Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

In The Story of a Piebald Horse, a stranger appears at the cattle branding one day, and in an unfortunate incident he is accidentally killed. His piebald horse, saddle, and other posessions are kept by one of the ranchers until the stranger can be identified and his family contacted. In the hope that some traveller will recognize the stranger's horse, he ties it up beside the local inn. After a time, a group of herders passing through do recognize the horse... and they tell a most extraordinary tale....

In the world of the Victorian Club, it does not do for a gentleman to be seen to take an interest in any member of the working classes. How dreadfully inconvenient then, when the narrator's waiter, begins to display alarming tendencies towards having a personality, a home life, emotions and fears of his own. The last thing any respectable gentleman should do is permit himself to be drawn into this other dubious world...let alone entertain emotions such as interest or pity for the underclass.

When Billy Bowen and Ellen McDonald's engagement is broken off, nobody quite knows the full story. Slowly the facts are pieced together to reveal a hilarious catalogue of mishaps and misunderstandings which result in a most catastrophic Christmas list. Ring Lardner's comic genius at his most masterful!

Kipling’s classic tale taken from the Just So Stories. Neolithic cave girl Taffy tries to send a pictorial letter home when her father breaks his fishing spear, but her message is hilariously misinterpreted, and a series of misunderstandings follows.

Kipling’s classic tale taken from the Just So Stories. Neolithic cave girl Taffy and her father work out a new way of passing on messages - and find that they have invented the alphabet.

The Gifts of a Magician is the story of a young lad who gets lost in the forest and accidentally saves a magician who is being attacked by wolves. The magician tells the boy he can ask for anything as a reward. The boy asks for the magician's horse...which turns out to be a really remarkable animal. He is also given a set of marvellous musical instruments. With these gifts, the lad sets off to make his fortune.

The Secret of the Schwarztal is a mystery story. An English traveller had gone missing in the remote valley of Schwarztal in the Alps and was presumed dead. But three years later his brother arrived determined to solve the mystery of what happened to his brother - and what he discovered was very deeply disturbing.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937), who wrote as H. P. Lovecraft, was an American author who achieved posthumous acclaim for his outstanding and influential works of horror fiction. 'The Hound' is a terrifying story of two morbid young men who add excitement to their dull lives by robbing graves and creating a macabre museum of ghoulish trophies. But one day they open a grave containing a strange and sinister jade amulet...and once they are in possession of this artifact, terrifying events overtake them.

Alexander W. Drake (1843-1916) was an American wood engraver and art collector and director of the art department for Scribner’s and Century magazine. His weird tales were collected by friends to memorialize him following his death in 1916. 'The Curious Vehicle' (1893) is the story of a man who is intrigued by a strange carriage on the street and watches it curiously until one snowy Christmas Eve he is invited inside by the mysterious owner.

Fitz James O'Brien (1828 - 1862) was an Irish-born American writer, some of whose work is considered the forerunner of today's science fiction. The Diamond Lens is his most famous short story and tells the strange story of a scientist who invents a powerful microscope and discovers a beautiful woman in an enchanting microscopic world inside a drop of water.

Jules Gabriel Verne (1828-1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright who is sometimes credited as the original 'Father of Science Fiction'. Written in 1851, 'A Drama in the Air' is one of Verne's earliest and most seminal stories, telling the dramatic adventure of a balloonist suddenly confronted with an unexpected and unpredictable passenger who climbs into his balloon at the point of take-off. Many of the themes from this tale were expanded by Verne in his later and better known works about aerial journeys around the world or to the moon.

In The Adventure of the Speckled Band, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are faced with a most unusual case. Two years earlier a young woman died under mysterious and unexplained circumstances while alone in her locked bedroom. Her last words to her sister referred to a 'speckled band'. She had previously complained of hearing a strange whistling sound in the night. Now the sister is sleeping in the same room, and she too has heard the mysterious whistling. But what can it be? And what is the 'speckled band'?

A Vine on a House is a classic Gothic haunted house story. The old abandoned Harding house, which is now overgrown by an unusual vine, has a strange and sinister story behind it. Years before, the mother of the household disappeared suddenly. Two years later the family abandoned the house. More recent visitors have discovered the vine growing up the front of the house behaving very oddly. Finally the local authorities decide to dig up the vine....

'A Little Cloud' is a brilliant and evocative short story from Joyce's collection Dubliners comparing the lives of those who escaped Ireland and travelled around Europe compared to the quiet, dull existence of those who remain at home. Thomas Chandler meets an old friend, Ignatius Gallaher, for a drink. Gallaher has made a name for himself in London and has been as far as Paris and Berlin. Chandler's life by comparison is unfulfilled. His job is boring, his marriage loveless and his soul weary.

'Miss Avenal' is a creepy story in the classic Victorian vampire genre. An invalid, Miss Avenal, engages a trained nurse to look after her while she recuperates in a remote moorland house somewhere in the north of England. But as Miss Avenal recovers her strength, the young nurse feels her own health start to ebb away.

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole (1884-1941) was a New Zealand-born English novelist, famous for his skill at scene setting and vivid plots. He was a best-selling author in the 1920s and 1930s and remains popular to this day. 'The Perfect Close' is the story of a 79-year-old man who realises one day that he is about to die. Seeing that he has only an hour or so left to live, he must decide how to spend his final moments. We accompany him on the last minutes of his life as he achieves his last couple of surprising but highly satisfying victories.

Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916) is better known by the pen name Saki. He remains hugely popular as a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirised Edwardian society and culture. The Interlopers is the story of two sworn enemies who find themselves trapped and injured under a fallen tree in a forest at night.

Joseph Smith Fletcher (1863-1935) was a British journalist and author. He wrote more than 230 books on a wide variety of subjects, both fiction and nonfiction. He was one of the leading writers of detective fiction in the Victorian golden age of the short story. This collection brings together some of the finest and most diverse examples of Fletcher's genius. 'The Ivory God' is the tale of a failing writer who acquires a strange ivory carving of an Indian god. He becomes convinced that the statue is communicating with him, taking possession of him, even writing through him.

Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was an English author, born in one of the Five Towns which form the background of so many of his witty stories. 'The Fire of London' is an unusual mystery story about a case of fraud and blackmail. Bruce Bowring, a businessman of dubious integrity, has been running what amounts to a Ponzi scheme in the heart of the city of London. At the start of our story, Bowring receives a mysterious telephone call from a stranger, warning him that his house will be burgled that evening....

Robert Barr (1849-1912) was a Scottish-Canadian short story writer and novelist, born in Glasgow, Scotland. 'The Hour-Glass' is a mysterious ghost story. An avid antique collector buys an ancient and defective hourglass from a curiosity shop. When he takes it home and starts to examine it, he is startled by a strange visitor who claims to be the real owner of the hourglass. His story is a very bizarre one.