Classic Noir Fiction

Film noir is a genre that reached its peak in the 1940s and 1950s. Characterized by dark lighting and inspired by crime fiction, it often features characters such as a tough-guy hero, mysterious beauties who may or may not be on the level, and prominent people with crimes to hide.The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) is a beloved film in this exciting genre, and in this audio adaptation you will experience the same thrill, as the characters come alive in your mind as you hear their voices from the original motion picture.

Did a spoiled rich girl die in a plane crash, or is she hiding with her homicidal lover in the Florida Keys? Whose body is that in the wreckage? Who put it there?

La Perle Noire de Victorien Sardou est une œuvre captivante qui mêle mystère, romance et drame dans un décor somptueux de l'Europe du XIXe siècle. Ce récit enchanteur tourne autour d'une perle noire mystérieuse, un symbole de richesse et de secrets cachés, qui devient le pivot d'intrigues complexes et de relations tumultueuses. À travers des personnages profondément humains et des rebondissements inattendus, Sardou explore des thèmes intemporels tels que la cupidité, l’amour et la quête de vérité.

1952, Los Angeles. It is New Year’s Eve, and PI Aloysius Archer is dining with his friend and rising Hollywood actress Liberty Callahan when they’re approached by Eleanor Lamb, a screenwriter who would like to hire him, as she suspects someone is trying to kill her. A visit to Lamb’s Malibu residence leaves Archer knocked unconscious after he stumbles over a dead body in the hallway and Lamb seems to have vanished. With the police now involved in the case, a close friend and colleague of Lamb’s employs Archer to find out what’s happened to the screenwriter.

Questo thriller ci porta in una storia di spionaggio ambientata sulla costa del Norfolk, e alla vigilia della grande guerra. Il libro fu infatti scritto nel 1914. Come negli altri romanzi dell'autore, il noir è sempre accompagnato da tocchi di rosa, e non è mai truce o angosciante.

Questo autore di thriller racconta di un'investigatrice che, non contenta di rispondere alla piccola posta di una rivista femminile, entra in contatto con la malavita londinese, forse spinta da motivi sentimentali. Ma non aspettatevi un romanzetto giallorosa, anche se potreste essere ingannati dal tono brillante: il noir è in agguato dietro ad ogni strada, come può capitare a Londra.

Le Chat noir relate l'implacable chute d'un homme. C'est l'une des nouvelles qui ont assuré la célébrité d'Edgar Poe, et ont décidé Charles Baudelaire...

A comic vignette in which a carnival barker's valuable watch gets stolen during an illegal poker game. The local sheriff seems in no hurry to apprehend the thief, until a reward is offered.

A Manhattan gumshoe pursues a convict to St. Louis, where he gets mixed up in a cop killing and nearly loses his own life at the hands of a B girl.

"Relativement à la très-étrange et pourtant très-familière histoire que je vais coucher par écrit, je n'attends ni ne sollicite la créance. Vraiment, je serais fou de m'y attendre dans un cas où mes sens eux-mêmes rejettent leur propre témoignage. Cependant, je ne suis pas fou, - et très certainement je ne rêve pas. Mais demain je meurs, et aujourd'hui je voudrais décharger mon âme."

The dark strains of madness that permeate many of the works of Edgar Allan Poe make their way through this macabre story. This memorable short story bears a resemblance to Poe's Tell Tale Heart. In both stories guilt leaves a murderer with a singular choice.

"Mi hanno chiamato pazzo; ma nessuno ancora ha potuto stabilire se la pazzia sia o non sia la più elevata forma d'intelligenza, se la maggior parte di ciò che è glorioso, se tutto ciò che è profondo non derivi da una malattia del pensiero, da umori esaltati della mente a spese dell'intelletto generale." Così parla di se stesso nel 1841: Edgar Allan Poe è considerato il primo scrittore alienato d'America, avendo dovuto lottare per buona parte della vita con problemi finanziari e personali, con l'abuso di alcolici e in seguito sostanze stupefacenti.

"Nulle part ailleurs André n'avait vu des roses, des lis, des camélias aussi merveilleux, ni des tulipes aussi diverses de couleurs, depuis les blanches comme du lait jusqu'aux noires comme du charbon ; jamais il n'eût imaginé une telle opulence florale. Le printemps commençait à peine, et les vrais trésors du jardin étaient encore abrités dans les serres chaudes ; mais les plantes qu'on voyait fleurir le long des allées et dans les plates-bandes suffisaient pour transporter le promeneur dans un royaume de couleurs tendres, surtout aux heures matinales où chaque pétale étincelle de rosée."

"Le chat noir", "Le masque de la mort rouge" et "Le portrait ovale" : trois nouvelles, qui tiennent l'auditeur en haleine et posent de façon magistrale l'univers noir de ce maître du suspens que fut Edgar Allan Poe. Avant de mourir, un meurtrier rédige sa confession : un chat noir l'a amené à l'échafaud ; une forme spectrale sème la terreur dans une salle de bal ; dans une veille demeure, un homme est emporté par la contemplation d'un portrait énigmatique.

Ce sont deux nouvelles de Anton Tchekhov, extraites du recueil Le Moine noir. Ce livre audio est composé du Moine noir, et de L'orateur.

Charles Allston Collins (1828-1873) was the younger brother of the novelist Wilkie Collins, and was married to Charles Dickens's daughter Kate. He is well known both as a painter and a novelist. In The Tête Noire, he describes a racy tale of a commercial traveler and his dog who stayed at a most disreputable French coaching inn, whose landlord would appear to be a cunning criminal, and his young daughter just as wicked.