Showing results by publisher "Alcazar Audioworks" in Literature & Fiction

American poet, critic, and short-story writer Edgar Allan Poe is universally recognized for his cultivation of the macabre in fiction. His stories are characterized by an original kind of supernatural horror, often using the awareness of death as a catalyzing force in its own right. His tales and poems brim with psychological depth and intense imagery, made vivid through his musical language and hypnotic rhythms, which are especially captivating when heard aloud.

Anne is adopted by the Cuthberts even after a great mistake at the orphanage. But the frail red-headed young girl stays, even though not wanted at first. She is raised strictly but lovingly by the Cuthberts whose world is set upside down by her wonderful, creative and sometime crazy and eccentric ways. In the end, she gives them endless joy as she grows into womanhood.

A delightful collection of stories about children, princesses, and dragons who experience all the magic and wonder of exciting adventures - but with the necessity of learning proper "pleases" and thank-yous"...at least on occasion!

Nathaniel Hawthorne masterfully grabs the imagination of children with these timeless tales of adventure based on the incomparable Greek mythological heroes' escapades. The stories included are: "The Wayside", "The Minotaurs", "The Pygmies", "The Dragon's Teeth", "Circe's Palace", "The Pomegranate Seeds", and "The Golden Fleece".

Richard Hannay, Buchan's hero in this 1915 thriller, stumbles across a dark plot to attack England by the German Reich (of World War I vintage) but has to flee when his discovery becomes known. He then engages in several hot pursuits and narrow, if theatrical, escapes, but all's well that ends well.

Three very different, heartwarming stories about man's best friend. "Dollypogs" by David Thorn, "Brown Wolf" by Jack London and "His Dog" by Albert Payson Terhune. Dog lovers will love the variety of stories, each touching the heart in a different way.

Henry James' signature theme - the American abroad - centers here on a chatterbox, provincial (not to say ignorant) daughter of a wealthy Schenectady industrialist, as she travels through Europe with her doting, vapid mother and rambunctious young brother. She meets up with one Mr. Winterbourne, another ex-patriate, with whom she flirts before coming to a sad end.

Published after his death, Dickens brilliantly brings to life a broad cast of colorful characters in the never solved mysterious disappearance of one Edwin Drood, all set in the rural hamlet of Cloisterham around the Cathedral close. Against a background of opium dens, nocturnal graveyard visits, and moldering monastic crypts, Dickens weaves a tightly knit plot centered on the ominous disappearance of young Edwin Drood.

Thomas Bulfinch, as one reviewer put it, "Created an anthology of mythology." This audiobook contains the first 14 chapters of The Age of Fable, the first of three volumes, comprising Bulfinch's complete work. The Age of Fable recounts stories of Greek Gods, Demigods and the best known characters in mythology. In our times, many references are made to these stories and characters in the arts, especially in the fine arts, theatre, and literature.

Sherlock Holmes author, Arthur Conan Doyle's imagination runs amok in his collection of thrilling tales of mystery. Conan Doyle's gift for creating compelling characters and tightly woven plots with twists, turns and surprise endings will keep you glued to your seat!

Henry James' short but much acclaimed suspenseful novel, set in Venice, concerns an American editor's determination to acquire a collection of unpublished letters to the former mistress of a famous deceased poet. This Miss bordereau is now very elderly, living modestly in a dilpidated old palazzo with her shy, awkward and uncomely niece Tita, an unwitting "pawn" in the plot.

Dick Heldar is well known for the drawings he sends home to the London papers from wars in exotic places like Sudan. When he returns to London, he attempts to make a career for himself as a serious artist and reencounters his childhood sweetheart, Maisie. Then he learns that a minor problem with his eyes is actually the onset of an incurable blindness, the result of a head injury during the war. As his vision fails, the light of everything around him - his life, hopes, and dreams - fails with it.

William, the narrator and faithful servant to rich widow Mrs. Norcross tells the story of her unhappy second marriage to James Smith. A detective lawyer's clerk, Mr. Dark, both confirms Smith's bigamous remarriage and, following his disappearance, proves Mrs. Norcross and William innocent of murder. Dark also recovers jewellery stolen by the maidservant and establishes her guilt.

A Golden Deed must be something more than mere display of fearlessness. Grave and resolute fulfilment of duty is required to give it the true weight. For the true metal of a Golden Deed is self-devotion. Selfishness is the dross and alloy that gives the unsound ring to many an act that has been called glorious. And, on the other hand, it is not only the valor, which meets a thousand enemies upon the battlefield, or scales the walls in a forlorn hope, that is of true gold....

Robert Louis Stevenson's brilliant short story of a well intentioned physician who experiments with potions of his own invention to create a monstrouly evil alter ego. Written in 1866, the title of this classic of horror tales lives on, of course, in our daily colloquialisms.

Join Peter Rabbit as he braves Mr. McGregor's garden, Benjamin Bunny in his quest for lost shoes, and a kindly tailor who is rewarded by the mice he rescued from his cat. Beatrix Potter's fantastic menagerie wears clothes, gets into mischief, and learns life lessons in this charming collection of classic stories.

A set of charming short stories for children by the famous Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde. The stories include: "The Happy Prince", "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Selfish Giant", "The Devoted Friend", and "The Remarkable Rocket."

Washington Irving's two most famous stories are combined here. One tells of Rip Van Winkle, who escaped the dreadful life of a hen-pecked husband by magical means. The other is the story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman on their midnight ride.

Originally published as "The Duel in Herne Wood" in The Spirit of the Times, 22 December 1877. Captain Stanwick and Lionel Varleigh are old friends, but after falling out over their attentions to Bertha Laroche, they fight an illegal duel in Herne Wood. Stanwick wrongly thinks he has killed Varleigh and goes mad, killing himself with a razor when his supposed victim returns like an apparition from the dead.

Two short stories by H.G. Wells displaying his gift for creating thought-provoking themes. "The Diamond Maker" is a story about a chance encounter between two men who then must decide whether they can trust each other. "The Door in the Wall" is a fascinating tale about a successful politician who struggles to merge the beauty of his imagined world with the rationality of real life.