Showing results by narrator "Rob Goll" in All Categories

Nancy Morris, a shopkeeper's daughter from Sandwich, becomes a governess with the help of a benefactor, Sir Gervase Damian. One day she helps a stranger whose advances she gently rebuffs, only to meet him again when she takes a new position in the North.

Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontë's only novel, first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell. A work of considerable power and intensity set in the Yorkshire moors in the late 18th century - the bleak and wild moorland often reflected in the natures of the characters. Unsettling at times, the novel is a heady mix of gritty realism, romance, Gothic horror, and tragedy.

Hedda and George Tesman have just returned from their six-month honeymoon tour of the Tyrol. George, a studious and somewhat dull academic has spent most of the time continuing his research. Hedda, the daughter of the celebrated, aristocratic General Gabler, recently deceased, has been accustomed to the finer things in life. She is already bored in her marriage and diverts herself with her father's pistols and the attentions of family friend, Judge Brack.    

I left her when she was eight. Just a child. Too young to be alone. I killed myself because I could never atone for the things he made me do. There is something wrong with my family, you see. A fear runs through us, through our blood. A fear that circles above us, shredding the sky and clawing at our hearts, and now, from a deathless realm, I am forced to watch as my lonely daughter is tortured by the life I gave her to endure....

The charismatic Count Dracula, a Transylvanian nobleman, wishes to purchase a house in London. Assisted in this enterprise by a young solicitor, Jonathan Harker, it becomes evident that there is a sinister side to the Count's plans. A small group of friends unites to prevent the success of the Count's schemes, hazarding danger to themselves for the greater good of humanity.

Lucie Manette, long believing herself to be an orphan, meets with London banker Jarvis Lorry in the Royal George Hotel in Dover and finds out her father, Dr. Alexandre Manette, is alive and has been held for the last 18 years as a political prisoner in the Bastille. The three are reunited in an attic garret in Paris, close to the wine shop run by Ernest Defarge, the doctor's former servant, and his wife, Thérèse.

Scientifically minded Edward Prendick is shipwrecked in the southern Pacific and rescued by a passing ship. Aboard he meets Montgomery whose destination is an island belonging to Dr. Moreau. Moreau, formerly an eminent physiologist in London whose gruesome experiments in vivisection had been publicly exposed, had fled England as a result of his exposure. Edward tries to understand and survive among Dr. Moreau's gruesome 'beast-folk' and tries to return to civilization.

A narrative poem of 14 stanzas, written by Lord Byron following a visit to the Château of Chillon on Lake Geneva in 1816. It was inspired by the story of 16th-century Swiss monk and patriot François Bonivard, held captive in the dungeons of Chillon between 1532 and 1536.

The story is of a female slave, Leila, who loves the Giaour, an infidel, and is in consequence bound, thrown in a sack, and drowned in the sea by her Turkish lord, Hassan. In revenge the Giaour kills Hassan, then in grief and remorse banishes himself to a monastery.

The brightest light of the Pickwick Club is its founder member and illustrious leader, Samuel Pickwick. He is joined by his three friends and fellow club members: the poetic Augustus Snodgrass, the romantic Tracy Tupman, and the sporting Nathaniel Winkle. Their mission is to travel the country in search of interesting scenes and characters and to report back the results of their observations. What follows is a series of adventures and misadventures, encounters and intrigues which show the dazzling brilliancy of Charles Dickens' comic invention with regard to character and situation.

Ebenezer Scrooge, described as "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner," is certainly no lover of the Christmas season.

The Happy Prince and Other Tales is a collection of five stories first published in 1888. Oscar Wilde said of these stories that "they are studies in prose, put for Romance's sake into a fanciful form: meant partly for children, and partly for those who have kept the childlike faculties of wonder and joy, and who find in simplicity a subtle strangeness." The five stories in this collection are "The Happy Prince", "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Selfish Giant", "The Devoted Friend", and "The Remarkable Rocket".

Francis Raven awakens on the eve of his birthday, frightened by the appearance of a woman attempting to murder him. He is continually haunted by this woman and years later marries Alicia Warlock, who looks strikingly identical to the figure from his dream. Is this Dream Woman simply an apparition or will her attempts to kill Francis become reality? Also known as The Ostler in earlier versions, The Dream Woman is another of Collins' finest detective stories.

Wilfred Owen is widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of the First World War. He was tragically killed on patrol on 4 November 1918, a week before the armistice was signed. Owen was to see only five of his poems published during his lifetime. This collection of 23 poems, containing many of his best known works, uses the texts as published in Poems - edited by Wilfred Owen’s friend and mentor Siegfried Sassoon with the assistance of Edith Sitwell and first published in 1920.         

After 25 years of torment, Matthew is released from a mental institute under the watchful eye and care of Tammy Atkins, a care worker with a secret history of alcohol abuse and self-harm. As Matthew struggles to adapt to his new found liberty, he finds himself continuously plagued by the demons of his past. Haunted by strange and ghastly images and urges, Matthew sets himself upon a path of vengeance; determined to seek out his parents' killer and put his demons to rest once and for all.

Henry James' 1898 novella is one of the world's greatest ghost stories. Told by an unnamed governess who accepts a position looking after two children at a remote English country manor, the story is famously ambiguous. The governess gradually comes to believe that the house - and the two seemingly angelic children, Miles and Flora - are haunted by the ghosts of her predecessor and her brutish lover. But are the ghosts actually real? Or is the governess slowly going mad?

Parisina was first published in 1816. The tragic narrative poem is the sixth, and shortest, in the series of Byron's "Oriental Romances" or "Heroic Tales". Prince Azo, overhearing his wife, Parisina, muttering in her sleep, discovers that she is having an affair with his illegitimate son, Hugo. Parisina and Hugo were engaged to be married before Azo claimed her for his own bride. Hugo is sentenced to death, and Parisina is forced to watch the execution as her punishment.

Hands Around, also known as La Ronde or Reigen, is possibly Schnitzler's most provocative and controversial work. In a series of 10 conversations occurring before or after a sexual encounter, between 10 pairs of characters from all walks of life, Hands Around offers a playful scrutiny of the sexual morals and class ideology of the era.

An anthology of writings for the Christmas season from the pen of Charles Dickens.

On New Year's Eve, an elderly ticket porter, Toby "Trotty" Veck, a hardworking but poor man, is disillusioned with the state of the world. He is appalled by newspaper reports of crime and immorality, and fears for the future prospects of his daughter, Meg, who is to be married on New Year's Day. Trotty has always fancied that the bell chimes of the nearby church offer him encouragement when he is most in need. On this particular night, he is drawn to the church tower, where he is greeted by the spirits of the bells and their goblin attendants who show him a vision of the future.