Showing results by narrator "Walter Covell" in All Categories

The House of the Dead is a fascinating portrait of life in a Siberian prison camp - a life of great hardship and deprivation, yet filled with simple moments of humanity showing mankinds ability to adapt and survive in the most extreme of circumstances. Dostoevsky tells his story in a chronological order, from his character's arrival and his sense of alienation to his gradual adjustment to prison life.

In 1725, Jonathan Swift published Gulliver's Travels, a book universally acknowledged as one of the most fantastic adventure stories and best satires on the human condition ever written.

Called by Lord Byron, "The most exquisite of all romances in miniature," The Vicar of Wakefield is the story of a simple reverend who, losing his fortune, moves his family to a new part of the country and tries to live according to his beliefs. He and his family make an Arcadian picture of affectionate accord. That is, until the idyll is rudely disturbed by a notorious seducer. The book is a classic comedy of manners and a satire on the moralistic tales of the period.

The Adventure of the Final Problem was first published in the Strand Magazine in December 1893. It appears in book form as part of the collection, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle later ranked The Adventure of the Final Problem fourth on his personal list of the 12 best Holmes stories. This story introduces Holmes' greatest opponent, the criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty.

"The Phantom Lover" is one of Veron Lee's most famous works. It is a strange but very effective story, about a powerful bond that is so strong it reaches even across death. In many ways it reminds one of Henry James story "The Turn of the Screw". Is it a story of mental illness and weird imaginings - or of life beyond the grave? Either way, it is a look at the interrelatedness of the past and the present, the living and the dead.

"The Boy Who Drew Cats" is a Japanese folk tale collected by Lafcadio Hearn in Japanese Fairy Tales. This is his most anthologized story. It concerns a boy who drew cats everywhere. Everyone in the town thought this was a waste of time until a goblin invaded their temple. They boy, and his cat, then come to the rescue.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are in Boscombe Valley to investigate the death of Mr. Charles McCarthy. Inspector Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, whose meagre abilities are often upstaged by Holmes's brilliant deductions, has concluded that it is a murder, and that McCarthy's son James is the killer. The facts point to something much more complicated, however,and Holmes employs his keen powers of deduction to unravel a tangle of questions and put Lestrade to shame yet again.

When we hear the name Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, most people think of Sherlock Holmes, his most famous creation. However, detective stories were not Doyle's favorite. His lifelong passion was the supernatural and because of this he wrote a number of fascinationg supernatural stories. This section includes 7 of the best.

Wilkie Collins was the author of two of the greatest mysteries ever written, The Moonstone and The Woman in White. However, like Poe before him and Conan Doyle after, he shifted easily from rational domains to the "superrational". Like them, he often preferred to indulge his occult predilection, a lifelong interest. "The Dream Woman" is one his most anthologized stories of the supernatural.

Miss Mary Morstan has been receiving pearls and she knows not why or from whom. Now she receives something else: a letter that promises to reveal the mystery and to "right the wrongs" against her. "If you distrust me," continued the correspondent, "bring two friends." She brings Sherlock Holmes and Watson.

Hawthorne approached the Romantic notion of the ability of science to destroy art (or beauty) in the form of fictive "horror stories" of biological research out of control. This story is the best of that group. A devoted scientist marries a beautiful woman with a single physical flaw: a birthmark on her face. Aylmer becomes obsessed with the imperfection and his attempts to remove it via his scientific skills, thus rendering his bride perfect.

In the tradition of his very popular Candide, Zadig is what might be called a "philosophical tale." Zadig, a handsome young man with a fine education, is puzzled by the uncertainties of his destiny. He attains great success in government but is unsuccessful in love. Despite his wisdom and shrewdness, he meets with a number of misfortunes. The central question of the story is, "Why do bad things happen to good people?"

If you look at any listing of the 10 most important books of detective stories published in the United States, chances are you will find Uncle Abner, Master of Mysteries on most of them. It is generally recognized as one of the most important contributions to American detective fiction between Poe and Hammett. In fact, there are some critics who call it the single finest collection of American detective stories ever written. This story is from that famous collection.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was one of the major figures of 19th-century supernaturalism. He helped move supernaturalist fiction away from the gothic's emphasis on external sources of terror and toward a focus on the effects of terror, thus helping to create the psychological basis for supernaturalist and horror literature that continues today. "The Familiar" is one of his most terrifying tales.

On an ocean liner bound for Natal, adventurer Alan Quatermain is engaged as a guide. Supplied with arms, courage, and determination, he and his group set out through Africa's beautiful but often dangerous and inhospitable wilderness. Their trek culminates in the discovery of a lost sacred mine that could bring them all riches...or death!

"The Adventure of the Abbey Grange" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and is one of 13 stories in the collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes.

The Big Bow Mystery is a masterpiece of the form, as compelling a story today as when it was first published. The author has produced a seminal crime novel - the original "locked room" mystery. With a flair for storytelling and a literate style comparable to his contemporary, Charles Dickens, Israel Zangwill concocts a heady satire of Victorian England, setting his scene in London's picturesque Bow district.

Edgar Allan Poe, American poet and master of the horror tale, is also credited by many with inventing the American mystery story. "The Gold Bug" is one of his most famous stories. It was first published in the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper in June 1843, after Poe had won a competition held by the paper and received a prize of $100.

The story involves a huge diamond, the moonstone, originally stolen from an Indian shrine. The gem is given to an English girl on her 18th birthday but disappears that same night. What follows is a spellbinding mystery that to this day has the power to draw the listener into its world of danger, suspense, and surprise.

A Case of Identity is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the third story in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The story revolves around the case of Miss Mary Sutherland, a woman with a large income due to the interest from a fund set up for her. She is engaged to a quiet Londoner who has mysteriously disappeared. Sherlock Holmes's solves the case rather easily, much as it puzzles Watson.