Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels and is frequently credited as being the father of science fiction. The Sea Raiders is a gruesome tale of a rapacious shoal of cephalopods which attack the coast of Southern England.

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was a prolific English writer best known for his outstanding science fiction stories and novels. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. 'The Crystal Egg' is a science fiction short story about an antiquarian dealer, Mr. Cave, who discovers that a crystal egg in his shop has strange properties. In certain light conditions it functions as a window on the planet Mars and he is able to observe the Martians and their bizarre cities and machines.

William James Wintle (1861-1920) was already a recognised writer before he became an Oblate for the Abbey of Caldey Island in Wales. It was there that he wrote a series of horror stories for the entertainment of eight boys who attended the abbey. In the foreword of this collection, Wintle explains that the stories were originally told on Sunday nights while "crouching over a wood fire on a wind-swept island off the Western shore."

Mary Wilkins Freeman (1852-1930) was an American writer best known for her stories reflecting the world of women fighting for dignity and independence from men. Her tales typically describe domestic settings and intimate relationships and are told with sensitivity and a poignancy which illuminates a bygone era in vivid detail. 'The Lost Ghost' is a supernatural story told by one woman to another about a child ghost who wanders around an old house in search of her mother.... The story has an extraordinary ending.

Richard Austin Freeman (1862-1943) was a British writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr. Thorndyke. Freeman used some of his early experiences as a colonial surgeon in West Africa in his novels. The Case of the White Footprints is a murder mystery set in Margate. A lady has been found dead in her room in a boarding house.

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer of outstanding short stories, known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise endings. This collection contains twelve of his best loved tales: 1. 'The Cactus' 2. 'The Gift of the Magi' 3. 'One Thousand Dollars' 4. 'The Marionettes' 5. 'The Furnished Room' 6. 'The Unknown Quantity' 7. 'Memoirs of a Yellow Dog' 8. 'The Venturers' 9. 'The Ransom of Red Chief '10. 'The Last Leaf '11. 'The Cop and the Anthem' 12. T'he Clarion Call'

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer of outstanding short stories, known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise endings.The Clarion Call tells of the chance encounter between two old childhood friends. One, Kernan, is now a burglar who three weeks ago committed his first murder. The other, Woods, is a New York detective. Woods is faced with a terrible dilemma....

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937), who wrote as H. P. Lovecraft, was an American writer who achieved fame only posthumously for his influential horror stories. "The Cats of Uthar" is a strange tale about the village of Uthar, which is known for its law that no man may kill at cat. This is the peculiar story of the terrible events that led to this law being passed.

Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) was a South African author, suffragist and political activist. She is best known for her novel The Story of an African Farm, but some of her most haunting and memorable works are her short stories. This collection presents four drealike short stories with multilayered meaning and allegorical significance: "A Dream of Wild Bees", "Life's Gifts", "The Artist's Secret" and "In a Far-Off World".

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 non-fiction. He was one of the leading writers of detective fiction in the Victorian "Golden Age" of the short story. "The Earl, the Warder and the Wayward Heiress" is the story of a ten thousand pound bet between young gentlemen in their club.

Robert O'Hara Burke (1821-1861) was one of the great Victorian explorers. In 1860 he was appointed to lead the Victorian Exploring Expedition, which aimed to cross the Australian continent from south to north. The expedition left Melbourne on Monday, 20 August 1860 with a total of 19 men, 27 (rum fuelled) camels, and 23 horses. The expedition was dogged by disputes and poor leadership decisions from the start. Even at the first staging post the second in command and the medical officer resigned.

When the body of the eccentric painter Sir Owen Cram is found on a deserted beach next to his easel, a murder enquiry is launched. It is clear that the injury which has killed him could not have been self-inflicted. Nor is the murder weapon anywhere to be found. But most mysterious of all, there is only one set of footprints in the sand leading up to the body, and these are Sir Owen's own. Even the scientists and police investigators are struggling to conceive how the murder has been committed.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1822-1881) was Russia's greatest mystic who wrote of the contest between the rebellious uncertain human and the mystery of divine omnipresence which is revealed to the enlightened in the midst of life's bitterest wrongs and suffering. His work is defined by a pity and compassion which shines from all his writing.

Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) was one of the most successful and respected English novelists. Malachi's Cove tells the story of Mally, the granddaughter of an old seaweed collector, who takes over the family trade as her "Dada" becomes too old and infirm to carry on. Mally is plagued by interlopers from local farms who come down to collect seaweed in her cove. One in particular, Barty Gunliffe, she resents above all others.

In this story, when a position is granted to a member of the household of the King's beloved, which M. de Perrot had coveted for his own son, a round of intrigue begins. M. de Perrot enlists the narrator, M. de Rosny, to arrange for the king to stop at his house in Poissy for a glass of wine the next day after hunting. This turns out to be a ruse, to engineer an apparently chance encounter between the monarch and de Perrot's very beautiful and charming niece. But M. de Perrot's son overhears the plot and has other ideas....

Frederick Marryat’s The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains is a unique literary work that stands out amidst the body of work of an author best known for pioneering the genre of the sea story. Excised from Marryat’s novel The Phantom Ship (1839) and published separately as The White Wolf it represents the first appearance of a female werewolf in Victorian literature. Krantz, a fugitive from justice, takes refuge in the Hartz mountains with his three children and lives by hunting in the forest and subsistence farming.

A breathtaking werewolf story by the master raconteur Guy de Maupassant. Two brothers with a shared obsession for hunting, attempt to pursue a werewolf which is ravaging the neighbourhood. One brother is killed in the chase, but when the werewolf appears, the other brother's rage is such that he undertakes the hunt of his life.

Conrad's truly first short story, written during his honeymoon (1896), published in The Savoy periodical, 1896, and collected in Tales of Unrest, 1898. A Breton farmer, returning from national service, takes over the family farm and marries a local girl, hoping to have sons who will inherit the family farm and carry on his own traditions. All appears to be going to plan, when the first pregnancy produces twin boy. But the children turn out to be mentally disabled....

The Devil's Spectacles is perhaps Wilkie Collins' most unusual and bizarre tale. It tells the story of Alfred, a young landed gentleman who is given by Septimus Notman, a sailor on his deathbed, a pair of unusual spectacles. These, Septimus had received from the Devil in person, under most unusual circumstances. The spectacles have strange supernatural powers, enabling the wearer to see the thoughts and emotions of others around him.

When Joseph Gibson, an oil and colourman from London, faces bankruptcy, he seizes the opportunity to take the bargain lease on Stape Hill near Poole in Dorsetshire. The deal turns out to be less a bargain than a swindle. The farm is worth nowhere near the price paid for it. The grasping owner, a retired lawyer, Arthur Blagden, had charged him more than twice the property's worth. Gibson and his delicate daughter face ruin next Michaelmas day when the next annual rent payment is due.