Fifty Supernatural Stories

By: Edith Wharton, Bessie Kyffin-Taylor, Elia W. Peattie, Mary E. Braddon, Hugh Walpole, Lettice Galbraith, A. J. Alan

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 24 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

A gripping collection of Victorian supernatural stories fromthe greatest ghost story writers of the age.

• 'Room Number Ten' by Bessie Kyffin-Taylor
• 'Kerfol' by Edith Wharton
• 'A Child of the Rain' by Elia W. Peattie
• 'The Cold Embrace' by Mary E. Braddon
• 'The Mummy of Thompson-Pratt' by Charles John Cutcliffe Hyne
• 'When I Was Dead' by Vincent O'Sullivan
• 'The Everlasting Club' by Arthur Gray
• 'The Story of the Spaniards' by E & H Heron
• 'The Staircase' by Hugh Walpole
• 'A Thread of Scarlet' by J. J. Bell
• 'Gavon’s Eve' by E. F. Benson
• 'My Adventure in Norfolk' by A. J. Alan
• 'Rose Rose' by Barry Pain
• 'August Heat' by W. F. Harvey
• 'From the Loom of the Dead' by Elia W. Peattie
• 'The Missing Model' by Lettice Galbraith
• 'The Gull' by F. Anstey
• 'The Return' by R. Murray Gilchrist
• 'Miss Mary Pask' by Edith Wharton
• 'The Rockery' by E. G. Swain
• 'The House with the Brick Kiln' by E. F. Benson
• 'The Parasite' by Arthur Conan Doyle
• 'A Coincidence' by A. J. Alan
• 'Satan’s Circus' by Eleanor Smith
• 'The Wind in the Portico' by John Buchan
• 'The Bus Conductor' by E. F. Benson
• 'The Furnished Room' by O. Henry
• 'An Egyptian Cigarette' by Kate Chopin
• 'The Mummy’s Foot' by Théophile Gautier
• 'Seashore Macabre' by Hugh Walpoleplus

Plus 20 more eerie tales.

Public Domain (P)2015 Red Door Audiobooks

If you acclimate to the narration, it's enjoyable

What did you like best about this story?

The stories themselves are mostly very good, assuming that you like the peculiarly Victorian way of telling stories of the strange--a heavy dose of realistic and detail, a slow burn, and a delightfully eerie atmosphere. Personally, I love them. They're dated, yes (at least in terms of social politics), but read as literature of the era, they're usually interesting, at times fascinating, and occasionally gripping.

I did find these stories a little less rich and interesting than those in the "Ghosts, Werewolves and Vampires" book, probably because that one has more variety of ghoulish monster, as one might expect.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Dobson's narration matches the stories, but she sounds like she's always on the brink of a major revelation, which is weird. To be honest, however, it grows on you over time. She sounds as though she's reading the dramatic opening narration to an episode of television, which seems horribly grating at first. However, this is the second book of hers that I've listened to, and I have to say that her pace is good, her voice is not (to me) unpleasant, and if the undulation in her emphasis is uncomfortable at first, I now find it comfortable and somewhat effective for the genre. No, she doesn't do accents (much), but her approach is serviceable.

Any additional comments?

I recommend listening to Dobson in the preview (or in a couple previews for a couple books by her). If your reaction is something along the lines of, "Hm, I almost like this but eek, the rhythm of her delivery is really weird and akward," it might be worth a try. I've come around to it with time, and I got to listen to a lot of great stories not otherwise available by audiobook.

Wonderful

Great classic short stories. Not very scary and perfect narrator. I wish there were dozens of these collections.