Showing results by narrator "Cate Barratt" in All Categories

Today we have ghosts that haunted our ancestors, as well as our own modern revenants, and there appears to be no earthly use trying to banish or exorcise them by such a simple strategy as refusing to believe in them. Since man knows that whether or not he has seen a ghost, presently he will become one, and thus he has become fascinated with the subject. Therefore he creates ghosts, not merely in his own image, but according to his dreams of power.

The Raven Edition of the works of Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849) presents his complete literary output in five volumes. In addition to 11 prose pieces, volume five contains all of Poe’s verse and also his only play, the unfinished drama, "Politian". Poe’s poetic output consists of 54 pieces, most of them short, but it also includes four longer pieces, The Bells, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and perhaps Poe’s most iconic poem, The Raven.

While studying medicine in the 1870s, Arthur Conan Doyle began writing and a decade later published his first novel featuring famous sleuth Sherlock Holmes. Doyle would soon adopt the short story as his means of portraying the exploits of his brilliant detective, and the first collection of stories, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, was published in 1892.

Stephen Leacock (1869-1944) may be considered the Canadian counterpart to Mark Twain. For many years he was professor of economics at Magill University and published a number of well-regarded texts on economics and political science. However, he is best known today for his many volumes of humorous fiction. During the 1920s he was one of the most widely read authors in the English-speaking world and was considered by Jack Benny and Groucho Marx to be one of the greatest comic writers of all time.

The publication in 1848 of The Communist Manifesto came at a time when industrialization was reaching its peak, and signs of the cost to the working class blatant; the Revolutions of 1848 were just getting under way. Marx and Engels shared the belief that "the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles" and this notion formed a central part of the manifesto they crafted together. They believed that industrialization was simply a new form of struggle among the classes - the price paid by the lower class still high.

Volume I introduces the French history enthusiast to the author's beginnings, the king's unrelenting desire to establish his illegitimate children, his meddling in the lives of his court, and his successes and reverses on the battlefield.

This translation, by an unknown hand, of D'Aurevilly's salacious miscellany, which consists of six novellas, was published in 1900 under the title Weird Women and is in the public domain. When the collection was first published in France in 1874, it caused up an uproar; it was declared a danger to public morality and the prosecutor issued orders for its seizure on the grounds of blasphemy and obscenity.

Guy de Maupassant, French master of the short story, had a simple, efficient style of writing and, like Anton Chekhov, found inspiration for his stories in the daily lives of humans, which often reveal our darker nature. Many of his works also centered on the Franco-Prussian War, in which he served.

Born in England in 1869, Stephen Leacock would immigrate to Canada and become a teacher, political scientist, and writer. He would ultimately come to be best known and loved as a humourist. Literary Lapses was first published as a collection of sketches in 1910, although many of the individual stories were first printed in various newspapers and periodicals, such as Punch, New York Life, and the Detroit Free Press.

Guy de Maupassant is widely regarded as the father of the modern short story. As his 13 volumes of short stories attest, he was a prolific writer of this form. He had a simple, efficient style of writing and, like Anton Chekhov, found inspiration for his stories in the daily lives of humans, which often reveal our darker nature. Many of his works also centred on the Franco-Prussian War, in which he served.

The world's premier thief looks back on a lifetime of adventure in these tales of his outrageous exploits. It has been a fortnight since the baroness Repstein disappeared from Paris, taking with her a fortune in jewels stolen from her husband. French detectives have chased her all over Europe, following the trail of gemstones like so many precious breadcrumbs, but she has eluded their efforts. When Arsène Lupin finds her, she will not escape so easily.

In compiling this collection of humorous short stories by both well known and more obscure authors, Alexander Jessup applied a broad interpretation of humour; the stories span the period between 1839 and the beginning of the first World War.

Listeners are invited to sit back and enjoy this collection of classic Yuletide tales....

Credited by many as the mother of the detective novel, Anna Katharine Green published her first mystery novel - The Leavenworth Case - in 1878, almost a decade before Sherlock Holmes made his appearance. Green's intrepid Ebenezer Gryce, a seasoned New York detective, takes up the case of a brutally murdered millionaire philanthropist. One of the murdered man's two nieces is set to inherit an immense fortune, and she and her cousin are high on the suspect list.

New York-born John Kendrick Bangs was associate editor and then editor of Life and Harper magazines, eventually finding his way into the Humour department. Here, he began to write his own satire and humour. Ghosts I Have Met and Some Others is a delightful humorous collection of short tales relating encounters with ghosts, including "The Mystery of My Grandmother's Hair Sofa", "The Exorcism That Failed", and more.

Edith Nesbit's trilogy about a group of children who encounter a sand fairy and, through his intercession, embark on a wild round of adventures has been a staple of juvenile literature since the first volume was published in 1902. The three books are Five Children and It (1902), The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904), and The Story of the Amulet (1906).

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849), The Raven Edition, presents his complete literary output in five volumes. Although best known for his works of macabre fiction, Poe also had a deep interest in scientific discovery and speculative philosophy. This volume contains stories about wild and wonderful experiments and other objects of public curiosity, and essays about language and thought.

In The Phoenix and the Carpet, five adventurous children are given a carpet that, unknown by their parents, contains a magic egg that hatches into a phoenix. A series of escapades ensues, some amusing, others dangerous and but all of which are entertaining.

Although Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is best known today as a master of macabre fiction, his writings cover a wide range of other forms, including poetry, drama, criticism, and historical commentary. The Raven Edition presents his complete literary output in five volumes, the first of which contains three tributes to Poe and eight of his stories.

This collaboration between French writer Maurice Leblanc and British writer/translator Edgar Jepson introduces the world to the fictitious French gentleman thief Arsene Lupin. The book was based on a play by Leblanc, and was first published in 1909. While the work reflects a young Lupin, listeners will recognize the character of this lovable burglar.