Showing results by narrator "Walter Covell" in All Categories

Called by Lord Byron, "The most exquisite of all romances in miniature," The Vicar of Wakefield is the story of a simple reverend who, losing his fortune, moves his family to a new part of the country and tries to live according to his beliefs. He and his family make an Arcadian picture of affectionate accord. That is, until the idyll is rudely disturbed by a notorious seducer. The book is a classic comedy of manners and a satire on the moralistic tales of the period.

Gaston Leroux is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera. However, he also wrote some excellent detective stories. In fact,Leroux's contribution to French detective fiction is considered a parallel to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's in the United Kingdom and Edgar Allan Poe's in America. In this, his most popular mystery, rival detectives try to crack a case.

In "The Invisible Man", a murderer manages to get in and out of a house, even though it is under constant observation. In some ways, the story parallels Poe's "The Purloined Letter" but adds its own unique touches, particularly in the character and methods of priest-sleuth Father Brown.

"The Phantom Lover" is one of Veron Lee's most famous works. It is a strange but very effective story, about a powerful bond that is so strong it reaches even across death. In many ways it reminds one of Henry James story "The Turn of the Screw". Is it a story of mental illness and weird imaginings - or of life beyond the grave? Either way, it is a look at the interrelatedness of the past and the present, the living and the dead.

Emile Zola (1840-1902) was one of the giants of French literature. This collecion of three of his most famous stories illustrates the incredible range of his writing. "Captain Burle" is a dramatic story illustrating the importance of honor in French society; "The Miller's Daughter" is a tale of romance and heroism; and "The Death of Oliver Becaille" recounts the horror of a man who wakes up to find himself buried alive!

Kipling creates a harmonious picture of India that unites the secular and the spiritual, the life of action and that of contemplation. It is the story of the orphaned son of an Irish soldier, Kimball O'Hara, who spends his childhood as a vagabond, traveling through India with an old Tibetan lama, enthralled by the "roaring whirl" of the country's colorful landscape and by the diversity of its people.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was one of the major figures of 19th-century supernaturalism. He helped move supernaturalist fiction away from the gothic's emphasis on external sources of terror and toward a focus on the effects of terror, thus helping to create the psychological basis for supernaturalist and horror literature that continues today. "The Familiar" is one of his most terrifying tales.

When we hear the name Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, most people think of Sherlock Holmes, his most famous creation. However, detective stories were not Doyle's favorite. His lifelong passion was the supernatural and because of this he wrote a number of fascinationg supernatural stories. This section includes 7 of the best.

Baroness Emmuska Orczy was a Hungarian-born British novelist, who gained fame as a writer for The Scarlet Pimpernel. She also created an archetype of popular mystery fiction: the armchair detective, as exemplified by "The Old Man in the Corner", a sleuth who is never mentioned by name and but who solves cases simply by "thinking them through", while leaving the gathering of evidence to others. "The Dublin Mystery" is one of the best of these stories.

Algernon Blackwood was an English author who dealt primarily with the supernatural. The Willows, his most celebrated story, was influenced heavily by Blackwood's own trips down the Danube River. It tells the story of two campers who pick the wrong place to sleep for the night, a place where another dimension impinges on our own.

When young Edwin Drood disappears, suspicion centers on John Jasper, a drug-addicted choirmaster who hungers after Drood's fiancé. So does Neville Landless, a Ceylonese who has previously quarreled violently with the missing man. The mystery if further enhanced because it was left unfinished at the author's death. Thus the book has challenged the imagination of generations of readers.

Benjamin Franklin's wide range of activities and interests opened the doors of the world to him. Printer, inventor, philosopher, ambassador, champion of liberty - his influence has been felt by every American generation. And to everything he touched, including this autobiography, Franklin brought originality and wit.

Irishwoman Charlotte Riddell was truly a born story-teller. In Essex she found the right dreary setting for The Haunted House at Latchford, "where beyond the fated house and ruined garden lay the belt of pine trees and the lake of the dismal swamp, which had furnished Crow Hall with no less than two tragedies."

A Christmas Carol is undoubtedly the most famous supernatural story in English. However, it was not the only supernatural story of the season that Charles Dickens wrote. In Victorian England, Christmas was the time to explore the supernatural in stories, and Charles Dickens was one of the best at it. Included in this volume are a full-cast dramatization of A Christmas Carol, plus three more of Dickens' best stories of the season.

Enjoy stories of the past and the future by the author of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds. This collection includes The Star, The Crystal Egg, Stories of the Stone Age, A Story of the Days to Come and The Man Who Could Work Miracles.

Hawthorne approached the Romantic notion of the ability of science to destroy art (or beauty) in the form of fictive "horror stories" of biological research out of control. This story is the best of that group. A devoted scientist marries a beautiful woman with a single physical flaw: a birthmark on her face. Aylmer becomes obsessed with the imperfection and his attempts to remove it via his scientific skills, thus rendering his bride perfect.

Many consider "The Canterville Ghost" the most famous ghost story of all time. It is a parody featuring a dramatic spirit named Sir Simon and an American ambassador named Mr. Hiram B. Otis. Mr. Otis travels to England with his family and moves into a haunted castle. Lord Canterville, the previous owner of the castle, warns Mr. Otis that the ghost of Sir Simon de Canterville has haunted the castle ever since he killed his wife, Eleonore, centuries ago.

Miss Mary Morstan has been receiving pearls and she knows not why or from whom. Now she receives something else: a letter that promises to reveal the mystery and to "right the wrongs" against her. "If you distrust me," continued the correspondent, "bring two friends." She brings Sherlock Holmes and Watson.

The story involves a huge diamond, the moonstone, originally stolen from an Indian shrine. The gem is given to an English girl on her 18th birthday but disappears that same night. What follows is a spellbinding mystery that to this day has the power to draw the listener into its world of danger, suspense, and surprise.

"The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the second of the 12 Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes in most British editions of the canon and second of the eight stories from His Last Bow in most American versions.