Mostrando resultados por narrador "Cathy Dobson" en Todas las categorías

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer of stories and novels and is frequently credited as being the father of science fiction. The Time Machine, first published in 1895, is possibly Wells' most famous work. It tells the story of the inventor of a vehicle which allows him to travel in time and his firsthand account of his adventures as he travels millions of years into the future, where mankind has evolved into something very different from the humans of the 19th century.

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) is generally considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. The Bet is the story of a banker and a lawyer who embark on an insane bet. The banker bets the lawyer two million roubles that he cannot endure 15 years of incarceration. The lawyer agrees and the terms of the imprisonment are set. But during the 15 years each of the characters undergoes various changes and the outcome of the bet is an extraordinary twist in the tale.

In this tale of Jeannot and Colin, Voltaire not only tells an instructive tale, warning of the dangers of sudden wealth and social climbing, but also directs his satirical comments at the vacuous and fickle nouveau riche of his day, the catholic church, private education, and society in general. Jeannot and Colin are childhood friends. Both come from working-class backgrounds in a rural part of France, but Jeannot's parents, on a trip to Paris, strike it lucky in business and within a short time become very wealthy.

In The Story of a Piebald Horse, a stranger appears at the cattle branding one day, and in an unfortunate incident he is accidentally killed. His piebald horse, saddle, and other posessions are kept by one of the ranchers until the stranger can be identified and his family contacted. In the hope that some traveller will recognize the stranger's horse, he ties it up beside the local inn. After a time, a group of herders passing through do recognize the horse... and they tell a most extraordinary tale....

Allan Quatermain, or Hunter Quatermain as his friends call him, recounts his South African adventure of hunting four lions.

Set during the Franco-Prussian war, de Maupassant's story tells of a group of German soldiers occupying and gradually vandalising a stately home in Normandy. Bored of the dull location and incessant rain, the group of young officers decide to send to the nearest town for a group of prostitutes, so that they can hold an orgiastic dinner party. Among the women is the spirited young Rachel, whose willingness to fraternize with the Prussians is put to the test, with catastrophic results.

Mrs. Sangrail is determined to offload her wayward son Clovis onto Lady Bastable for six days while she takes a trip to Scotland. Is desperation she resorts to cunning bribery, but Clovis has other ideas and devises an ingenious scheme to thwart his mother’s plans. Another piece of genius humour writing by Hector Hugh Munro, peppered with his humorous observations on British Edwardian society.

When the Momeby family’s baby goes missing, their neighbour Miss Gilpet undertakes to find the child. Her immediate success turns out to be less of a miracle and more of an embarrassment for all.

When the prematurely middle-aged J.P. Huddle is recommended to take an “unrest-cure” by a friend, he little realizes that the other passenger in the railway compartment, the prank-loving Clovis, will take this as a personal challenge. The havoc which Clovis’s macabre and at times shocking practical joke causes is beyond anything that the sleepy hamlet of Tilfield has seen before. Hector Hugh Munro at his most macabre.

Kipling’s classic tale taken from the Just So Stories. The camel who lives in the howling desert is reluctant to join the other animals in working for man. He gets his comeuppance when he is magically given a hump, so that he can work three days in a row without stopping to eat.

When Della finds she doesn't have enough money to buy a proper Christmas present for her beloved husband Jim, radical action is needed. She resolves to cut off and sell her precious hair to raise funds. Armed with the twenty dollars raised, she buys the perfect gift for Jim. But when Jim comes home with his present for her, Christmas takes an altogether unexpected turn....

Richard Barham Middleton (1882-1911) was an English poet and author who is remembered mostly for his short ghost stories, of which 'The Ghost Ship' is the most famous. It is one of the few stories in literature which combines a ghostly theme with lightening humour. Middleton suffered from severe depression for much of his life (then known as melancholia) and committed suicide by poisoning himself with chloroform at the age of 29.

Four gripping tales by the master of Adventure Stories, Joseph Conrad. "The Tale", "The Inn of the Two Witches", "The Secret Sharer", "The Idiots".

Mark Twain's brilliant tale of a train stuck on the prairie in a snowdrift, where the starving passengers resort to a daily ballot to select which fellow traveller will be sacrificed to provide the next meal. Will it be the succulent Mr. Harris of St. Louis, the juicy Mr. Messick of Colorado or the scraggy, tough Mr. Davis of Oregon? Twain's gentle gallows humour shines through the story and we find ourselves laughing out loud at the most grisly of details. Masterly!

Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction and a close associate of D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. 'The Little Girl' is the story of a child with a strict, overbearing Victorian father. When her mother is ill and her father has to look after the little girl alone, she gets to know a different, softer, kinder side of him.

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet and novelist. The Village That Voted the Earth Was Flat is one of Kipling's rare humorous stories. A group of friends out for a motor jaunt find themselves up on a trumped up speeding charge exacerbated by some outrageously insulting sarcasm from a country town magistrate. The group pit their ample wits and resources to exact their extraordinary revenge....

W. W. Jacobs (1863-1941) is best known as a writer of humorous stories and the crafter of the most grisly of horror stories. "The Well" tells the subtle and terrible tale of a man who murders his unscrupulous cousin, who is attempting to blackmail him, and hides the body in a disused well. It seems to be the perfect crime until one day his beloved drops her treasured bracelet down the well...

As the invention of the automobile enabled quicker travel and enhanced the lives of the early motorists, it also gave new impetus to a generation of story writers. Automobiles were unusual, unfamiliar beasts. They combined speed and danger with an uncanny ability to break down at unexpected moments, catapulting the unhappy traveller into new adventures, or thusting mystery strangers onto the inhabitants of remote houses.

The Balloon Hoax was first published in The Sun newspaper in New York in 1844. Originally presented as a true story, it detailed European Monck Mason's trip across the Atlantic Ocean in only three days in a hot air balloon. The story turned out to be a hoax and the paper published a retraction two days later (rumoured to also have been written by Poe himself) admitting the deception.The story ignited a fever of excitement in New York: Poe himself claimed that the Sun building was "besieged" by people wanting copies of the newspaper.

Harry Garham made a great name for himself as a writer of light verse and humorous stories, including the inimitable Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes. His classic story, 'Biffin on the Bassoon', recounts a tale of decidedly amateur musician who inadvertently finds himself playing the bassoon solo at the inaugural performance by the London Philmelodic of Heinzmacher's Die Schöpfung, with comic results.