Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was a prolific English writer best known for his outstanding science fiction stories and novels. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. 'The Crystal Egg' is a science fiction short story about an antiquarian dealer, Mr. Cave, who discovers that a crystal egg in his shop has strange properties. In certain light conditions it functions as a window on the planet Mars and he is able to observe the Martians and their bizarre cities and machines.

Vincent O'Sullivan (1868-1940), born in New York to an Irish American family, moved as a child to London. As a young man, he soon became well recognised as the master of decadent and macabre fiction. 'Will' is the macabre tale of a man who is in the process of poisoning his wife using the most deadly, untraceable and secret poison ever discovered. His wife has realized what he is doing but is powerless to prevent her own death...but she vows to exact a ghastly and morbid revenge from beyond the grave.

Richard Austin Freeman (1862-1943) was a British writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr. Thorndyke. Freeman used some of his early experiences as a colonial surgeon in West Africa in his novels. The Case of the White Footprints is a murder mystery set in Margate. A lady has been found dead in her room in a boarding house.

Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer, best known for his spine-tingling and beautifully written ghost stories. The Room in the Tower is the most famous of these. It describes a horrific recurrent dream of nameless dread, occurring over a period of 15 years, in which the dreamer arrives at a peculiar house inhabited by a sinister silent family, where he takes tea on the lawn and is then shown to the room in the tower where something dreadful, malicious, and evil lurks...

In this story, when a position is granted to a member of the household of the King's beloved, which M. de Perrot had coveted for his own son, a round of intrigue begins. M. de Perrot enlists the narrator, M. de Rosny, to arrange for the king to stop at his house in Poissy for a glass of wine the next day after hunting. This turns out to be a ruse, to engineer an apparently chance encounter between the monarch and de Perrot's very beautiful and charming niece. But M. de Perrot's son overhears the plot and has other ideas....

D.H. Lawrence's famous short story, set against the background of the First World War, and examining the quintessence of Englishness, relationships and paternity in an idyllic rural setting. Egbert and Winifred are deeply in love when they first marry and settle in the picturesque thatched cottage which Winifred's father has given her on his estate. But as their relationships develops and alters, and as they have children and become increasingly dependent financially on Winifred's father, the cracks in their relationship become ever deeper.

When Gustavus Pulvertoft finds himself saddled with a horse with the power of human speech, he little imagines how quickly he will come a cropper. His courtship of the horse-loving Diana Chetwynd goes swimmingly so long as his talking horse is on good terms with Miss Chetwynd's grey mare... but when their trusty mounts fall out, a series of terrible events ensues which Pulvertoft is powerless to prevent. His determination to get revenge on the horse leads to his ultimate downfall.

'The Signal' is the story of two peasants who work as track walkers on the railway, Semyon Ivanov and Vasily Stepanych. Semyon is grateful for his job and the hut and the vegetable patch which goes with it, but Vasily is discontented with his lot and constantly complains, including to his employers. This grumbling irritates the railway officials and eventually the situation escalates, driving Vasily to take terrible revenge on the state railway.

'Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea' is the tale of two enemies abandoned on a deserted island. Pierre Rochelle, a convict escaped from a French penal colony, has been living alone on a remote Pacific island for the past three years, with no means of escape. Then one day he finds a man asleep on the beach on the far side of the island. The new arrival has just been marooned by his mutineering shipmates. Even as he still sleeps, Rochelle recognizes him as Gaston Charette - his own mortal enemy, the man whose false testimony had sent him to the penal colony in the first place.

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.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was an English writer best known for his fictional priest-detective, Father Brown. In The Paradise of Thieves Father Brown is travelling in Italy when he comes across a strange situation. An English family on vacation is in the guidance of a local courier, and the daughter is also flirting with an Italian poet and musician who appears to be something of a lothario. But Father Brown senses that something is not right.

Clemens Brentano (1778-1842) was one of the giants of German Literary Romanticism. The Story of Brave Kasper and Fair Annie (published in 1817) is a novella outlining the sad tale of two star-crossed lovers, whose fates are determined by their determination to retain their own honour against all odds. Their story is mainly recounted by Kasper's 88-year-old grandmother, who is also Annie's guardian. As each episode of the tale unfolds, a new twist casts a different light on the previous episodes.

Stacy Aumonier's famous depiction of human nature in action. An eight-part series of snapshots, starting with a tramp who feels pangs of envy when he sees someone with a more settled and domesticated life. The focus of the story shifts to this individual, who we discover is jealous of someone else... who in turn is envious of another person and so on.

A moving story of a random act of kindness. Old Tom Pickford, an elderly clerk at Tweedie's warehouse, is moved by the sight of a young boy on a London omnibus who is about to embark on a new life at sea. His thoughts drift back to his own boyhood in the country, which he left behind long ago. A wonderful study in characterisation and nostalgia.

Great Horror Stories is a vintage collection of some of the finest ghost tales, horror stories, and supernatural legends ever written, by the best writers the genre has to offer.

There are certain stories which stand out from the crowd owing to the unique creativity of the plot and the skill with which the author unfolds his tale. This selection contains 50 of the most ingenious short stories ever written. Includes: 'The Lighthouse on Shivering Sand' by J. S. Fletcher; 'The Umbrella' by Arnold Bennett; 'The Lovely Lady' by D. H. Lawrence; 'The Lake' by W. F. Harvey; 'A Tiger’s Skin' by W. W. Jacobs; and 'The Strange Case of Mr. Todmorden' by F. Britten Austin.

A superb collection of stories that will enthral both young and old. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is one of the world's great storytellers, exhibiting astounding versatility in his narration, as he ranges between science fiction (in "When the World Screamed"), mystery and adventure (in "The Lost Special"), horror (in "The Leather Funnel"), action and heroism (in "The Croxley Master") and the ghostly occult (in "The Brown Hand"). This outstanding collection will keep listeners on the edge of their armchairs for 10 hours of breathless excitement and suspense.

A superb anthology of 40 great classic humorous stories.

Fifty short stories by women writers who broke the mould.

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. Miss Mary Pask is the story of a young man who calls in on the sister of his best friend's wife while he is travelling in Brittany, where she lives.