Showing results by narrator "Roy Macready" in All Categories

Oscar Wilde's classic comic ghost story was the first of his short stories to be published, in February 1887. It relates the experiences of Mr. Hiram B. Otis, an American minister, and his family when they move into Canterville Chase, an ancient pile haunted by the previous owner's dead ancestor, Sir Simon. Of course, Mr. Otis declares, "There is no such thing, sir, as a ghost", and all of Sir Simon's hauntings have no effect on the skeptical American family, with the exception of the daughter, Virginia, despite his most strenuous efforts.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is known principally for his creation of the renowned detective Sherlock Holmes, but he also wrote many other novels and short stories in many genres. His short story collection Tales of Terror and Mystery was published in 1922. This present volume features the six tales of terror, which are: "The Brazilian Cat", "The Case of Lady Sannox", "The Terror of Blue John Gap", "The Leather Funnel", "The Horror of the Heights", and "The New Catacomb".

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. "Man-Size in Marble" is one of her strangest and most unsettling.

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.

Guy de Maupassant (1850 - 1893) is recognized as one of the fathers of the modern short story and one of its finest exponents. From the humorous to the tragic to the gruesome, with an economy and precision of language, his stories can delight or disturb. Here are 10 of them.

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.

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”.

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”.

"The Ballad of Reading Gaol" was written by Oscar Wilde in France, where he was in exile after his release from Reading Gaol. Wilde had been imprisoned and sentenced to two years hard labor. A hanging took place while Wilde was incarcerated, and the poem is the narrative of the execution.

The delicious, biting wit of Saki's short stories satirizing Edwardian high society are some of the funniest and most delightful of exquisite literary miniatures. In this third volume, there are 21 glittering examples.

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.

The delicious, biting wit of Saki's short stories satirizing Edwardian high society are some of the funniest and most delightful of exquisite literary miniatures. In this second volume, there are 22 glittering examples.

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.

The Chronicles of Clovis, which was published in 1911, was the third of Saki's collections of short stories. The character of Clovis Sangrail is, like Saki's earlier hero, Reginald, vain, sarcastic, and self-regarding and another vehicle for Saki's delicious, biting wit satirizing Edwardian high society in some of the funniest exquisite literary miniatures.

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."

“The Gateway of the Monster” 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 the 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.

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. Here is one of them: "A Warning to the Curious".

Edward Lear is justly renowned as a writer of humorous verse. His Nonsense Songs were published in 1871 and include probably his best known and most loved poem, “The Owl and the Pussycat”. Laughable Lyrics (1877) contains other popular rhymes, including “The Dong with a Luminous Nose”, “The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo”, “The Pobble Who Has No Toes”, and more.

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.