検索キーワード： ナレーター "Cathy Dobson" すべてのカテゴリー

Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist, and short story writer, best known for his evocative and beautifully narrated ghost stories. 'Royal Visitors' is a humorous story set at Trinity College, Cambridge, and tells the story of a revenge prank by the undergraduate nicknamed 'The Babe' on his tutor, Mr. Stewart, who at short notice had withdrawn a lunch invitation to dine with visiting foreign royals.

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.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was the preeminent figure in late 19th-century detective fiction. A physician by profession, he soon found such popularity as a writer of detective stories that his writing was far more profitable than his medical practice. 'The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire' is a Sherlock Holmes mystery. Holmes and Watson are contacted by a country gentleman whose Peruvian wife has been caught red-handed sucking the blood from her baby's neck. Can there be any explanation other than that the woman is a vampire?

Edmée Elizabeth Monica Dashwood, née de la Pasture (1890-1943), was a prolific English author who wrote under the pseudonym E. M. Delafield. She is best known for her largely autobiographical Diary of a Provincial Lady, which took the form of a journal of the life of an upper-middle class Englishwoman living mostly in a Devon village of the 1930s. In 'Squirrel in a Cage', she tells the story of the ending of a relationship between two lovers.

A. J. Alan was the pseudonym of Leslie Harrison Lambert (1883-1941), an English magician, intelligence officer, short story writer, and radio broadcaster. He was hugely popular in the '20s and '30s for his radio broadcasts, when he performed his own humorous and often macabre short stories, which he always delivered wearing full evening dress. A Joy Ride is one of A. J. Alan's most amusing stories and has a classic twist at the end.

Leslie Harrison Lambert, who wrote under the name of A. J. Alan (1883 - 1941), was an English magician, intelligence officer, short story writer and radio broadcaster. He kept the secret of his identity secret, while as a spinner of yarns, humorous, fantastic or mysterious, he became ever more popular, especially via his regular radio broadcasts. The Cabmen's Shelter is the humorous tale of a doomed amateur dramatics performance which aims to raise money for a cabmen's shelter at the local station.

Arthur George Morrison (1863-1945) was an English writer and journalist known for his realistic novels and stories about working-class life in London's East End. His Tale of Bricks is a humorous tale of a set of rogues in London's East End attempting an ingenious swindle at Liverpool Street station, involving the switching of one suitcase with another filled with bricks...but the swap does not work out quite as planned.

John Galsworthy (1867-1933) was an English playwright and novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932. A Long-Ago Affair is a poignant story of requited love and betrayal. A 16-year-old boy with a torrid crush on an older married woman finds himself unwittingly facilitating her secret love affair with another man.

A colourful palette of short stories featuring artists and their love of paintings. "Rose Rose" by Barry Pain, "The Cat" by E. F. Benson, "The Model Millionaire" by Oscar Wilde, "A Queer Night in Paris" by Guy de Maupassant, "Portrait of a Lady" by Jerome K. Jerome, "Miss Harriet" by Guy de Maupassant, "The Oval Portrait" by Edgar Allan Poe, "My Adventure at Chislehurst" by A. J. Alan, "The Stalled Ox" by Saki, "The Room in the Tower" by E. F. Benson.

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) wrote of the Russian period of depression and pessimism and is the acknowledged leader of the realistic school of the Russian short story. In The Encased Man he describes the life of a schoolmaster whose existence is limited by petty rules, morals, inhibitions and unconscious fears. Despite these traits, the man finds himself on the verge of an unforeseen marriage to a boisterous, energetic, positive woman - in short, his complete opposite. But his character traits rear their heads and destiny rushes in upon him.

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.The Clarion Call tells of the chance encounter between two old childhood friends. One, Kernan, is now a burglar who three weeks ago committed his first murder. The other, Woods, is a New York detective. Woods is faced with a terrible dilemma....

A terrifying and macabre collection of anatomically inspired stories by the masters of gruseome fiction.

'Poison' is the uneasy story of two starstruck lovers living together for the first time. But what was the truth about the woman's previous husbands?

'The Magic H's' is a humorous tale of a young, rich, eligible and attractive young aristocrat: Harald Hipperholme. Tragically, the young man suffers a speech impediment - he is unable to pronounce the letter H - which in polite London society amounts to social death. The young earl sounds more like a Cockney without his H's. He resorts in the first place to elocution lessons but with no success. Then he tries black magic and conjures up a demon who agrees to help him. But of course there is a terrible catch to the deal....

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole (1884-1941) was a New Zealand-born English novelist famous for his skill at scene setting and vivid plots. He was a best-selling author in the 1920s and 1930s and remains popular to this day. One recurring theme in his works, based in his own unhappy experiences of being bullied at school, is alienation in childhood. The Ruby Glass is a story of dysfunctional childhood. The Cole family play host to their little cousin, Jane, one spring.

Six of Wilkie Collins' best short stories: "The Dead Hand", "The Devil's Spectacles", "Major Namby", "Nine O'Clock", "A Terribly Strange Bed", and "My Black Mirror".

William Fryer Harvey (1885-1937) was an English writer of short stories, most notably in the mystery and horror genres. Born into a wealthy Quaker family in Yorkshire, he went to Balliol College, Oxford, and took a degree in medicine at Leeds. Ill health dogged him, however, and he devoted much of his recuperation to writing short stories. The Heart of the Fire is a queer tale. On the fireplace in the old coaching inn, The Moorcock, there is carved an old mysterious prophecy which casts an odd burden on the family....

At the deathbed of Ursula, the eldest of three sisters, the dying women declares that she will return from the dead when the time comes to accompany each of her younger siblings into the afterlife. The two survivors and their old housekeeper, now live on in fear of encountering Ursula's ghost, and strange happenings in the house bring this terror to an unholy climax.

When Alice joins her husband, whom due to the war she has barely seen since their marriage two years earlier, on his yacht for a belated honeymoon, she discovers that a boat is far from an ideal location to get to know one's spouse. For a start, there is no privacy anywhere. The crew can hear everything. Secondly, life about ship is run by men and operates on male terms. Alice sets out to establish herself as mistress of both her husband and his ship.

Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer, best known for his spine-tingling and beautifully written ghost stories. The Room in the Tower is the most famous of these. It describes a horrific recurrent dream of nameless dread, occurring over a period of 15 years, in which the dreamer arrives at a peculiar house inhabited by a sinister silent family, where he takes tea on the lawn and is then shown to the room in the tower where something dreadful, malicious, and evil lurks...