Showing results by narrator "Roy Macready" in All Categories

Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches was published in 1910 and was the second of Saki's collections of short stories following Reginald (1904). It consists of 15 stories or “sketches” as the author calls them and contains two of his most famous tales: “Gabriel Ernest” and “The Reticence of Lady Anne”.

E.F. Benson (1867-1940) is probably best known today for his sparkling, comic Lucia novels. In his own day, it was his ghost stories that were his most popular works. "Mrs Amworth", with its theme of vampirism, exemplifies Benson's fine literary style and his ability to create the most frightening of supernatural and macabre tales.

Edward Lear is justly renowned as a writer of humorous verse. His Nonsense Songs were published in 1871 and include probably his best known and most loved poem, “The Owl and the Pussycat”. Laughable Lyrics (1877) contains other popular rhymes, including “The Dong with a Luminous Nose”, “The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo”, “The Pobble Who Has No Toes”, and more.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is of course famous for his creation of the great Sherlock Holmes. The stories of the master detective are justifiably well known but he also wrote many short stories which are not so well known but deserve to be. The four stories in this recording were first published singly in magazines, principally The Strand. They later appeared in the collection “The Great Keinplatz Experiment and Other Tales of Twilight and the Unseen” in 1919. They are: “The Brown Hand”, “Playing with Fire”, “How It Happened”, and “De Profundis”.

H. G. Wells, best known for his science fiction novels, wrote many short stories which had the same engaging qualities as his major works. Strange, disturbing, but full of wit and humour, here are nine of them: "The Moth", "In the Avu Observatory", "The Stolen Bacillus", "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid", and five more.

Oscar Wilde's classic comic ghost story was the first of his short stories to be published, in February 1887. It relates the experiences of Mr. Hiram B. Otis, an American minister, and his family when they move into Canterville Chase, an ancient pile haunted by the previous owner's dead ancestor, Sir Simon. Of course, Mr. Otis declares, "There is no such thing, sir, as a ghost", and all of Sir Simon's hauntings have no effect on the skeptical American family, with the exception of the daughter, Virginia, despite his most strenuous efforts.

E. Nesbit is best known for her children's books such as The Railway Children, the "Psammead" series, and the stories of the "Bastable" family. She was also a poet and wrote many works for adults including short stories in the genre of the supernatural and the macabre. The Haunted House is one of her most weird with its theme of vampirism.

Ambrose Bierce's collection of short stories of the supernatural and the macabre Can Such Things Be was first published in 1893. One of it's most frightening tales, "The Damned Thing", tells of the horrifying slaughter of a man by a supernatural and invisible "Thing"!

The delicious, biting wit of Saki's short stories satirizing Edwardian high society are some of the funniest and most delightful of exquisite literary miniatures. In this third volume, there are 21 glittering examples.

Here is a collection of 41 favorite classic children's poems by some of our best loved writers, including Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, Robert Browning, Rudyard Kipling, and others.

Robert Browning (1812-1889), playright and poet, is known and admired for his dramatic monologues in blank verse, of which he is a recognized master. He was not always popular in his own time but is now considered one of the foremost poets of Victorian England.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is renowned for his tales of the macabre and the supernatural. "William Wilson" is the disturbing story of a doppelganger and how he leads the eponymous narrator through a series of experiences that annoy, infuriate, and finally drive him to a violent reaction with a fatal conclusion.

Andrew Lang (1844-1912) is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. His Fairy Books, each named after a color, were 12 volumes of tales collected from many sources and published between 1889 and 1910. The eight stories in this collection are taken from the Blue, Red, and Green Fairy Books: "Rapunzel", "Toads and Diamonds", "Cinderella", "Little Red Riding Hood", "Rumpelstilzkin", "Three Bears", "Jack, Giant-Killer", and "Bronze Ring".

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is known principally for his creation of the renowned detective Sherlock Holmes, but he also wrote many other novels and short stories in many genres. His short story collection Tales of Terror and Mystery was published in 1922. This present volume features the six tales of terror, which are: "The Brazilian Cat", "The Case of Lady Sannox", "The Terror of Blue John Gap", "The Leather Funnel", "The Horror of the Heights", and "The New Catacomb".

Henry Seton Merriman was the pen name of Hugh Stowell Scott (1862-1903). He was a successful and popular Victorian novelist. His only book of short stories, Tomaso's Fortune, was published posthumously in 1904, the stories having appeared originally in various magazines. This recording contains a selection of seven stories from that volume. They are: “Tomaso's Fortune”, “Sister”, “For Juanita's Sake”, “In a Crooked Way”, “The Tale of a Scorpion”, “The Prodigal's Return”, and “Stranded”.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is celebrated for his tales of the macabre and the supernatural. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is one of his most famous. In it, the narrator tells how, without any motive, but merely because he is obsessed with his eye (“The eye of a vulture”), he murders an old man, and of the consequences when the murdered man's heart seeks revenge.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is celebrated for his tales of the macabre and the supernatural. “The Cask of Amontillado” is one of his terrifying tales of premature burial. In it, the narrator, Montresor, has suffered from “insults and injuries” from his “friend” Fortunato and plans to murder him while he is drunk at the carnival by luring him to a wine tasting in the cellars of his palazzo. He chains him to the wall in a niche that he seals up with mortar, thus entombing him alive.

In this example of the genre, the narrator tells of his adored wife, Ligeia, of her tragic death, and of his remarrying another beautiful woman, Rowena, who after a short and loveless marriage also dies but returns from the dead metamorphosed into his true love, Ligeia.

The Gentle Grafter contains 14 tales relating the questionable exploits of “Jeff Peters” (the gentle grafter) and his several “partners in graft”.

“The Gateway of the Monster” is a story featuring Thomas Carnacki, a detective who investigates cases of an occult or supernatural nature. It is one of five tales of Carnacki's ghost-hunting exploits that first appeared serially in The Idler magazine in 1910 and were published together with one more as the collection Carnacki the Ghost-Finder in 1913. After a good dinner, Mr. Carnacki relates his experiences of ghost finding to his limited circle of four friends whom he has summoned to his home in Chelsea.