Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

A collection of 50 of the world's great creepy stories. "Creepy" does not necessarily mean ghost or horror stories but rather stories that literally make our flesh creep by shaking our false sense of security and comprehension of the world.

1. "The Mysterious Card" by Cleveland Moffett 2. "The Card Unveiled" by Cleveland Moffett 3. "The Problem of the Five Marks" by Melville Davisson Post 4. "A Terribly Strange Bed" by Wilkie Collins 5. "The Gold Bug" by Edgar Allan Poe 6. "Who Killed Charlie Winpole" by Ernest Bramah 7. "The Comedy at Fountain Cottage" by Ernest Bramah 8. "The Secret of the Smoked Spectacles" by William Le Queux 9. "The Hair" by A. J. Alan 10. "The Haunted Dolls’ House" by M. R. James, and many more....

In March 1873 Great Britain was rocked by the forgery case of the century, perpetrated against no less than the Bank of England. Four criminal brains took on the entire financial system... and would have got away with it too, had it not been for one tiny detail.

Clemens Brentano (1778-1842) was one of the giants of German Literary Romanticism. The Story of Brave Kasper and Fair Annie (published in 1817) is a novella outlining the sad tale of two star-crossed lovers, whose fates are determined by their determination to retain their own honour against all odds. Their story is mainly recounted by Kasper's 88-year-old grandmother, who is also Annie's guardian. As each episode of the tale unfolds, a new twist casts a different light on the previous episodes.

Sarah Grand (1854-1943) was a well-known Victorian writer and suffragette. 'The Man in the Scented Coat' is a story about an adventurous lady, Josepha, who gets lost in a pea-soup fog in London one evening. As she cannot see anything, she follows a scent of flowers, which turns out to emanate from a distinguished gentleman in disguise who is on a secret mission.

A fabulous anthology of some of the finest stories ever written.

A poignant and profound collection of stories which explore the theme of childhood and a child's perspective on the world. "The Dabblers" by W. F. Harvey. "The Doll’s House" by Katherine Mansfield. "The Roman Road" by Kenneth Grahame. "The Sailor Uncle" by Mary Lamb. "The Egg" by Sherwood Anderson. "Gabriel-Ernest" by Saki. "A Child’s Revenge" by Paul Bourget. "The Apple Tree" by Katherine Mansfield. "A Falling Out" by Kenneth Grahame. "The Christmas Tree and the Wedding" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Maurice Baring (1874-1945) was an English short story writer, novelist, and travel writer and war correspondent during the First World War. The Shadow of a Midnight is a ghost story with a twist. Two students on a walking tour in Germany stay in an interesting old inn which had formerly been a convent. One of them has a strange dream, which turns out perhaps not to have been a dream after all....

Wilhelm Busch's classic tale of two tearaways who play tricks on their neighbours and come to a sticky end.

Maurice Baring (1874-1945) was an English short story writer, children's writer, novelist, travel writer and war correspondent during the First World War. The Glass Mender is a fairy story about a princess named Rainbow, who as a baby is cursed by a wicked fairy. If Rainbow hears or sees the spring, her happiness will end. Her parents decide to keep her in a tower for three months every year...but will they be able to keep her away from the spring forever?

'The Enchanted Knife' is the story of a young man who seeks to marry the princess. Her father sets him an impossible task to perform before he will grant the suit - but with the aid of the cunning princess and a magic knife, the youth is able to win his bride.

'Gambler's Luck' tells the story of a young German baron who is enjoying a streak of beginner's luck at the gambling tables. As his winnings mount up, the young man is gradually becoming sucked into the addictive habit of gambling. One night a stranger appears at the gambling table and watches the baron intently. The stranger appears night after night, until the baron is infuriated and challenges the man. A later chance meeting between the two results in the stranger relating a most unusual and gripping tale....

'Mr. Tallent's Ghost' is an amusing tale about an eccentric writer who likes to read his appalling and tedious novels aloud to his relatives...or indeed anyone who will listen. He persuades a lawyer to draw up a will devoting his entire fortune to funding the publication of his writing. Shortly after this, news of Mr. Tallent's death arrives. The disinherited relations dispute the will vigorously, and soon after this, the ghost of Mr. Tallent begins to haunt the relatives and the executor.

'Good Lady Ducayne' is a sensational tale of a young woman, Bella Rolleston, who secures a job as a paid companion to a very elderly and wealthy aristocratic lady who offers her a handsome salary, a winter travelling on the Italian Riviera and the Italian Lakes and very little to do. It all seems too good to be true. And when Bella learns that the old lady's previous two companions died under mysterious circumstances and she herself is becoming paler and sicker...it does seem as though something sinister is afoot.

Henry St. Clair Whitehead (1882-1932) was an American clergyman, teacher and a writer of horror fiction and fantasy, best known for his creepy tales of magic and voodoo. 'Passing of a God' is a voodoo story set in the West Indies which tells of an American who presents himself at the hospital in Port au Prince with a huge tumour in his abdomen. The surgeon there agrees to operate...but discovers there is something very peculiar and sinister about the tumour....

When Mr. Cornelius Appin announces that he has succeeded in teaching the cat, Tobermory, to speak, nobody in the house party believes him. But when Tobermory makes his entrance and begins to reveal the kind of personal secrets only a cat can know about the assembled company, chaos breaks out. Tobermory must be destroyed at all costs. Hector Hugh Munro at his most masterful!

Austin J. Small (1894-1929) was a popular British mystery and thriller writer who was published in the United Kingdom under the pseudonym 'Seamark'. The Man They Couldn't Arrest - written in 1925 - is a fast paced thriller about Valman Dain, an inventor who (amongst numerous other intriguing gadgets) develops a mechanism for eavesdropping on conversations using the telephone network.

Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction and a close associate of D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. 'Late at Night' is a wistful and bitter monologue by a young woman who has received a disturbing letter from a young man she fancies.

A superb collection of classic ghost stories from the world's great storytellers. 1. "Lot No. 249" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 2. "The Phantom Rickshaw" by Rudyard Kipling. 3. "The Haunted Dolls’ House" by M. R James. 4. "Ligeia" by Edgar Allan Poe. 5. "The Monkey’s Paw" by W. W. Jacobs. 6. "The Finest Story in the World" by Rudyard Kipling. 7. "The Apparition of Mrs. Veal" by Daniel Defoe. 8. "Metzengerstein" by Edgar Allan Poe. 9. "They" by Rudyard Kipling. 10. "Labadoyere’s Doom" by Lord Halifax. 11. "Lost in a Pyramid" by Louisa May Alcott. And more...

A medieval tale of the trial of a werewolf in southern France. A strange wandering beggar-boy meets a group of French girls who are tending their flocks. He frightens the girls with dreadful stories of souls in Hell and explains that he is a werewolf and describes how at night he ravages the country and devours sheep and children. The boy is arrested and brought before the courts. His testimony is alarmingly frank and astonishingly well corroborated by the evidence of other witnesses.