Showing results by narrator "Roy Macready" in All Categories

This adaptation of Dickens' much loved "Ghost Story of Christmas" is subtitled "Scrooge and the Three Spirits" and concentrates on the miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge's dealings with the spirits that visit him on Christmas Eve to bring about his redemption.

E.F. Benson (1867-1940) is probably best known today for his sparkling, comic Lucia novels. In his own day, it was his ghost stories which were his most popular works. This collection of 10 stories exemplifies Benson's fine literary style and his ability to create the most frightening of ghostly and macabre tales.

Robert Browning (1812-1889), playwright and poet, is known and admired for his dramatic monologues in blank verse, of which he is a recognized master. He also wrote many lighter poems with a humorous touch. Here is one of his best known, The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was born in Dublin, Ireland and is acknowledged as an influential writer in the genre of gothic and supernatural fiction of the 19th century. Many of his short stories were originally published in various magazines. Here are six of them: “The White Cat of Drumgonnial”, “Dickon the Devil”, “The Drunkard's Dream”, “The Secret of the Two Plaster Casts”, “The Vision of Tom Chuff”, and “An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House”.

George and Weedon Grossmith were born in London into a theatrical family, and it was natural that they should both take up careers on the stage. Weedon initially studied art but later joined his brother, George, in the theatre.

The "Songs of Innocence" were published in 1789 and republished in 1794 together with the "Songs of Experience". They represent Blake's two perspectives on the world, that of the child (innocence) and that of the adult (experience). Blake's poetical works were largely neglected in their own time but are today considered some of the most brilliant of English verse. The "songs" are presented here together with "Auguries of Innocence".

Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author known for his works of horror and the fantastic. He is recognized as an influence on modern writers of supernatural fiction. Holy Terrors (published in 1946, a year before his death) is a collection of 14 short stories of which nine are very short and are included in this recording. They are: “The Rose Garden”, “Psychology”, “The Soldier's Rest”, “The Cosy Room”, “The Ceremony”, “Holy Things”, “The Turanians”, “The Happy Children”, and “Munitions of War”.

The delicious, biting wit of Saki's short stories satirizing Edwardian high society are some of the funniest and most delightful exquisite literary miniatures. In this first volume, there are 22 glittering examples. Saki was the pen name of Hector Hugh Monro. He was born in Burma in 1870, where his father was a senior official in the Burma police. From the age of two, he lived with two maiden aunts and his grandmother in Devon and was educated in Exmouth and at the Bedford Grammar School.

Here is a collection of 41 favorite classic children's poems by some of our best loved writers, including Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, Robert Browning, Rudyard Kipling, and others.

The first collection of the exploits of A.J. Raffles and his friend Bunny Manders was published as The Amateur Cracksman in 1899. The characters of Raffles and Bunny were possibly inspired by his brother-in-law's creations, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, although they are on the opposite side of the law.

M.R. James (1862-1936) was provost of King's College, Cambridge, and Eton College. He was a highly regarded scholar and academic in his time but today is remembered for his ghost stories, which are considered among the finest in the genre. The seven stories in this Volume One are: "A School Story", "Rats", "A Warning to the Curious", "Two Doctors", "The Haunted Doll's House", "Casting the Runes", "There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard".

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) was first published anonymously in 1821 in the London Magazine and was published in book form a year later. A revised edition was published in 1846. It is an account by the author of his addiction to laudanum and the effects it had on his life. This recording presents an abridged version of the 1856 edition.

Ambrose Bierce's collection of short stories of the supernatural and the macabre Can Such Things Be was first published in 1893. One of it's most frightening tales, "The Damned Thing", tells of the horrifying slaughter of a man by a supernatural and invisible "Thing"!

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) is noted mainly for his novels Treasure Island, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Kidnapped, and for his verse, including A Child's Garden of Verses. He also wrote many short stories, of which "The Body-Snatcher" is one of his best known. Two others, "Markheim" and "A Lodging for the Night", are also included in this recording.

The stories Told After Supper, related by the guests at a Christmas Eve party, are about ghosts and have all the wit and whimsy of Jerome K. Jerome's more famous works.

E. Nesbit is best known for her children's books such as The Railway Children, the Psammead series, and the stories of the Bastable family. She was also a poet and wrote many works for adults, including short stories in the genre of the supernatural and the macabre, eight of which are included in this collection.

E. Nesbit is best known for her children's books such as The Railway Children, the Psammead series, and the stories of the Bastable family. She was also a poet and wrote many works for adults including short stories in the genre of the supernatural and the macabre. "Man-Size in Marble" is one of her strangest and most unsettling.

"The Ballad of Reading Gaol" was written by Oscar Wilde in France, where he was in exile after his release from Reading Gaol. Wilde had been imprisoned and sentenced to two years hard labor. A hanging took place while Wilde was incarcerated, and the poem is the narrative of the execution.

Eliza was the first volume of the Eliza Stories by Barry Pain (1864-1928). It was published in 1900 and was the first of these stories that appeared in cheap editions and were sold on railway bookstalls. The stories were hugely popular and made Pain's name. Although the book is titled Eliza, it is her husband who is its comic hero.

Oscar Wilde's classic comic ghost story was the first of his short stories to be published, in February 1887. It relates the experiences of Mr. Hiram B. Otis, an American minister, and his family when they move into Canterville Chase, an ancient pile haunted by the previous owner's dead ancestor, Sir Simon. Of course, Mr. Otis declares, "There is no such thing, sir, as a ghost", and all of Sir Simon's hauntings have no effect on the skeptical American family, with the exception of the daughter, Virginia, despite his most strenuous efforts.