Mostrando resultados por narrador "Cathy Dobson" en Todas las categorías

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.

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.

The Blind Man, the Deaf Man and the Donkey is a strange but compelling tale of two codependent friends who nonetheless mistrust each other. They find a donkey and a large container...and then when sheltering from a storm in what they mistake for a temple, they find a Rakshas' (terrifying monster with elephant tusks) treasure. While attempting to trick the Rakshas and steal the treasure, the two are still also intent on swindling each other...then karma deals a strange twist to the tale.

The Stonecutter is a fairy tale Lang collected in Japan. A stonecutter sees how rich people live when he is delivering a gravestone one day. From that day on he is dissatisfied with his own lot and wishes to be rich. His wish is granted by the spirit that lives in the mountain...but the stonecutter is still not satisfied with his life and makes further wishes, each taking him a little further on his quest for happiness.

Maurice Baring (1874-1945) was an English short story writer, children's writer, novelist, travel writer and war correspondent during the First World War. The Blue Rose is a fairy tale about a Chinese princess who is as clever as she is beautiful. When her father sets out to find her a husband, she determines to make her own choice. The Emperor declares that whoever can find and bring his daughter a blue rose shall wed her. But the wise princess is able to debunk all the blue roses proffered and at the same time works out a way to favour her own lover.

Maurice Baring (1874-1945) was an English short story writer, novelist, and travel writer and war correspondent during the First World War. The Shadow of a Midnight is a ghost story with a twist. Two students on a walking tour in Germany stay in an interesting old inn which had formerly been a convent. One of them has a strange dream, which turns out perhaps not to have been a dream after all....

Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction and a close associate of D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. The Little Girl and Other Stories was first published in 1921 and includes 'The Tiredness of Rosabel', 'How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped', 'The Journey to Bruges', 'A Truthful Adventure', 'New Dresses', 'The Woman at the Store', 'Ole Underwood', 'The Little Girl', 'Millie', 'Pension', 'Séguin', 'Violet', 'Bains Turcs', 'Something Childish but Very Natural', 'An Indiscreet Journey', 'Spring Pictures', 'Late at Night' and more.

Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction and a close associate of D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. 'Something Childish but Very Natural' is a story about a young couple who meet by chance on a train and fall head over heels in hot-headed teenage love.

Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction and a close associate of D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. 'Late at Night' is a wistful and bitter monologue by a young woman who has received a disturbing letter from a young man she fancies.

Another collection of great classic novellas by superb storytellers, including Robert E. Howard, E. T. A. Hoffman, Edith Wharton, Bessie Kyffin-Taylor, F. Marion Crawford and more....

Bobby is an accomplished and charming pianist who has befriended a number of rich elderly widows and spinsters, each of which he refers to as 'aunt'. He already has his own Bechstein grand piano, plus another concert grand which was (touchingly but highly inconveniently) left to him by a late 'aunt'. Now various of his other 'aunts' are also keen to offload their grand pianos on him....

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. 'A Newspaper Story' is an ingenious tale about a lost newspaper blowing through the streets of New York. Each passer-by who comes into contact with any part of it is personally impacted by one of the stories in the paper - but not in the way one would expect.

Bats in the Belfry is a humorous short story in the tradition of the Victorian bedroom farce. Percy Biffin, an awkward house-guest at the summer residence of Sir Borwick Trout, is unexpectedly called on in the middle of the night to remove a bat from the beautiful young Julia Trout's bedroom. His presence in the young lady's bedroom is misinterpreted by every person who learns of it...and the more Biffin tries to extricate himself, the worse the situation becomes.

Arthur George Morrison (1863-1945) was an English writer and journalist known for his realistic novels and stories about working-class life in London's East End. The House of Haddock is the humorous story of an old rogue whose formerly genteel family has fallen on hard times. A former ancestor of his once gave a set of almshouses to the village, and our anti-hero sets out to ensure that one of these is allocated to him.

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 Apple' is a strange tale about a young student who, in a third-class railway carriage, is unexpectedly offered the genuine fruit of the Tree of Knowledge from the Garden of Eden by a stranger with piercing grey eyes. The strange tale of how the stranger came to have the fruit is almost as unusual as the story of what the student then did with it.

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels, and is credited with being the father of science fiction. 'A Deal in Ostriches' is an amusing tale about a situation on a ship returning from the Indies with several passengers and five ostriches on board. One of the ostriches swallows a valuable diamond - but nobody knows which bird it was.

Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930) was, amongst other things, an eccentric archaologist, historian, architect, antiquarian collector and author of Gothic horror stories very much after the fashion of M. R. James. 'The Dolls' Castle' is the creepy story of a haunted house with a sinister past which uses old, rotting dolls to lure unwary children away from their parents.

Stephen Crane (1871-1900) was a prolific American poet, novelist, and short story writer. He is recognized by modern critics as one of the most innovative writers of his generation. 'The Black Dog' is a supernatural tale of a group of travellers who seek shelter in a remote cabin where an old man lies dying. They hear from the man's nephew of a local tale that when death arrives, it is preceded by the appearance of a ghostly black dog which howls outside the house.