Résultats lu par "Cathy Dobson" dans Toutes les catégories

A fascinating collection of tales from some of Great Britain's finest classic authors.

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....

Robert Browning's classic tale about a magical rat catcher. When Hamelin is overrun by rats, only the magical music of the Pied Piper can solve the problem. The town council tries to trick the piper out of his agreed reward, and he wreaks terrible revenge.

An enthralling collection of creepy and mysterious stories. From classic detective stories to spine-tingling horror and scary ghost stories, these tales will make your flesh crawl.... 1. 'A Ghost Story' by Mark Twain. 2. 'The Silver Mask' by Hugh Walpole. 3. 'The Cactus' by O. Henry. 4. 'Dead of Night' by W. F. Harvey. 5. 'The Terrible Old Man' by H. P. Lovecraft. 6. 'Rattle of Bones' by Robert E. Howard. 7. 'The Last Leaf' by O. Henry. 8. 'The Magnet' by Barry Pain. 9. 'Pickman’s Model' by H. P. Lovecraft.

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer. O. Henry's short stories are loved for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise endings. The Ransom of Red Chief is a tale of a kidnapping. A couple of desperados abduct the 10-year-old son of the richest man in a village in the Deep South. But the pair soon discover that they have taken on far more than they had bargained for.

Fifty terrifying short stories from the great classic horror writers: 1. 'Pigeons from Hell' by Robert E. Howard 2. 'Pickman’s Model' by H. P. Lovecraft 3. 'The Horror Horn' by E. F. Benson 4. 'The Fearsome Touch of Death' by Robert E. Howard 5. 'The Terrible Old Man' by H. P. Lovecraft 6. 'The Step' by E. F. Benson 7. 'Dagon' by H. P. Lovecraft 8. 'The Dream Snake' by Robert E. Howard 9. 'Caterpillars' by E. F. Benson 10. 'The Clock' by W. F. Harvey 11. 'In the Forest of Villefore' by Robert E. Howard

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (1812 - 1885) was a Norwegian writer, scholar and collector of traditional folk tales. The Lads who met the Trolls in the Hedale Wood is one such folk story. Two teenage lads are stranded in the Hedale Wood overnight. Before long they hear heavy footsteps and sniffing. Three enormous trolls are on the scent of human flesh...how can they manage to escape?

The Desert Islander is the story of a deserter from the French Foreign Legion who seeks help from an Englishman living in a remote part of southern China during the Chinese war. Two facts quickly become apparent about our legionnaire. First, that he has a narcissistic personality disorder which leaves him devoid of empathy and in desperate need to attention and adulation. Second that he is suffering from a gangrenous leg.

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. 'The Vengeance of La Maraye' is the terrible tale of a cruel feudal lord, the Sieur de Brieux, who behaves like a tyrant towards his serfs on the island of La Maraye. This is the story of how the islanders finally get their awful revenge.

In the world of the Victorian Club, it does not do for a gentleman to be seen to take an interest in any member of the working classes. How dreadfully inconvenient then, when the narrator's waiter, begins to display alarming tendencies towards having a personality, a home life, emotions and fears of his own. The last thing any respectable gentleman should do is permit himself to be drawn into this other dubious world...let alone entertain emotions such as interest or pity for the underclass.

Forst published in 1878, The Suicide Club is a collection of three gruesome adventure stories which combine into a single narrative, recounting the exploits of Floritzel, Prince of Bohemia and his trusty confidente Colonel Geraldine as they infiltrate a secret society of dubious individuals intent on losing their own lives.

When the villainous Mr. Hyde embarks on a series of heinous crimes in London, he proves elusive to the authorities. What is more puzzling is the peculiar last will and testament drawn up by the mild mannered and amiable scientist, Dr. Jekyll, leaving everything he owns to the disreputable Mr. Hyde in the case of his own death or disappearance. As Robert Louis Stevenson's tale unfolds from his masterly pen, the listener is drawn into the mystery and waits with bated breath for the denouement. Gripping!

Jules Gabriel Verne (1828-1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright who is sometimes credited as the original 'Father of Science Fiction'. Written in 1851, 'A Drama in the Air' is one of Verne's earliest and most seminal stories, telling the dramatic adventure of a balloonist suddenly confronted with an unexpected and unpredictable passenger who climbs into his balloon at the point of take-off. Many of the themes from this tale were expanded by Verne in his later and better known works about aerial journeys around the world or to the moon.

In The Adventure of the Speckled Band, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are faced with a most unusual case. Two years earlier a young woman died under mysterious and unexplained circumstances while alone in her locked bedroom. Her last words to her sister referred to a 'speckled band'. She had previously complained of hearing a strange whistling sound in the night. Now the sister is sleeping in the same room, and she too has heard the mysterious whistling. But what can it be? And what is the 'speckled band'?

A Vine on a House is a classic Gothic haunted house story. The old abandoned Harding house, which is now overgrown by an unusual vine, has a strange and sinister story behind it. Years before, the mother of the household disappeared suddenly. Two years later the family abandoned the house. More recent visitors have discovered the vine growing up the front of the house behaving very oddly. Finally the local authorities decide to dig up the vine....

The Man Who Could Work Miracles is a story about Fotheringay, a very unexceptional man who discovers he has an exceptional talent. He can work miracles. He discovers this ability by accident during an argument in a public house - and narrowly avoids setting light to the pub. Some of his other experiments also go awry, and Fotheringay decides to consult the local minister. The latter immediately recognises the potential of this gift and eggs Fotheringay on to greater miracles - with ever greater consequences.

'A Little Cloud' is a brilliant and evocative short story from Joyce's collection Dubliners comparing the lives of those who escaped Ireland and travelled around Europe compared to the quiet, dull existence of those who remain at home. Thomas Chandler meets an old friend, Ignatius Gallaher, for a drink. Gallaher has made a name for himself in London and has been as far as Paris and Berlin. Chandler's life by comparison is unfulfilled. His job is boring, his marriage loveless and his soul weary.

'Miss Avenal' is a creepy story in the classic Victorian vampire genre. An invalid, Miss Avenal, engages a trained nurse to look after her while she recuperates in a remote moorland house somewhere in the north of England. But as Miss Avenal recovers her strength, the young nurse feels her own health start to ebb away.

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. 'The Perfect Close' is the story of a 79-year-old man who realises one day that he is about to die. Seeing that he has only an hour or so left to live, he must decide how to spend his final moments. We accompany him on the last minutes of his life as he achieves his last couple of surprising but highly satisfying victories.

Max Carrados is called in to investigate a mysterious ghost which haunts an empty flat in Massingham Mansions in London. Every night gaslights are seen in the apartment, even though the gas has been disconnected. Also water runs in the bath every night, even though the water supply has been turned off. Carrados quickly realises that the detectives on the case are barking up the wrong tree....