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

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?

John Griffith 'Jack' London (1876 - 1916) was a popular American novelist, journalist and social activist. 'In Yeddo Bay' is the adventure of a young sailor who has lost his purse while ashore in a Japanese port. How is he to get back to his ship without the 'ten sen' required as advance payment by the sampan men?

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?"

A gripping collection of over 50 of the greatest short stories written by great British writers. 1."The Missing Years" by Barry Pain, 2. "His Brother's Keeper" by W. W. Jacobs, 3. "A Madman's Manuscript" by Charles Dickens, 4. "The House of Cobwebs" by Barry Pain, 5. "Old Fags" by Stacy Aumonier, 6. "A Long-Ago Affair" by John Galsworthy, 7. "August Heat" by W. F. Harvey, 8. "The Dabblers" by W. F. Harvey, 9. "Rose Rose" by Barry Pain

'Number Fifty-Six' is a humorous tale of a Chinese laundryman who gets to know his clients through their laundry habits. He is able to infer much from the state of the various shirts, handkerchiefs, waistcoats which are delivered to him for washing. Of all his clients he is most fascinated by number 56...a man with strangely fluctuating shirt habits. And then one fateful day, a dreadful set of laundry is delivered to him....

A terrifying collection of classic Victorian short stories about ghosts, werewolves and vampires. The Wolf Book by Henry Chapman Mercer. Number Ninety by B. M. Croker. Ken's Mystery by Julian Hawthorne. The Piano Next Door by Elia W. Peattie. The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains by Frederick Marryat. The Horla by Guy de Maupassant. Absolute Evil by Julian Hawthorne. Mrs. Amworth by E. F. Benson.

Charles Lindley Wood, 2nd Viscount Halifax, was a collector of ghost stories. He assembled an extensive compilation of firsthand accounts of encounters with ghosts from all around the British Isles and abroad. The Man in the Iron Cage was one of Lord Halifax's favorites. It tells the story, from several sources, of a haunted house in Lille, France, with a gruesome secret in the attic.

The Man Who Could Work Miracles is a story about Fotheringay, a very unexceptional man who discovers he has an exceptional talent. He can work miracles. He discovers this ability by accident during an argument in a public house - and narrowly avoids setting light to the pub. Some of his other experiments also go awry, and Fotheringay decides to consult the local minister. The latter immediately recognises the potential of this gift and eggs Fotheringay on to greater miracles - with ever greater consequences.

In The Adventure of the Speckled Band, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are faced with a most unusual case. Two years earlier a young woman died under mysterious and unexplained circumstances while alone in her locked bedroom. Her last words to her sister referred to a 'speckled band'. She had previously complained of hearing a strange whistling sound in the night. Now the sister is sleeping in the same room, and she too has heard the mysterious whistling. But what can it be? And what is the 'speckled band'?

A Vine on a House is a classic Gothic haunted house story. The old abandoned Harding house, which is now overgrown by an unusual vine, has a strange and sinister story behind it. Years before, the mother of the household disappeared suddenly. Two years later the family abandoned the house. More recent visitors have discovered the vine growing up the front of the house behaving very oddly. Finally the local authorities decide to dig up the vine....

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. 'The Perfect Close' is the story of a 79-year-old man who realises one day that he is about to die. Seeing that he has only an hour or so left to live, he must decide how to spend his final moments. We accompany him on the last minutes of his life as he achieves his last couple of surprising but highly satisfying victories.

'Miss Avenal' is a creepy story in the classic Victorian vampire genre. An invalid, Miss Avenal, engages a trained nurse to look after her while she recuperates in a remote moorland house somewhere in the north of England. But as Miss Avenal recovers her strength, the young nurse feels her own health start to ebb away.

'A Little Cloud' is a brilliant and evocative short story from Joyce's collection Dubliners comparing the lives of those who escaped Ireland and travelled around Europe compared to the quiet, dull existence of those who remain at home. Thomas Chandler meets an old friend, Ignatius Gallaher, for a drink. Gallaher has made a name for himself in London and has been as far as Paris and Berlin. Chandler's life by comparison is unfulfilled. His job is boring, his marriage loveless and his soul weary.

Jules Gabriel Verne (1828-1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright who is sometimes credited as the original 'Father of Science Fiction'. Written in 1851, 'A Drama in the Air' is one of Verne's earliest and most seminal stories, telling the dramatic adventure of a balloonist suddenly confronted with an unexpected and unpredictable passenger who climbs into his balloon at the point of take-off. Many of the themes from this tale were expanded by Verne in his later and better known works about aerial journeys around the world or to the moon.

Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916) is better known by the pen name Saki. He remains hugely popular as a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirised Edwardian society and culture. The Interlopers is the story of two sworn enemies who find themselves trapped and injured under a fallen tree in a forest at night.

Max Carrados is called in to investigate a mysterious ghost which haunts an empty flat in Massingham Mansions in London. Every night gaslights are seen in the apartment, even though the gas has been disconnected. Also water runs in the bath every night, even though the water supply has been turned off. Carrados quickly realises that the detectives on the case are barking up the wrong tree....

A newly qualified doctor receives a call from his first patient - a mysterious woman who is deeply distressed and who is covered in a thick black veil. She tells him a confusing story about a dying man who she wishes the doctor to visit the following day, although she assures the doctor that the patient will certainly be dead by then. The young doctor agrees that he will make the visit at nine on the next morning...and finds himself on the strangest professional call of his entire life.

Joseph Smith Fletcher (1863-1935) was a British journalist and author. He wrote more than 230 books on a wide variety of subjects, both fiction and nonfiction. He was one of the leading writers of detective fiction in the Victorian golden age of the short story. This collection brings together some of the finest and most diverse examples of Fletcher's genius. 'The Ivory God' is the tale of a failing writer who acquires a strange ivory carving of an Indian god. He becomes convinced that the statue is communicating with him, taking possession of him, even writing through him.

Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was an English author, born in one of the Five Towns which form the background of so many of his witty stories. 'The Fire of London' is an unusual mystery story about a case of fraud and blackmail. Bruce Bowring, a businessman of dubious integrity, has been running what amounts to a Ponzi scheme in the heart of the city of London. At the start of our story, Bowring receives a mysterious telephone call from a stranger, warning him that his house will be burgled that evening....

Robert Barr (1849-1912) was a Scottish-Canadian short story writer and novelist, born in Glasgow, Scotland. 'The Hour-Glass' is a mysterious ghost story. An avid antique collector buys an ancient and defective hourglass from a curiosity shop. When he takes it home and starts to examine it, he is startled by a strange visitor who claims to be the real owner of the hourglass. His story is a very bizarre one.