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

Alexander Pushkin's greatest short story. Hermann, a young German officer serving in the Engineers regiment, is obsessed by gambling, although he never indulges in it himself. One night he hears a tale about how a wealthy 87-year-old Countess in St. Petersburg once learned the secret of how to win on three cards from the Duc d'Orleans. He becomes obsessed with learning the secret himself. In pursuit of this aim, he becomes enamoured of the Countess' companion, the beautiful Lizaveta.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer, now best remembered for his science fiction novels and often credited as being the father of science fiction. 'The Country of the Blind' is the strange story of a mountain guide who accidently falls off a cliff ledge in the Andes. He survives the fall unhurt, and finds himself in a remote valley where a tribe lives completely cut off from the rest of the world.

The Victorians were obsessed with Egyptology and mummies. It was during the second half of the 19th century that many of the most significant archeological finds were made in Egypt, and stories of the revenge of the mummies on anyone raiding their tombs, stealing their treasures or unwrapping their corpses abounded. This collection brings together the best and scariest short stories of the period, featuring vengeance-seeking mummies, bandaged zombies, pharaonic ghosts and ancient curses.

A wonderful collection of classic stories on the theme of love. A must-listen for the incurable romantic.

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer of outstanding short stories known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise endings. In this story two old friends had promised to meet up exactly 20 years to the day since their last meeting in New York. One of the friends has travelled a thousand miles to be there...and is now waiting for his childhood companion. Will he turn up?

"The Storm" is Kate Chopin's most sexually charged story, and as such is quite exceptional for a work which was written in 1898. It describes a chance sexual encounter between Calixta and her former flame Alcée during a heavy storm in Louisiana when her husband Bobinôt and her son Bibi are absent. Chopin's description of the events of that day is refreshingly modern and free of the stifling morals of the day.

First written in 1904, this is one of Edith Nesbit's best-loved children's stories. It it the second story about a group of five children - Robert, Anthea, Cyril, Jane, and their baby brother, the Lamb - who live in London. One day their mother buys a new carpet for the nursery which mysteriously contains a stone egg. When the egg falls into the fire by accident, nobody can possibly imagine what adventures will be unleashed.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels and is frequently credited as being the father of science fiction. The Red Room is the account of the terrifying nocturnal experiences of a young man who volunteers to spend a night in the haunted red room at Lorraine Castle.

When the retiring young bank clerk Smith ducks into the British Museum one day to avoid the rain, he finds himself confronted with the bust of an Egyptian lady so beautiful that he becomes infatuated with her. His obsession leads him to read extensively on the subject of Egyptology, learn to read hieroglyphics, and gradually become an established Egyptologist. Every winter he travels to Egypt and undertakes archeological work. Then, in the third year, he makes an astounding discovery which changes the course of his life forever.

J. G. Lockhart (1794-1854) was a Scottish writer and editor, with a particular passion for investigating famous mysteries. In this analysis, he investigates the legend of the Flying Dutchman, the ghostly mariner, cursed by God, who is condemned to roam the high seas causing disaster to ships and sailors until the day of judgement, when his soul will be delivered to Satan. Lockhart's analysis looks at various incarnations of the tale and whether the myth could in fact have its roots in a real event.

A fascinating collection of travellers' tales, featuring weird innkeepers, ghouls and ghosts, robbers and murderers, card sharpers and confidence tricksters, dead bodies in odd places....the very thing for anyone busy planning a vacation this year....

'The Library Window' is a ghost story. A young girl, visiting her aunt in Scotland, finds herself increasingly intrigued by a mysterious window in the house opposite her own favourite window, where she sits to read. There seems to be a local mystery about the window, including a dispute about whether there is even a window there at all. Increasingly this doubt seems odd to the girl as the days go by, as she can see into the room opposite and make out furniture and objects there. Then one day she sees someone in that room....

A terrifying collection of classic werewolf stories, ranging from ancient legends to Victorian and Edwardian adaptations on the theme. •Gabriel-Ernest by Saki •The Wolf by Guy de Maupassant •The Werewolf by Eugene Field •The Other Side by Count Eric Stanislaus Stenbock •The Werewolves by Henry Beaugrand •Jean Grenier the French Werewolf by Sabine Baring-Gould •The Man-Wolf by Leitch Ritchie •The She-Wolf by Saki •The Mark of the Beast by Rudyard Kipling

Poe's eerie story of a strange doppelganger, with a classic twist at the end. William Wilson, from his early schooldays, is dogged and taunted by another boy of similar height and appearance, who bears the same name as himself. Although as young boys they manage to tolerate each other, over time, as Wilson moves through Eton and Oxford and out into the world, his alter ego frequently turns up to thwart him at critical moments in his life.

A spine-tingling collection of the greatest short stories by the father of science fiction, H. G. Wells. 'The Time Machine', 'The Empire of the Ants', 'The Crystal Egg', 'The Sea-Raiders', 'The Door in the Wall', 'A Dream of Armageddon', 'The Country of the Blind', 'Under the Knife', 'The Stolen Body', 'The Plattner Story', 'The Stolen Bacillus', 'The Magic Shop', 'The Inexperienced Ghost', and many more short fiction masterpieces.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most intriguing novella. Austin Gilroy is a scientist and is by nature sceptical of anything to do with the occult. So when his colleague, Professor Wilson, introduces him to the mysterious and sinister hypnotist, Miss Penclosa, he is inclined to view her as a fraud. But when Gilroy's fiancée is hypnotised and Miss Penclosa makes her do the unthinkable, Gilroy is forced to change his views.

Mark Twain's classic satire on the German language. A must read for anybody learning German or living in a German-speaking country. "The Germans have another kind of parenthesis, which they make by splitting a verb in two and putting half of it at the beginning of an exciting chapter and the other half at the end of it. Can anyone conceive of anything more confusing than that?"

Gautier's marvellous tale of purchasing an old mummified foot in a bric-a-brac shop in Paris, which the merchant claims once belonged to the daughter of the Pharaoh himself. A likely story, indeed! But in a strange vision later that night, a beautiful but sad young woman appears in his room, dressed in odd attire... and oddest of all, the girl's foot is missing. In the dream, he restores the mummified foot to its rightful owner, and in her gratitude, she takes him to ancient Egypt to meet her father the Pharaoh.

Adeline Virginia Woolf (January 1882-1941) was an English writer and one of the preeminent modernists of the 20th century. "Kew Gardens" is a short story set in the London botanic garden of the same name on a hot July day. The narrative consists of brief evocative snapshots of four groups of people as they pass by a flowerbed.

Invited to a ball at the Ministry of Public Instruction where her husband works, Mathilde is in despair about how to look the part. She manages to persuade her husband to give her 400 francs for a new dress. But she also would like some jewellery to complete the outfit. Although their budget cannot stretch to this, Mathilde is able to borrow a diamond necklace from an old schoolfriend who is wealthy. But while she dazzles everyone at the ball, disaster is waiting in the wings...