Showing results by publisher "Spiders' House Audio" in Classics

 Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches was published in 1910 and was the second of Saki's collections of short stories following Reginald (1904). It consists of 15 stories or “sketches” as the author calls them and contains two of his most famous tales: “Gabriel Ernest” and “The Reticence of Lady Anne”. 

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is celebrated for his tales of the macabre and the supernatural. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is one of his most famous. In it, the narrator tells how, without any motive, but merely because he is obsessed with his eye (“The eye of a vulture”), he murders an old man, and of the consequences when the murdered man's heart seeks revenge. 

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is celebrated for his tales of the macabre and the supernatural. “The Cask of Amontillado” is one of his terrifying tales of premature burial. In it, the narrator, Montresor, has suffered from “insults and injuries” from his “friend” Fortunato and plans to murder him while he is drunk at the carnival by luring him to a wine tasting in the cellars of his palazzo. He chains him to the wall in a niche that he seals up with mortar, thus entombing him alive. 

In this example of the genre, the narrator tells of his adored wife, Ligeia, of her tragic death, and of his remarrying another beautiful woman, Rowena, who after a short and loveless marriage also dies but returns from the dead metamorphosed into his true love, Ligeia. 

“The Thing Invisible” is a story featuring Thomas Carnacki, a detective who investigates cases of an occult or supernatural nature. It is one of five tales of Carnacki's ghost hunting exploits that first appeared serially in The Idler magazine in 1910 and were published together with one more as a collection Carnacki the Ghost-Finder in 1913. After a good dinner, Mr. Carnacki relates his experiences of ghost-finding to his limited circle of four friends whom he has summoned to his home in Chelsea.

The Gentle Grafter contains 14 tales relating the questionable exploits of “Jeff Peters” (the gentle grafter) and his several “partners in graft”.

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) was a poet, critic, novelist, and playwright. He was born in London and educated at Eton and Oxford and was a contemporary of the Pre-Raphaelites. "Hymn to Proserpine" was published in 1866 in "Poems and Ballads", Swinburne's first collection of poems which was a great success but which contained subjects that were, at the time, very controversial. Other poems in this collection are: "A Ballad of Dreamland", "A Leave-Taking", "At Parting", "August", "Genesis", "Itylus", "Rococo", "Sapphics", "An Interlude", "The Nightingale", "Three Faces", and "Before the Mirror."

Eliza was the first volume of the Eliza Stories by Barry Pain (1864-1928). It was published in 1900 and was the first of these stories that appeared in cheap editions and were sold on railway bookstalls. The stories were hugely popular and made Pain's name. Although the book is titled Eliza, it is her husband who is its comic hero.

This is the first volume of The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolf Erich Raspe. The Baron relates his fantastical experiences and exploits, telling of the many singular incidents such as climbing to the moon on a beanstalk, riding on a cannon ball, being swallowed by a fish and being rescued from its insides, flying on an eagle from Margate to America, and many other incredible adventures, and challenges anyone who doubts him, asserting he is "a traveler of veracity!"

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is known for his tales of the macabre and the supernatural. "The Black Cat" is one of his most celebrated. In it the narrator tells of his growing hatred for his pet cat and how in a drunken rage he maims the animal by cutting out one of its eyes. Worse is to follow when, in an episode of alcohol-induced depravity, he kills the cat by hanging it from a tree, with the most horrifying of consequences.

E. F. Benson (1867-1940) is probably best known today for his sparkling, comic Lucia novels. In his own day it was his ghost stories that were his most popular works. "Naboth's Vineyard" exemplifies Benson's fine literary style and his ability to create the most frightening of supernatural and macabre tales.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is renowned for his tales of the macabre and the supernatural. "William Wilson" is the disturbing story of a doppelganger and how he leads the eponymous narrator through a series of experiences that annoy, infuriate, and finally drive him to a violent reaction with a fatal conclusion.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is celebrated as a master of the gothic tale of the macabre and the supernatural, but he also wrote a number of humorous and satirical tales, seven of which are presented here.

This adaptation of Dickens' much loved "Ghost Story of Christmas" is subtitled "Scrooge and the Three Spirits" and concentrates on the miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge's dealings with the spirits that visit him on Christmas Eve to bring about his redemption.

Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909) was an American writer, born in Italy and educated in the United States. He also studied at the universities of Cambridge and Heidelberg. He was a prolific writer in many fields, but it was his novels that were most popular, commanding a large following. His stories of the macabre and supernatural are very highly regarded.

E.F. Benson (1867-1940) is probably best known today for his sparkling, comic Lucia novels. In his own day, it was his ghost stories that were his most popular works. "Mrs Amworth", with its theme of vampirism, exemplifies Benson's fine literary style and his ability to create the most frightening of supernatural and macabre tales.

E. Nesbit is best known for her children's books such as The Railway Children, the Psammead series, and the stories of the Bastable family. She was also a poet and wrote many works for adults including short stories in the genre of the supernatural and the macabre. "The Head" is one of her most strange and disturbing.

The Screaming Skull is one of F. Marion Crawford's Uncanny Tales, which was first published, posthumously, in London in 1911 and was issued two weeks later in America as Wandering Ghosts.

Ambrose Bierce's collection of short stories of the supernatural and macabre Can Such Things Be? was first published in 1893 and republished in a revised edition in 1910. This selection contains two of his most famous tales: "The Moonlit Road" and "The Death of Halpin Frayser" together with 10 others.

Ambrose Bierce's collection of short stories of the supernatural and macabre Can Such Things Be? was first published in 1893 and republished in a revised edition in 1910. One of its most notable inclusions is "The Death of Halpin Frayser" a gothic tale of the murder of the fated hero by the reanimated corpse of his beloved mother.