Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

My Aunt Patience, who tilled a small farm in the state of Michigan, had a favorite cow. This creature was not a god cow, nor a profitable one, for instead of devoting a part of her leisure to secretion of milk and production of veal she concentrated all her faculties on the study of kicking. The demon cow of Michigan will attack any living being she comes across...and when Aunt Patience resolves to marry, every single man in the county goes to extreme lengths to become unavailable for the honour. Such was their fear of being married alive by my Aunt Patience.

Poe's eerie story of a strange doppelganger, with a classic twist at the end. William Wilson, from his early schooldays, is dogged and taunted by another boy of similar height and appearance, who bears the same name as himself. Although as young boys they manage to tolerate each other, over time, as Wilson moves through Eton and Oxford and out into the world, his alter ego frequently turns up to thwart him at critical moments in his life.

Possibly the scariest horror story of all time. Captured and condemned to death by the Inquisition at Toledo, the narrator finds that his captors have devised a dungeon for him which exposes him to the most dreadful and drawn out psychological terror before certain death finally catches him. Every time he manages to escape one of their petrifying devices, another even more gruesome mode of execution is deployed.

Six outstanding tales of suspense and adventure by the master storyteller. Markheim, The Bottle Imp, The Body Snatcher, The Suicide Club - Story of the Young Man with the Cream Tarts, The Suicide Club – The Story of the Physician and the Saratoga Trunk, The Suicide Club – The Adventure of the Hansom Cabs.

The Singing Lesson describes the turmoil of a young schoolmistress holding a singing lesson for years 4, 5 and 6 immediately after she has received a very disturbing letter from her fiancé. Her dismal mood dictates her teaching style and choice of music. But part way through the lesson, she is summoned away to the headmistress' office, where a telegram with unexpected news is waiting...

H. B. Marriott Watson (1863-1921) was a prolific author who wrote over 40 books, including 17 short story collections. His writing included adventures and historical romances, mystery, fantasy and supernatural fiction. For the first nine years of his life, Marriott Watson lived in Australia. Early in 1873, Marriott Watson moved to New Zealand, where his father was incumbent of St John's, Christchurch.

Elia Wilkinson Peattie (1862-1935) was an American author, journalist and critic. As a child she was an avid reader, and despite leaving school at 14, she quickly became recognized as a brilliant short story writer. 'Story of an Obstinate Corpse' is the eerie tale of a woman who never wanted her photograph taken in life...and after death continues to confound photographers.

The deceptively mild mannered detective, Mr. J.G. Reeder devises a cunning plan to set a thief to catch a murderer.

A quartet of short stories by the mastermind of practical jokes, Hector Hugh Munro, better known under his pseudonym “Saki”. This collection brings together four of his most ingenious tales, all of which involve one character playing a prank on the others. The results range from the comic to the macabre… but all are brilliantly narrated with Saki’s superb ironic wit. The Stampeding of Lady Bastable.

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and short story writer. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, 1928, and 1930. Among her most popular and terrifying tales are the many masterly ghost stories which she wrote in her early career. During a convivial evening during which all the guests recount their own personal ghost stories, nobody expects the dry old host, Andrew Culwin, to contribute any supernatural experience.

A collection of strange and often grisly tales by some of the world's greatest writers, ranging from mildly unsettling to hair-raising.

The Secret of the Barbican is the story of a small-town solicitor who on a chance visit to a local museum in a distant town discovers a set of rare siege coins. He instantly recognizes them as the set of coins which had been stolen from his own town corporation many years previously. He immediately sets out to investigate...and the thief's trail takes him to some quite extraordinary places....

The story opens with the narrator on his way home from the theatre one evening, when his attention is drawn to a crowd gathered around a road accident in the West End of London. A taxi has hit a pedestrian. Out of the crowd emerges Charles, an old friend, supporting a fainting women. They had been the passengers in the taxi, and Charles now charges the narrator with seeing the lady home.

'The Man Who Missed the Bus' is a creepy horror story about a lonely and eccentric man who finds himself unable to see other human faces. Worse still, gradually he also loses the ability to see his own reflection in the mirror. But this is only the beginning of the horror story. Far worse is to come....

No Ships Pass is a strange tale of a shipwrecked sailor who manages to swim to a remote tropical island. He discovers, to his surprise, that he is not the first sailor to alight there. There are already four castaways ashore...and mysteriously some of them have been there for a very long time. Up to 140 years, in fact. Before long he realises that there is something very peculiar and sinister about the island. He determines to try to escape, whatever the odds.

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 Catastrophe' is a poignant tale of a shopkeeper whose business is on the verge of bankruptcy when a dreadful catastrophe strikes the family, just in time to save him from total ruin.

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 Flowering of the Strange Orchid' is a creepy horror story about an orchid collector who buys an unknown species from the Andaman Islands. The botanist who collected it had died in a mangrove swamp in the process - allegedly from an attack of jungle leeches.

Charles Allston Collins (1828-1873) was the younger brother of the novelist Wilkie Collins, and was married to Charles Dickens's daughter Kate. He is well known both as a painter and a novelist. In The Tête Noire, he describes a racy tale of a commercial traveler and his dog who stayed at a most disreputable French coaching inn, whose landlord would appear to be a cunning criminal, and his young daughter just as wicked.

'Ken's Mystery' is a wonderful story blending Gaelic folklore with Gothic mystery. Kenningale - or Ken, as his friends call him - has been on an educational trip to Europe from which he has returned with a mysteriously aged and rotting banjo. While in Ireland, walking home late on Halloween, he had met a mysterious and beautiful woman in a graveyard who asked him to play his banjo for her. Later the same night, he met her again...or was it her? And again she asked him to play. But why was she so cold and pale?

Sherwood Anderson's wonderful story of a young boy, brought up on an unsuccessful chicken farm, whose impoverished parents try their luck at running a restaurant. The father, not a natural showman by nature, attempts one night to entertain the sole diner with tricks which use eggs. The result is disastrous.