Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

'Mr. Tallent's Ghost' is an amusing tale about an eccentric writer who likes to read his appalling and tedious novels aloud to his relatives...or indeed anyone who will listen. He persuades a lawyer to draw up a will devoting his entire fortune to funding the publication of his writing. Shortly after this, news of Mr. Tallent's death arrives. The disinherited relations dispute the will vigorously, and soon after this, the ghost of Mr. Tallent begins to haunt the relatives and the executor.

Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1856 - 1925), known as H. Rider Haggard, was an English writer of adventure stories, often set in exotic locations, especially Africa, and a pioneer of the Lost World literary genre. Only a Dream is a ghost story about the strange experience of a widower about to remarry, who is visited on the eve of his wedding by the ghastly apparition of his dead first wife.

Lady Bessie Kyffin-Taylor was an English writer famous for her outstanding supernatural stories, which were published in a single volume in 1920, just two years before her death. The Twins is one of Kyffin-Taylor's most famous novelettes. It tells the bizarre tale of identical twin brothers. One brother is hell-bent on evil and constantly contrives to ensure his twin is blamed for his ill-doing.

Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton (1857-1946) was a prominent and prolific American author of novels, short stories, essays, and articles for magazines and newspapers on such issues as feminism, politics and war.

Elia Wilkinson Peattie (1862-1935) was a prolific American author, journalist and critic. Although she left school at 14, she was enormously talented, and by her 20s she was well established as a writer of short stories. 'A Child of the Rain' is an eerie, poignant, supernatural tale about a strange, destitute child who appears spectrally on a late-night streetcar.

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer. O. Henry's short stories are loved for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise endings. The Ransom of Red Chief is a tale of a kidnapping. A couple of desperados abduct the 10-year-old son of the richest man in a village in the Deep South. But the pair soon discover that they have taken on far more than they had bargained for.

Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) was a preeminent Ukrainian-born story writer. He is particularly famous for those stories which veer in the direction of surrealism and the grotesque. The Cloak is one such tale. Akaky Akakiyevich is a reclusive and widely ridiculed lower official whose job is to copy letters. He lives a hand-to-mouth existence with his elderly landlady and has little money. But the harsh weather in St. Petersburg necessitates the purchase of a new cloak.

Edward Frederic Benson (1867 - 1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer, best known as the true master of the gothic occult story. Gavon's Eve is a terrifying story of mysterious occult devil worship and witchcraft which pervades a remote rural district in Great Britain.

William Le Queux (1864 - 1927) was an Anglo-French journalist and writer, diplomat, traveller, flying buff and wireless pioneer who broadcast music from his own station long before radio was generally available. He was phenomenally successful as a novelist and short story writer, and many of his tales are based on his own exploits, albeit vastly exaggerated.

At the deathbed of Ursula, the eldest of three sisters, the dying women declares that she will return from the dead when the time comes to accompany each of her younger siblings into the afterlife. The two survivors and their old housekeeper, now live on in fear of encountering Ursula's ghost, and strange happenings in the house bring this terror to an unholy climax.

Tolstoy's literal interpretation of the teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance are represented in his short story "A Candle", which tells the story of a group of peasants suffering under a tyrannical overseer.

Six of Wilkie Collins' best short stories: "The Dead Hand", "The Devil's Spectacles", "Major Namby", "Nine O'Clock", "A Terribly Strange Bed", and "My Black Mirror".

John Galsworthy (1867 – 1933) was an English playwright and novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932. Spindleberries is a haunting short story, describing the increasingly eccentric Alicia, a nature-loving artist, via four memories which are conjured up in her cousin's brain as he contemplates four spindleberries which she has dropped on the path.

Sidney Keyes' great allegorical tale of a race between a newfangled steamroller with a top speed of five miles per hour and a horse-drawn hearse, whose two old nags are accustomed to a stately pace appropriate to the transportation of the dead. The race takes on a wider significance as an allegory of progress and the advent of the age of the machine versus the old thoughtful way of life.

An impoverished French family awaits the prodigal return of their long vanished Uncle Jules from his travels in America. From his letters it would appear that he has made his fortune and when he returns the family hopes their fortunes will change too. A boat trip to Jersey provides the opporunity for a reunion...but nobody could anticipate the twist in events.

When Arthur Holliday arrives at Doncaster during race week, he is unable to find a hotel room free. His search for a bed for the night leads him to a dubious hostelry, The Two Robins, where he is offered a bed in a shared room at a handsome price of five shillings. The landlord assures Arthur that his room-mate is sleeping soundly and will in no way disturb him. A quick examination of the sleeping man confirms that he is indeed very quiet. Too quiet!

When Alfred Parrish meets the charismatic Major in Berlin, he finds himself whisked off on an adventure in St. Petersburg. Unfortunately for him, the Major arranged for his passport to remain with the Russian Embassy in Berlin and be sent on by post. Even more unfortunately, the penalty for travelling in Russia without a passport has recently been increased to ten years hard labour in Siberia. The story is a delightful romp through scrape after scrape as Alfred and the Major dodge arrest and charm the most entrenched of bureacrats.

Robert Browning's classic adventure ballad. Three riders set off from Ghent to bring urgent news to Aix. They ride furiously through the night and the next day. Only one completes the journey and saves the fate of the town.

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.

Maurice Baring (1874-1945) was an English short story writer, children's writer, novelist, travel writer and war correspondent during the First World War. This is a collection of six of the magical fairy stories he wrote for children.