Showing results by narrator "Roy Macready" in All Categories

E. Nesbit is rightly best known for her children's books, but she also wrote works for adults, including short stories in the genres of the uncanny, macabre, and supernatural. There are five of these in this collection.

The first collection of the exploits of A.J. Raffles and his friend Bunny Manders was published as The Amateur Cracksman in 1899. The characters of Raffles and Bunny were possibly inspired by his brother-in-law's creations, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, although they are on the opposite side of the law.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) is noted mainly for his novels Treasure Island, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Kidnapped, and for his verse, including A Child's Garden of Verses. He also wrote many short stories, of which "The Body-Snatcher" is one of his best known. Two others, "Markheim" and "A Lodging for the Night", are also included in this recording.

Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author known for his works of horror and the fantastic. He is recognized as an influence on modern writers of supernatural fiction. Holy Terrors (published in 1946, a year before his death) is a collection of 14 short stories of which nine are very short and are included in this recording. They are: “The Rose Garden”, “Psychology”, “The Soldier's Rest”, “The Cosy Room”, “The Ceremony”, “Holy Things”, “The Turanians”, “The Happy Children”, and “Munitions of War”.

The stories Told After Supper, related by the guests at a Christmas Eve party, are about ghosts and have all the wit and whimsy of Jerome K. Jerome's more famous works.

George and Weedon Grossmith were born in London into a theatrical family, and it was natural that they should both take up careers on the stage. Weedon initially studied art but later joined his brother, George, in the theatre.

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) was first published anonymously in 1821 in the London Magazine and was published in book form a year later. A revised edition was published in 1846. It is an account by the author of his addiction to laudanum and the effects it had on his life. This recording presents an abridged version of the 1856 edition.

Presenting a selection of sonnets by William Shakespeare. There are 24 in number in this first selection. They are, in order: 18, 33, 11, 3, 5, 6, 29, 10, 22, 2, 4, 7, 1, 9, 27, 8, 30, 116, 34, 54, 12, 66, 77, 60.

The "Songs of Innocence" were published in 1789 and republished in 1794 together with the "Songs of Experience". They represent Blake's two perspectives on the world, that of the child (innocence) and that of the adult (experience). Blake's poetical works were largely neglected in their own time but are today considered some of the most brilliant of English verse. The "songs" are presented here together with "Auguries of Innocence".

The story follows the eponymous hero and his tutor Doctor Pangloss through a series of adventures and misfortunes, all the time doggedly attempting, against the odds, to adhere to the doctor's philosophy that "all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds".

Here is a collection of nine tales of the macabre and the supernatural from the acknowledged master of these genres. They are: "The Black Cat", "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", "The Premature Burial", "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Cask of Amontillado", "The Oval Portrait", "Berenice", and "Ligeia".

A third collection of 18 classic tales of the weird and supernatural by some of the best known writers in these genres.

M.R. James (1862-1936) was provost of King's College, Cambridge, and Eton College. He was a highly regarded scholar and academic in his time but today is remembered for his ghost stories, which are considered among the finest in the genre. The seven stories in this Volume One are: "A School Story", "Rats", "A Warning to the Curious", "Two Doctors", "The Haunted Doll's House", "Casting the Runes", "There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard".

Fitz-James O'Brien, born in Cork, Ireland, in 1826, is considered an important early writer of science-fiction. His three probably best-known stories are included in this volume. They are “The Diamond Lens”, “What Was It?”, and “The Lost Room”.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was born in Dublin, Ireland and is acknowledged as an influential writer in the genre of gothic and supernatural fiction of the 19th century. Many of his short stories were originally published in various magazines. Here are six of them: “The White Cat of Drumgonnial”, “Dickon the Devil”, “The Drunkard's Dream”, “The Secret of the Two Plaster Casts”, “The Vision of Tom Chuff”, and “An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House”.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is of course famous for his creation of the great Sherlock Holmes. The stories of the master detective are justifiably well known but he also wrote many short stories which are not so well known but deserve to be. The four stories in this recording were first published singly in magazines, principally The Strand. They later appeared in the collection “The Great Keinplatz Experiment and Other Tales of Twilight and the Unseen” in 1919. They are: “The Brown Hand”, “Playing with Fire”, “How It Happened”, and “De Profundis”.

Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author known for his works of horror and the fantastic. He is acknowledged as an influence on modern writers of supernatural fiction. His story "The Red Hand" (1895) tells of a grisly murder committed with the most unusual of weapons, an ancient stone axe.

Barry Pain was noted for his humorous tales of "Eliza" and her husband, but his tales of the weird and supernatural are equally noteworthy. This volume contains seven of them.

H. G. Wells, best known for his science fiction novels, wrote many short stories which had the same engaging qualities as his major works. Strange, disturbing, but full of wit and humour, here are nine of them: "The Moth", "In the Avu Observatory", "The Stolen Bacillus", "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid", and five more.

The creator of Dracula, Bram Stoker, wrote many other novels and works of short fiction. Here are four of his short stories which have some of the same weird, unsettling, and entertaining qualities as his gothic masterpiece. They are "The Judge's House", "The Secret of the Growing Gold", "The Squaw", and "A Dream of Red Hands."