Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

W.W. Jacobs was an English writer, famous for his humorous short stories, particularly those relating the preposterous adventures and misadventures of sailors on leave. This collection, Short Cruises, contains some of W.W. Jacobs' most popular characters, including the night watchman at the docks in Wapping who relates the stories of his friends Ginger Dick, Sam Small, and Peter Russet.

Richard Barham Middleton (1882-1911) was an English poet and author who is remembered mostly for his supernatural short ghost stories, in particular 'The Ghost Ship', 'The Conjurer' and 'On the Brighton Road'. 'On the Brighton Road' is a strange tale of a homeless man who is trudging between London and Brighton when he meets a fragile-looking young boy, also homeless, who offers to walk with him for a while.

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 at the master of decadent and macabre fiction. "A Study in Murder" is the story of a man committing the perfect murder, told from the perspective of the warped murderer.

Percival Christopher Wren (1875 - 1941) was an English writer of adventure fiction mostly dealing with colonial soldiering in Africa. He is remembered best for Beau Geste, a much filmed book of 1924, involving the French Foreign Legion in North Africa. 'The Dust That Was Barren' is a strange tale of a peculiar incident in the French Foreign Legion. Commandant Le Sage comes across a legionnaire who has fallen behind his comrades and has laid himself down in the sand, saying he is dying....

A superb collection of classic short stories showcasing the variety, depth and imagination of great Victorian writers.

A splendid collection of seafarers' tales. "Choice Spirits", by W. W. Jacobs; "A Descent into the Maelström", by Edgar Allan Poe; "Pickled Herring", by W. W. Jacobs; "The Secret Sharer", by Joseph Conrad; "Mixed Relations", by W. W. Jacobs; "The Upper Berth", by F. Marion Crawford; "The Finest Story in the World", by Rudyard Kipling; and many more.

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.

When the prematurely middle-aged J.P. Huddle is recommended to take an “unrest-cure” by a friend, he little realizes that the other passenger in the railway compartment, the prank-loving Clovis, will take this as a personal challenge. The havoc which Clovis’s macabre and at times shocking practical joke causes is beyond anything that the sleepy hamlet of Tilfield has seen before. Hector Hugh Munro at his most macabre.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was the leading detective writer of the late nineteenth century. A physician by profession, he soon found writing to be more profitable that medical practice and rapidly gained fame with his tales of the master sleuth, Sherlock Holmes. In "The Red-Headed League", Holmes is faced with a bizarre puzzle.

At the deathbed of Ursula, the eldest of three sisters, the dying women declares that she will return from the dead when the time comes to accompany each of her younger siblings into the afterlife. The two survivors and their old housekeeper, now live on in fear of encountering Ursula's ghost, and strange happenings in the house bring this terror to an unholy climax.

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 stories. Caterpillars is the story of a strange visit to the mysterious Villa Cascana, where one bedroom is inexplicably always kept empty. The visitor feels uneasy immediately on arriving, although there is no obvious reason why he should. And then the nightmares begin.

Four gripping tales by the master of Adventure Stories, Joseph Conrad. "The Tale", "The Inn of the Two Witches", "The Secret Sharer", "The Idiots".

A beautiful collection of some of the finest Chinese fairy tales ever told. Incorporating magic, wicked witches, strange adventures and mysterious spirits. Enchanting! Stories include: "The Magic Pillow"; "The Stone Monkey"; "Stealing Peaches"; "The Painted Skin"; "The Wonderful Pear Tree"; "The Country of Gentlemen"; "Learning Magic"; "Theft of a Duck"; "Living for Ever"; "Football on a Lake"; "The Flower Fairies"; "The Talking Bird"; "The Peach Blossom Fountain"; "The Lute Girl’s Lament".

Stacy Aumonier was a British writer, best known for his outstanding short stories. Nobel Prize-winner John Galsworthy described Aumonier as "one of the best short story writers of all time" and predicted that he would "outlive all the writers of his day." Aumonier wrote over 85 short stories in his lifetime. He has been described as the "British Maupassant" owing to his captivating plots and his ability to create complex characters with just a few lines of carefully selected prose.

Joseph Smith Fletcher (1863 - 1935) was a British journalist and author. He wrote more than 230 books on a wide variety of subjects, both fiction and nonfiction. He was one of the leading writers of detective fiction in the Victorian 'Golden Age' of the short story. Brown Rat's Docks is a fast-paced detective story involving murder, double crossing and skullduggery, all set in the heart of the London docklands.

Ernest Bramah (1868-1942) was an English author of 21 novels and numerous short stories and features. His humorous works have been ranked with Jerome K Jerome, and W.W. Jacobs, his detective stories with Conan Doyle, his politico-science fiction with H.G. Wells and his supernatural stories with Algernon Blackwood. In his stories of detection, Bramah hit on the idea of a blind detective, Max Carrados, whose triumphs are all the more amazing because of his disability.

A wonderful selection of some of the most bizarre and unsettling stories ever written.

The Giraffe Problem tells the story of an evening at the Problem Club, a secret society of gentlemen in London who meet once a month in a private room above a restaurant, where one of the waiters is the admirable Leonard. Every month Leonard sets the members a problem or challenge. The one who is able to complete the feat successfully wins that month's share of the membership fees.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American poet, critic and writer of fiction and is particularly well known for his morbid and supernatural stories. 'Never Bet the Devil Your Head' is a tale which reveals Poe's sense of humour - a gruesome and fantastic humour. It is a witty take on the Faust theme - an antihero inadvertently enters into a terrible wager with the devil.

Ménie Muriel Dowie (1866-1945) was a travel writer, a novelist and an author of short stories. An intrepid traveller, many of her tales are set in the exotic locations she explored. 'A Cowl in Cracow' describes a young female traveler who is exploring the beautiful old city of Krakow in Poland. She wanders into a building which turns out to be a monastery, where she has a very emotionally charged interview with a tormented young monk.