Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Classics

The classic dystopian novella, Anthem, is one of the earliest books to explore a theme which has become a standard motif in science fiction literature: the search for individualistic expression in a repressive and rigorously organized society.

Award-winning narrator and audiobook producer, Mike Vendetti reads The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the experiences of a sailor who has returned from a long sea voyage. The mariner stops a man who is on his way to a wedding ceremony and begins to narrate a story. The wedding guest's reaction turns from bemusement to impatience to fear to fascination as the mariner's story progresses.

Writing to her only friend from her deathbed, Mathilda finally reveals the history that led to her isolated life of despairing melancholy. Of her mother dying in childbirth, her father's confession of his incestuous desire and subsequent suicide, and her relationship with a handsome young poet that fails to reverse Matilda's emotional withdrawal or prevent her lonely death. The haunting and relentlessly self-examining voice of Mary Shelley's protagonist is a bare narrative of trauma of a brave woman's failed search for love, atonement, and redemption.

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.

Award-winning narrator and producer Mike Vendetti reads Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem that is so well-known, the loop road leading close to Norman’s Woe from Route 127 is named Hesperus Ave. You will hear the wind blowing past the mast to which the captain has tied his daughter to keep her from being blown overboard.

Richard Dudgeon, who has become an outcast from his puritanical family due to his religious apostasy, returns home on the death of his father. Much to everyone’s surprise, it is revealed that the father changed his will shortly before his death and has left the bulk of the estate to Richard. Now that he is lord of the manor, Richard asserts himself and declares his opposition to the colonial British authorities. Later, he is arrested by the British and sentenced to death but is rescued in the nick of time by a local militia commanded by Anthony Anderson, who, ironically, is a pastor.

Award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti reads "The Bells" By Edgar Allan Poe. The poem has four parts; each part becoming darker and darker as the poem progresses from "the jingling and the tinkling" of the bells in part one to the "moaning and the groaning" of the bells in part four.

With charging rhythm and clarion language, in 14 stanzas, the poet conjures the dramatic, moving images of the rousing and pivotal ride of the famed patriot. Rhapsode Bob Gonzalez performs this classic.

A pioneer widower, in appearance decades older than his years, dwells in a modest log cabin with a boarded window on the outskirts of Cincinnati, Ohio. Why this window is boarded his neighbors have no knowledge, but the story's narrator, who heard the tale from his grandfather, reveals the secret of the recluse and his mysterious past. Ambrose Bierce, an author famous for his Civil War and horror stories, here masterfully crafts a tale of suspenseful tension only relieved at the very last sentence.

A dark, allegorical, Gothic horror fable in verse telling of seduction, enthrallment, and deep sisterly love by the British Victorian poet, Christina Rossetti. The goblin market men, selling sweet and delicious fruits, inveigle Laura, a young girl, to partake of their tempting wares. Soon, she is lost to the world and her life begins slowly to fade away. Only the courage of her sister, Lizzie, can possibly save her from her fate. Will it be enough? 

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.  

Flash fiction from the master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. A wounded gentleman, with his valet, breaks into an abandoned chateau in the Appennine mountains. The walls of the bedroom in which they situate themselves are decorated entirely with paintings. The gentleman's eyes fall upon a portrait of a young girl. He reads in an accompanying book the story of the portrait's creation and the fate of the subject caused by the artist's obsession with representing the girl with lifelike perfection. 

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910). He was a master of the short story with a surprise ending. In this story, part of the collection titled The Four Million, two old friends have made a promise to meet at a certain New York City corner after 20 years of separation. Will they each honor the agreement? What will they learn of their lives since they last saw each other? 

The French master of the short story with the twist ending, Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893), here lets his main character, an unerring knife-thrower in a carnival act with his wife, tell the tale of his maddening situation. An anonymous English translation. 

Masterfully read by award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti, travel to the town of Hamelin suffering from a rat infestation, when a piper dressed in multicolored ("pied") clothing appeared, claiming to be a rat-catcher. He promised the mayor a solution to their problem with the rats. The mayor, in turn, promised to pay him for the removal of the rats (according to some versions of the story, the promised sum was 1,000 guilders). The piper accepted and played his pipe to lure the rats into the Weser River, where they all drowned. The rest is a legend enjoyed for centuries. 

Evangeline Knapp's neighbors are in awe of her prowess. She re-upholsters furniture and can take scraps of fabric and create a beautiful garment. Her house is always immaculate and her children are beautifully behaved - except for the stubborn youngest, but with Eva's strength of will, they're certain she'll sort him out in time. The neighbors don't know that in her frenzied zeal to create the perfect home, her children live in dread of her temper. She loves them, but she can't stand having to remind them constantly about the same things, simple rules easy enough for anyone to understand.

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.

In compiling this collection of humorous short stories by both well known and more obscure authors, Alexander Jessup applied a broad interpretation of humour; the stories span the period between 1839 and the beginning of the first World War. 

Listed in the BBC's "100 Novels That Shaped Our World", Psmith, Journalist takes Wodehouse's immaculate hero to the apparently dull city of New York, where he takes command of twee family periodical Cosy Moments, converts it to the yellowest of yellow journals, and embarks upon a crusade to unmask the owner of the notorious Pleasant Street tenements. But soon the staff of Cosy Moments find themselves dodging ambushes and assassination attempts, as the mysterious tenement owner tries to put them out of business - permanently; and war breaks out among New York's notorious street gangs.

A collection of 10 of the greatest and most popular short stories by the master himself. The stories are creepy, scary and frightening. Filled with murder and terror, they will keep you hanging on until the end. The stories are well told by the talented narrator, who can bring you right into the suspense and action. Turn off the lights, lights a candle, press "Play", and settle in for a suspenseful thrill.