Showing results by narrator "B.J. Harrison" in All Categories

In the years before Little Women, Louisa May Alcott anonymously wrote several thrillers in order to make ends meet. Dubbed as her “blood and thunder tales”, they reveal a bright, inventive and passionate writer driven to keep the listener riveted. Behind a Mask is considered the best of these tales. Jean Muir works her will on the Coventry family, who are rich, indolent, and ripe for the picking. While also tackling themes of social status and feminism, Alcott deftly delivers a shocking tale of obsessive intrigue.

"The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" is perhaps the most influential and widely acclaimed play by William Shakespeare. The tragedy follows Prince Hamlet as he concocts a plan to avenge the death of his father, who was murdered by his uncle Claudius in order to take the throne. Suspenseful, supernatural, moody, and full of twists, Hamlet is an exploration of the human condition, of the troubled psyche of the prince and his relationship with his mother and lover, as well as of pity, horror, and vengeance.

Psychic Mallory Vaughn loves her neat, organized life as a manicurist at Nocturne Falls’ busiest salon. Things are going great until Jordan - her train wreck of a twin - lands on Mallory’s doorstep with a suitcase full of trouble. Cyrus Barker is a genie who belongs to a small-town sheriff and the man’s entrepreneur wife. When Jordan wins an unwinnable jackpot from the wife, the couple dispatches Cyrus to get the money and bring Jordan back. He follows her to the strangest town he’s ever seen. To make matters worse, he loses Jordan, but finds her twin, Mallory.

On a quiet steamer to France, mysterious plots are whispered in dark corners. Rokoff, the nefarious Russian assassin, is at the bottom of them all. It would take someone with sharpened senses, lightning fast reflexes, and superhuman strength to thwart these plans. Join Tarzan as he travels far and wide on a covert mission to stop the scheming machinations of the unscrupulous and ingenious Rokoff.

Word goes among the crew of the Pole Star that the captain is haunted by demons. And after the days turn into weeks in the frigid Arctic Ocean, stories begin to circulate of ghosts and midnight hauntings.

There is a bridge at Owl Creek that is surrounded by dry and cracking driftwood. Burning the bridge would be the perfect way for a civilian Southerner to strike a blow against the Union Army. But Peyton Farkuar doesn't make it that far and instead finds a rope around his neck.

One day, a little English boy called Teddy finds a mongoose named Rikki-Tikki-Tavi in the family house garden. He thinks that the poor animal is dead, but his mother takes it inside the house and it recovers. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi then begins to explore the garden, which is half-wild and overgrown and crosses the path of two troublesome cobras. This is the moment where Rikki-Tikki-Tavi’s adventure begins.

Aaron Okonkwo, a Nigerian scientist, travels with a crew in the 24th century to evaluate Viridis, which proves to be a beautiful and fabulous world. There, Aaron discovers a strange, alien species and amazing machines and technology left in a vast underground complex by a mysterious race called the Creators. Aaron soon falls under the irresistible, seductive spell of Nightsong, a green alien female with ominous and bewitching powers. However, an even greater danger rises.

Tormented to distraction by the death of his true love, an old man embarks on a quixotic quest to find her. A tale that is tragic yet tender, Theodore Dreiser demonstrates the power of a love that bridges the gap between life and death.

It is the year 1967 in the magnificent and dreamy St. Petersburg. The world is ruled by the magic of aristocrats, the sounds of rock and roll are blasting even in the palace of Her Imperial Majesty, and Russian Volgas are successfully going up against American Pontiacs on the wide avenues at night. Another frantic unauthorized race under the stars ends in tragedy. Doctors and healers, who have already announced the death of the sixteen-year-old Prince Alexander Gorchakov Jr., attribute his miraculous salvation to his suddenly awakened gift.

Valentin, the greatest detective in the world, travels to London on the trail of the most elusive of villains. But a strange trail of clues leads Valentin through London and out into the country. It isn't until the meandering journey's end that the short, moon-faced Father Brown sets Valentin back on his feet.

Three hundred years after his death, William Lantry awakes from his coffin. One thing is very clear to him - this sterile world without superstition, fear, or imagination must be destroyed.

Nicholas Nickleby is a young boy left without a father. Nicholas has to take care of his mother and sister and is forced by his uncle to work as an assistant to the schoolmaster Wackford Squeers. Squeers’ intentions are however not good and his only goal is to make Nicholas’ life miserable. At the same time Squeers’ wife convinces herself that Nicholas loves her and this gets the young boy in even greater trouble. Nicholas’ uncle is colluding with the schoolmaster and it seems like everybody is against him.

Sure, you have some concept of a supreme being - but is your god-notion God? The one true God? The biblical God? The God who is? To anyone who has ears to hear, I simply say that it’s time to open the book and truly behold the dreadful holiness and terrifying awe of "I am". Certainly, it is long past time in this era of low-resolution preaching, denominational banality, and pervasive biblical illiteracy. For indeed, the Bible is unmistakably clear: “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31) 

Stanley Featherstonehough Ukridge is willing to do anything to get a buck—except, of course, work. Bombastic and big-eared, Ukridge has a bottomless well of corking ideas that never seem to work out, yet he’s always willing to volunteer others to tackle the inconvenient bits. Whether he’s commandeering a dog college, managing a tender-hearted pugilist, or brushing the perpetual chips off his aunt’s shoulder, Ukridge’s spotty success record never gets him down.

Surprising, sensational, inexorable. These are the adventures of Baron Munchausen. See him escape from the jaws of a hungry lion, shoot a stag with cherry stones, climb a beanstalk to the moon, and many other fantastical fables. Each tale is taller than the last as we enter the world of Baron Munchausen.

Ardita Farnam, flapper and demimondaine, has a feisty will and a fiery tongue. But when seven hulking musicians seize her yacht while her rich uncle goes ashore, she soon discovers the limits of her persuasive powers, and a battle of wits begins.

First serialized in 1919, the novel takes place during WWI and tellls the story of Kurt Dorn, a wheat farmer in the state of Washington whose father is German and his mother American. Though he has a successful farm, there are groups that would like to prevent wheat from being harvested at all, including a group of Bolsheviks, the Industrial Workers of the World, which is led by a German spy financed not only by Germany but also secretly by a German wheat magnate.

The first award-winning season of The Classic Tales Podcast, topping the iTunes charts as the #3 overall podcast. Here B.J. Harrison reintroduces the world to the greatest short fiction ever written, from Poe, Dickens, Hardy, Stevenson, Fitzgerald and many, many others

Henry Pifield Rice is a detective, technically. He prides himself in his disguises, which are, in truth, pretty deplorable. So when he’s detailed to follow a touring theatrical romantic comedy, his life is absolutely transformed.