Résultats lu par "Cathy Dobson" dans Toutes les catégories

A sinister tale of grotesque vengeance. At carnival, the tipsy wine buff Fortunato is lured into a deadly snare by the man he considers to be his friend. The listener is at the same time horrified and yet fascinated. The audio equivalent of watching a train wreck.

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole (1884 - 1941) was a New Zealand-born English novelist, famous for his skill at scene setting and vivid plots. He was a best-selling author in the 1920s and 1930s and remains popular to this day. Lilac is a multilayered tale of a marriage proposal. Frederick Anstey, an art dealer, asks his beloved Lily Brocket to marry him. But she is in a hurry to get away, as her Aunt Clara has appeared from out of town, and she promises to write him a letter by ten that evening to give her reply.

William James Wintle (1861-1920) was already a recognised writer before he became an Oblate for the Abbey of Caldey Island in Wales. It was there that he wrote a series of horror stories for the entertainment of eight boys who attended the abbey. In the foreword of this collection, Wintle explains that the stories were originally told on Sunday nights while "crouching over a wood fire on a wind-swept island off the Western shore."

A young man accused of the appalling murder of his mother is acquitted on the grounds that his crime is almost harmless in comparison with his previous murder of his uncle, which was both barbaric and highly unusual. Written with Ambrose Bierce's uniquely witty and tongue-in-cheek style.

Katherine Mansfield's heartbreaking story of playground bullying. The Kelvey children are excluded from the schoolyard crowd because they come from a poor family with more than a hint of disreputableness about them. When the Burnell children are given a doll's house and invite their school friends two by two to see it, only the Kelveys are excluded. Until one day, Kezia Burnell decides to invite the Kelveys in to see it....

The Colonel's body is discovered in the blacksmith's yard, the skull smashed like a crushed eggshell. No man for 40 miles around could have struck such a blow, except the giant of a blacksmith... and the blackmith has a cast-iron alibi. Only the reticent catholic priest Father Brown can deduce the extraordinary truth behind this bizarre murder.

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. 'The Business of Madame Jahn' is a macabre ghost story of a suicide, a terrible murder and an awful revenge.

William Fryer Harvey (1885-1937) was an English writer of short stories, most notably in the mystery and horror genres. The Man Who Hated Aspidistras is an eerie tale of a man whose life, from boyhood onward, as been blighted by the sinister houseplants favoured by Victorian ladies. His dislike turns almost to a mania...and then things take on a very peculiar turn....

Thomas Hardy's sinister tale of jealousy, unrequited love and a mysterious and hideous curse. When Farmer Lodge brings his new wife home, nobody is more resentful and yet curious about her than his spurned former lover, Rhoda Brooke. But a terrifying and supernatural nightmare in which the two women fight, leaves strange and sinister marks on the young wife's arm. Over the weeks and months that follow, the arm begins to wither and wrinkle.

A comprehensive and varied collection of the best vampire stories from the Victorian era by the greatest Gothic writers of the time. Includes: 'The Horla' by Guy de Maupassant; 'Mrs. Amworth' by E. F. Benson; 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' by John Keats; 'Dracula's Guest' by Bram Stoker; 'The Bride of Corinth' by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; 'Will' by Vincent O'Sullivan; 'Ken's Mystery' by Julian Hawthorne.

Austin J. Small (1894-1929) was a popular British mystery and thriller writer who was published in the United Kingdom under the pseudonym 'Seamark'. The Man They Couldn't Arrest - written in 1925 - is a fast paced thriller about Valman Dain, an inventor who (amongst numerous other intriguing gadgets) develops a mechanism for eavesdropping on conversations using the telephone network.

When Ambercrombie Smith, a young medical student at Oxford, is summoned to the room of fellow student, Bellingham - a fanatical Egyptologist, who appears to have fainted owing to a severe shock - he uses his medical skills to revive him. But this is by no means the last odd incident involving Bellingham, who appears to be increasingly obsessed with researches around a strange and uncanny Mummy which he keeps in his room.

W. W. Jacobs (1863-1941) is well known for humorous stories and for the most grisly of horror stories. His Brother's Keeper belongs firmly in the latter category. It tells the story of a man whose murdered enemy lies secretly buried at the bottom of the garden. It is the perfect crime. Nobody need ever know who has murdered him and where he lies. Nobody need ever have known....

When Della finds she doesn't have enough money to buy a proper Christmas present for her beloved husband Jim, radical action is needed. She resolves to cut off and sell her precious hair to raise funds. Armed with the twenty dollars raised, she buys the perfect gift for Jim. But when Jim comes home with his present for her, Christmas takes an altogether unexpected turn....

The Reverend Father Gaucher's Elixir is set in a dilapidated monastery in Provence. The order has fallen on hard times and the future of the entire monastery is in jeopardy. But the order's simpleton cow-herd, Brother Gaucher, has an unexpected idea. His old Auntie Bégon had in her later years invented a marvellous herbal elixir. By producing, bottling, and selling this, Brother Gaucher believes the order can become as rich as the Trappists and the monks of Chartreuse.

Constance Peel OBE, (1868 - 1934) was an English journalist and writer, best known for her non-fiction books on cheap household management and cookery. During the first world war, Zeppelin raids on London made the night-times hideous. But then, on June 13th 1917, something unexpected happened. "The Daylight Raid" is a collection of first hand accounts of the first German attack on London from the air during broad daylight.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer of stories and novels and is frequently credited as being the father of science fiction. 'A Vision of Judgment' tells the story of a man who is awakened from his grave by a trumpet sounding for the last judgment. As the first souls are called before God, he realises that things are not quite as he had expected....

Hulbert Footner (1879 - 1944) was a popular Canadian writer of detective fiction. "The Murder at Fernhurst" features Footner's first great sleuth, Madame Rosika Storey. The famous female detective is called in to investigate what seems like an open-and-shut case. A rich industrialist has been found shot...and all the evidence points to the murder having been committed by his vastly wealthy young ward. By what could have been her motive?

Richard Austin Freeman (1862-1943) was a British writer of detective stories, many featuring the investigator Dr. Thorndyke, who uses a mixture of medical and forensic techniques to solve the most baffling crimes. In The Blue Sequin, a beautiful young woman as been found alone, dead in a railway carriage, with a peculiar combination of head injuries inflicted with great force by a sharp, round implement.

Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist, and short story writer, best known for his evocative and beautifully narrated ghost and horror stories. 'Mrs. Amworth' is arguably Benson's most famous story...and certainly one of the most terrifying. It tells the story of a mysterious outbreak of vampirism in the heart of a quiet English village.