Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

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.

Major Milton is in the thick of defending a key line in the trenches of Flanders, playing the key role of commanding the various positions from his field telephone system. But his attention is distracted by another, greater battle which is being fought on the home front...

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels and is frequently credited as being the father of science fiction. 'The Star' is the story of a shooting star which is discovered hurtling towards our solar system. It is on a collision course with Neptune. When the celestial crash occurs, the two planets combine into a gigantic burning star which is being drawn rapidly and irresistibly towards our sun. But on what trajectory? Will it hit any other planets on its way?

Stacy Aumonier was described by John Galsworthy as "one of the best short-story writers of all time". Odd Fish gives a keen insight into why the Nobel Prize winner believed Aumonier would outlive the writers of his day. In this collection of sketches of London Characters, Aumonier amply exhibits his genius for characterisation, his keen wit and his ruthless ascerbity.

"The Storm" is Kate Chopin's most sexually charged story, and as such is quite exceptional for a work which was written in 1898. It describes a chance sexual encounter between Calixta and her former flame Alcée during a heavy storm in Louisiana when her husband Bobinôt and her son Bibi are absent. Chopin's description of the events of that day is refreshingly modern and free of the stifling morals of the day.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer, now best remembered for his science fiction novels and often credited as being the father of science fiction. 'The Plattner Story' is the strange tale of Gottfried Plattner, a modern languages teacher at a private school in England who, while conducting a chemistry experiment, accidently causes an explosion. The results of the explosion are mysterious. First, Plattner disappears completely.

Running away from a failed love affair, the lead character of the story, a very shy, bashful man, finds himself snowed up in a remote coaching inn called The Holly Tree. He spends much of the next seven days recalling strange tales of inns around Great Britain, Europe and America and remembering those which he has himself visited. After several days he overcomes his shyness sufficiently to ask the boot-boy for a drink and a chat.

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.

Allan Quatermain, or Hunter Quatermain as his friends call him, recounts his South African adventure of hunting four lions.

Morley Roberts (1857-1942) was an English novelist and short story writer. In The Young Man Who Stroked Cats, Thomas Meredith finds himself the recipient of a very mysterious and unexpected gift. A Persian kitten in a basket. More mysterious still, the note accompanying it only reads: For the young man who strokes cats. Thomas is indeed a cat-lover, and is both delighted and intrigued by his new present. But before long things take another strange turn.

William Chambers Morrow (1854-1923) was an American author famed for his short stories of horror and suspense. 'An Uncommon View of It' is the story of a man who has discovered that his wife is having an affair with his best friend. He decides that one thing is clear...he must have his revenge. He will kill them both and then commit suicide. But what will he do exactly? Will he use a revolver or poison? As he sits down to plan his revenge in detail, he develops a plan of action which is really quite extraordinary!

James Hume Nisbet (1849 - 1923) was born in Scotland but travelled extensively in Australia before returning to his native country. He became a writer in middle-age and wrote prolifically, mainly mystery and adventure fiction. The Vampire Maid is a classic vampire story about a traveller who takes lodgings with an apparently kind landlady and her pale invalid daughter, who instantly casts a spell upon him.

Alexander Pushkin's greatest short story. Hermann, a young German officer serving in the Engineers regiment, is obsessed by gambling, although he never indulges in it himself. One night he hears a tale about how a wealthy 87-year-old Countess in St. Petersburg once learned the secret of how to win on three cards from the Duc d'Orleans. He becomes obsessed with learning the secret himself. In pursuit of this aim, he becomes enamoured of the Countess' companion, the beautiful Lizaveta.

Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936), who wrote as M. R. James, was an English author, medieval scholar, and provost of King's College, Cambridge, and of Eton College. He is best known for his outstanding ghost stories. James reinvented the ghost story for the modern audience by moving away from Gothic elements and using realistic contemporary settings. His protagonists and plots often reflected his own antiquarian interests.

Baring-Gould's strangest and most enduring works are those which are based on fantastical medieval myths and folklore. 'A Dead Finger' is a strange vampire story about a parasitic dead human finger which feeds off living humans in an attempt to draw the life force out of them and thus regrow its body.

When Paul Forsyth and his archeologist friend Professor Niles are exploring the Cheops pyramid in Egypt, they become separated from their guide and lose their way in the labyrinthine tunnel network. Finding themselves close to a female mummy, they decide to create a fire using the wooden case in the hope of attracting the attention of the Egyptian guides. Professor Niles is keen to unwrap the mummy and see what items may have been hidden in the bandages. They do indeed find treasures...one of which is a golden box containing some mysterious seeds...and another is a scrap of parchment casting a curse on anyone who disturbs the rest of the mummy....

An atmospheric tale in which a lady receives a box of six hand-made Egyptian cigarettes in a mysterious package. When she smokes the first one, she is immediately transported into a strange and disturbing vision of herself, abandoned alone in the desert, in which she feels the acute sensations of love, loss, grief and suicidal despair. An eight minute emotional rollercoaster.

When Joseph Gibson, an oil and colourman from London, faces bankruptcy, he seizes the opportunity to take the bargain lease on Stape Hill near Poole in Dorsetshire. The deal turns out to be less a bargain than a swindle. The farm is worth nowhere near the price paid for it. The grasping owner, a retired lawyer, Arthur Blagden, had charged him more than twice the property's worth. Gibson and his delicate daughter face ruin next Michaelmas day when the next annual rent payment is due.

"A Witch in the Peak" tells the story of a moneylender trying to recover a debt from an old woman who has been recently widowed. She throws him out of her house with a curse...and what happens next terrifies the man almost to death.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English novelist and poet whose work is best known for combining the traditions of Romanticism with a realistic portayal of a declining rural society in Victorian England. "The Fiddler of the Reels" tells the story of a love triangle. The enigmatic, brilliant and rakish violin player, Wat Ollamore, who arrives in the small South Wessex village of Mellstock, exercises a diabolical fascination with the young, impressionable Car'line Aspent.