Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Short Stories

In his lifetime, Valery Bryusov (1873-1924) was best known as a translator and a Symbolist poet. His prose works include the historical novels The Altar of Victory and The Fiery Angel and this collection of short stories, which was assembled by the translator Stephen Graham.

The parable "A Handful of Clay" by Henry Van Dyke tells us much about human potential. Read by award-winning audiobook narrator Mike Vendetti, this is a very good inspirational piece.

Ludovico is a despised second son, only child of a scorned second wife. He finds love with Viola, a peasant girl, and they have a son. Their happiness is threatened when Ludovico's older brother dies suddenly and he becomes the heir. His father, the proud and cruel prince of Mondolfo, will let nothing stand in the way of his legacy.

Guy de Maupassant, France's gift to the world of short stories, was a prolific writer of this genre. His complete collection numbers just under 200. Volume IX contains the following titles: Toine; Madame Husson's "Rosier"; The Adopted Son; Coward; Old Mongilet; Moonlight; The First Snowfall; Sundays of a Bourgeois; A Recollection; Our Letters; The Love of Long Ago; Friend Joseph; The Effeminates; and Old Amable.

A federal officer's best friend is mortally wounded but still alive and suffering terribly. He just euthanized an injured horse, but the rules are quite different and specific regarding humans. They are alone with no sign of help for the dying man. What to do?

Based in Oklahoma around 1889, a newly arrived couple learn about the local legends surrounding a "Snake God", Yig, who takes vengeance on anyone who kills a serpent by killing them or turning them into a half-snake monster. The husband has a snake phobia which isn't helped by the wife killing a nest of rattlesnakes.

As in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", Ambrose Bierce speculates on a person's final thoughts at the moment of death. An instant becomes a 30-minute short story. Bierce was an infantry officer in the Civil War and witnessed the deaths of many and no doubt contemplated his own; thus the fatalistic basis of much of his writing.

A friend of the narrator, a very brave but sometimes reckless lieutenant, is killed in action. The narrator becomes the possessor of a letter that he returns to the sender after the war is over. He finds the sender of the letter to be a very beautiful, sophisticated, but self-centered woman. So self-centered one wonders if she understands the meaning of the narrator's last words to her.

It's the American Civil War, two men and a horse on a high precipice. War requires ordinary men to make extraordinary decisions. This was particularly true in the American Civil War. Ambrose Bierce a veteran of that war spent much of the rest of his life writing short stories about it. This is one of his best narrated by award-winning audiobook narrator and producer Mike Vendetti.

Award-winning audiobook narrator and producer Mike Vendetti reads An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge a short story by Civil War veteran Ambrose Bierce. Described as "one of the most famous and frequently anthologized stories in American literature". The story, which is set during the American Civil War, is known for its irregular time sequence and twist ending.

These stories are a unique, early study of celebrity and the vast emotional and social divisions of class and power that still exist today. Each story introduces a woman of power and the men who struggle to define them and thus themselves.

Ike Swift and award-winning narrator and audiobook producer Mike Vendetti takes us to San Francisco, where a beautiful woman becomes a star.

A beautiful girl of the street sits in jail awaiting her sentencing for the murder of an abusive boyfriend.

Ike Swift travels to New York's Chinatown where he describes the rise and fall of "The Queen of Chinatown".

A businessman from the Midwest in the big city with a big wad of money meets a lonely woman on the street who sweetly relieves him of his big wad of money, his watch, and his pin.

From Sketches of Gotham by Ike Swift, this is the story of a very progressive young woman and a rather gullible man at the turn of the last century.

A collection of seven classic short stories that draw us into that hidden world where fear is just around the next corner, and where loving hands can touch across the boundaries of death. Edith Nesbit, author and poet, was known for her over 60 adventurous children's stories; however, she was first known for her poetry and her venture into the supernatural short stories for adult audiences. She called her collection Grim Tales. Her classic style and imagery has proven to be ageless and inspirational to modern writers.

As with most stories by Poe, there are far deeper meanings as the narrator takes us through his madness. Pluto his cat becomes a symbol of what is wrong in his, the narrator's, life. He tortures Pluto in a drunken stupor by cutting out his eye. He feels guilt for hurting a creature he once loved that also once loved him. The narrator continues to spiral into his web of self-destruction until he is penning his story the night before he will meet the same fate he imposed upon Pluto.

Mary Shelley had an abiding interest in the mysterious and the supernatural. In this atmospheric tale, she describes the nocturnal wanderings of an enigmatic figure in the woods, and the expectations and conclusions those who have witnessed its activities.

A collection of fables, vignettes, and parables from the fanciful mind of Lord Dunsany. These brief tales feature characters such as Time, Death, Fame, Winter, Spring, the Fog, the North Wind, the blackbird, the god Pan, the river Styx boatman Charon, and others - in fantastical, whimsical, allegorical, and poignant scenarios.