Burnell decides to invite the Kelveys in to see it....

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. Among her most popular and terrifying tales are the many masterly ghost stories which she wrote in her early career. "Afterward" is a dramatic story of the most mysterious ghost of all. When Ned and Mary Boyne move to a remote and unrenovated manor house in Dorsetshire, their list of desired features includes a resident ghost.

John Ruskin (1819-1900) was one of the most versatile and accomplished writers of his day, as well as being a prominent art critic, painter, philanthropist and social commentator. His writings included academic essays, travel guides, poetry, manuals, treatises, letters...and one enchanting fairy tale: The King of the Golden River. The story tells of three brothers, two of them greedy and dishonest, the third and youngest a kind hearted and trustworthy lad.

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was an English writer of 957 short stories and over 170 novels. He is widely recognized as one of the most prolific writers of his age. 'White Stockings' is a compelling and cleverly constructed story about a vengeful jilted lover with a gambling addiction, a racing tout, a gullible lover, a hairdresser and a wily old racehorse owner...most of whom are hell-bent on double-crossing each other.

The deceptively mild mannered detective, Mr. J.G. Reeder devises a cunning plan to set a thief to catch a murderer.

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was an English writer of 957 short stories and over 170 novels. He is widely recognized as one of the most prolific writers of his age.

'The Murder on Yarmouth Sands' is a true crime story. Towards the end of the Boer War, the body of a woman was discovered on Yarmouth Sands. She had been strangled by a mohair bootlace. There are only two clues to the crime...and the police set out to follow them up....

Following an apocalyptic storm at sea, a sailor finds himself one of only two survivors on board his badly damaged ship. As the vessel floats helplessly southward, he begins to write down a narrative of the strange events which ensue. Their ship collides with a ghostly ship from mythology...and our sailor tries to learn the secrets of its eerie crew. Realizing that he cannot be saved, he resolves to cast his narrative into the sea in a bottle at the point when his death is imminent.

A superb collection of classic ghost stories from the world's great storytellers. 1. "Lot No. 249" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 2. "The Phantom Rickshaw" by Rudyard Kipling. 3. "The Haunted Dolls’ House" by M. R James. 4. "Ligeia" by Edgar Allan Poe. 5. "The Monkey’s Paw" by W. W. Jacobs. 6. "The Finest Story in the World" by Rudyard Kipling. 7. "The Apparition of Mrs. Veal" by Daniel Defoe. 8. "Metzengerstein" by Edgar Allan Poe. 9. "They" by Rudyard Kipling. 10. "Labadoyere’s Doom" by Lord Halifax. 11. "Lost in a Pyramid" by Louisa May Alcott. And more...

Kipling’s classic tale taken from the Just So Stories. The camel who lives in the howling desert is reluctant to join the other animals in working for man. He gets his comeuppance when he is magically given a hump, so that he can work three days in a row without stopping to eat.

'The Goldfish' is a strange tale set in the murky underworld of the London docklands. Dor, a raffish petty criminal in London, has a treasured goldfish in a bowl, which his lover, Rosa, reluctantly takes care of, although she is secretly insanely jealous of the attention he lavishes on the fish. The goldfish was given to Dor by a Chinese man who conducted a strange ceremony over the two of them and declared that Dor cannot die while the goldfish still lives.

A beautiful collection of some of the finest Chinese fairy tales ever told. Incorporating magic, wicked witches, strange adventures and mysterious spirits. Enchanting! Stories include: "The Magic Pillow"; "The Stone Monkey"; "Stealing Peaches"; "The Painted Skin"; "The Wonderful Pear Tree"; "The Country of Gentlemen"; "Learning Magic"; "Theft of a Duck"; "Living for Ever"; "Football on a Lake"; "The Flower Fairies"; "The Talking Bird"; "The Peach Blossom Fountain"; "The Lute Girl’s Lament".

Leitch Ritchie (1800–1865) was a Scottish novelist and journalist, who is best known for "The Man-Wolf" - one of the first British werewolf stories. At the ceremony of the ducking of the fishermen, a knight is accidently pitched into the river by his servant Hugues. This humiliation, which occurs in the presence of the beautiful damsel Beatrix, causes the knight to go on a drinking spree that night, as a result of which he sets off home very late indeed. Travelling through the forest at night, he has a series of adventures which end in him being turned into a werewolf.

A terrifying collection of classic werewolf stories, ranging from ancient legends to Victorian and Edwardian adaptations on the theme. •Gabriel-Ernest by Saki •The Wolf by Guy de Maupassant •The Werewolf by Eugene Field •The Other Side by Count Eric Stanislaus Stenbock •The Werewolves by Henry Beaugrand •Jean Grenier the French Werewolf by Sabine Baring-Gould •The Man-Wolf by Leitch Ritchie •The She-Wolf by Saki •The Mark of the Beast by Rudyard Kipling

A gripping collection of over 50 of the greatest short stories written by great British writers. 1."The Missing Years" by Barry Pain, 2. "His Brother's Keeper" by W. W. Jacobs, 3. "A Madman's Manuscript" by Charles Dickens, 4. "The House of Cobwebs" by Barry Pain, 5. "Old Fags" by Stacy Aumonier, 6. "A Long-Ago Affair" by John Galsworthy, 7. "August Heat" by W. F. Harvey, 8. "The Dabblers" by W. F. Harvey, 9. "Rose Rose" by Barry Pain

Invited to a ball at the Ministry of Public Instruction where her husband works, Mathilde is in despair about how to look the part. She manages to persuade her husband to give her 400 francs for a new dress. But she also would like some jewellery to complete the outfit. Although their budget cannot stretch to this, Mathilde is able to borrow a diamond necklace from an old schoolfriend who is wealthy. But while she dazzles everyone at the ball, disaster is waiting in the wings...

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874 - 1922) was a polar explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. 'The Voyage of the James Caird' is the story of Shackleton's 1916 failed attempt at a crossing of Antarctica from sea to sea via the pole. The expedition turned to disaster when Shackleton's ship, Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and was slowly crushed. The crew escaped by camping on the sea ice until it disintegrated, then by launching the lifeboats to reach Elephant Island.

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.

First written in 1904, this is one of Edith Nesbit's best-loved children's stories. It it the second story about a group of five children - Robert, Anthea, Cyril, Jane, and their baby brother, the Lamb - who live in London. One day their mother buys a new carpet for the nursery which mysteriously contains a stone egg. When the egg falls into the fire by accident, nobody can possibly imagine what adventures will be unleashed.

William Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. Mad Monkton is a bizarre ghost story. It is said that a strain of hereditary madness blights the Monkton family, heirs to the huge domain of Wincot Abbey. Rumours in the neighbourhood are that Alfred, the youngest scion, has inherited this insanity. His odd behaviour certainly points that way. Alfred is engaged to his childhood sweetheart, Ada Elmslie.