A Witch Shall Be Born
by Robert E. Howard (1906 - 1936 )
The kingdom of Khauran is admittedly small, but blessed with an abundance of rich soil, hard working inhabitants and much gold but most of all by a sweet young queen who is as wise and beneficent as she is beautiful. But then a horrible witch (her evil twin sister) secretly replaces her and introduces devil worship, human sacrifice and other things too repulsive to mention. Conan, who was the captain of her guard is captured and crucified Read more [...]
Category: Novella
Daisy Miller: A Study in Two Parts
by Henry James (1843-1916)
Daisy Miller is an 1878 novella by Henry James. It portrays the confused courtship of the eponymous American girl by Winterbourne, a compatriot of hers with much more sophistication. His pursuit of her is hampered by her own flirtatiousness, which is frowned upon by the other expatriates they meet in Switzerland and Italy. Her lack of understanding of the social mores of the society she so desperately wishes to enter ultimately leads Read more [...]
The Beast in the Jungle Audiobook
by Henry James (1843-1916)
'The Beast in the Jungle' is a 1903 novella by Henry James, first published as part of the collection, The Better Sort. Almost universally considered one of James' finest short narratives, this story treats appropriately universal themes: loneliness, fate, love and death. The parable of John Marcher and his peculiar destiny has spoken to many readers who have speculated on the worth and meaning of human life.(Summary by Wikipedia)
The Read more [...]
My Lady Ludlow audiobook
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865)
This novella by the acclaimed Elizabeth Gaskell follows the reminiscences and life of aristocratic Lady Ludlow, told through the eyes of one of her charges, the young Margaret Dawson. Lady Ludlow epitomizes the unwillingness of the old English gentry to accept the progression of social reform and technology, such as education for the poor and religious leniency. She reminisces about her friends in the French revolution and tries Read more [...]
A House to Let audiobook
by Charles Dickens (1812 -- 1870), Wilkie Collins (1824 -- 1889), Elizabeth Gaskell (1810 -- 1865), Adelaide Anne Procter (1825 -- 1864).
A House to Let is a novella originally published in 1858 in the Christmas edition of Dickens' Household Words magazine. Each of the contributors wrote a chapter (stories within a story, and in the case of Adelaide Anne Procter, as a story in verse) and the whole was edited by Dickens.
The plot concerns an elderly woman, Sophonisba, Read more [...]
Badge of Infamy audiobook
by Lester Del Rey (1915-1993)
Daniel Feldman was a doctor once. He made the mistake of saving a friend's life in violation of Medical Lobby rules. Now, he's a pariah, shunned by all, forbidden to touch another patient. But things are more loose on Mars. There, Doc Feldman is welcomed by the colonists, even as he's hunted by the authorities. But, when he discovers a Martian plague may soon wipe out humanity on two planets, Feldman finds himself a pivotal figure. War erupts. Read more [...]
The Nigger of the Narcissus audiobook
by Joseph Conrad (1857 -- 1924)
This is the story of a voyage of a merchant sailing ship from Bombay to England, set in the very late 19th century. "It was a bad winter off the Cape that year." From Wikepedia: "The novel is seen as an allegory about isolation and solidarity, the ship's company serving as a microcosm of a social group." As to the title, one can only ask, "What WERE you thinking?" (Introduction by Tom Crawford) Note from the reader: The preface Read more [...]
The Awakening audiobook
by Kate Chopin (1851-1904)
Kate Chopin's 1899 novella The Awakening is about the personal, sexual, and artistic awakening of a young wife and mother, Edna Pontellier. While on vacation at Grand Isle, an island in the Gulf of Mexico, Edna befriends the talented pianist Mlle. Reisz and the sympathetic Robert Lebrun, both of whom will influence her startling life choices. Chopin's novel created a scandal upon its original publication and effectively destroyed her writing Read more [...]
The Turn of the Screw audiobook
by Henry James (1843 - 1916)
Henry James' classic ghost story comprises the written testimony of a young governess, charged with looking after two small children at an isolated country estate, who believes they are being haunted. As the story progresses, the governess' increasingly frenetic narration provokes the question: is she insane, or are the ghosts real? (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)
The Turn of the Screw
Title page of the original Read more [...]
A Christmas Carol (dramatic reading)
by Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visitations of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come. (Summary by Wikipedia)
Cast
Ebenezer Scrooge: Andy Minter
Fred: mb
Bob Cratchit: Read more [...]
The Aspern Papers (audiobook)
by Henry James (1843-1916)
One of James's favorite short novels, the Aspern Papers tells of the efforts of the nameless narrator to procure the papers of a famous, but now dead, American poet. His attempts to secure them from the poet's former lover and her niece, now recluses in Venice, are stymied both by them, and by his own mistakes in his quest.
The Aspern Papers
First edition title page
Author(s)
Henry James
Country
United Read more [...]
The Girl with the Golden Eyes (FULL Audio Book)
by Honor? de Balzac (1799-1850)
Translated by Ellen Marriage (1865-1946)
"Give me a feast such as men give when they love," she said, "and whilst I sleep, slay me..."
Listeners who like to plunge straight into a story would do well to skip the lengthy preamble. Here, Balzac the virtuoso satirist depicts the levels of Parisian society as a version of the Inferno of Dante - but perhaps keeps the reader waiting too long for the first act of his Read more [...]
Farewell
by Honore de Balzac (1799-1850)
In his startling and tragic novella Farewell ('Adieu'), Balzac adds to the 19th century's literature of the hysterical woman: sequestered, confined in her madness; mute, or eerily chanting in her moated grange. The first Mrs Rochester lurks in the wings; the Lady of Shalott waits for the shadowy reflection of the world outside to shatter her illusion. Freud's earliest patients will soon enter the waiting-room in their turn.
Whilst out hunting two friends Read more [...]
Trials and Confessions of a Housekeeper
by T. S. Arthur (1809-1885)
Is housekeeping such a trial? Mrs. Smith thinks so and confesses all in this merry account of her escapades and near disasters! (Summary by Kehinde
The British Barbarians (FULL Audio Book) by Grant Allen (1848-1899)
After Civil Servant Philip Christy crosses paths with the mysterious Bertram Ingledew in the respectable suburb of Brackenhurst, Philip and his sister Frida, married to the wealthy Scot Robert Monteith, become friends with the stranger. Bertram has some unconventional concepts about society, and as the story unfolds, his beliefs and actions cause much disruption in the family and the neighbourhood.
Who is Bertram? Where does Read more [...]
Adrift in New York (FULL Audio Book)
by Horatio Alger, Jr. (1832-1899)
John Linden is a very wealthy man. The people who should inherit his property are his nephew, Curtis Waring, his niece Florence Linden, and his long lost son -- if alive. John thinks it would be best if Florence and Curtis were married, and makes it a requirement if Florence wishes to have any of the property.
A boy named Dodger was sent to steal one of the wills of John Linden so that Curtis would inherit all the property. Read more [...]
The King's Daughter (FULL Audio Book)
by Isabella Alden (1841-1930)
Dell Bronson has been reared in Boston by her refined uncle and aunt until, at age 18, she is called home by her father, a coarse tavern owner in Lewiston. As a daughter of the heavenly King, she strives to honor her heavenly Father by wooing her earthly father to Christ and away from rum. Set in the era of the temperance movement of the 1800's. Authored by Isabella M. Alden under the pen name "Pansy." Third in the Ester Ried Read more [...]
Behind a Mask (FULL Audio Book), or a Woman's Power
by Louisa May Alcott ((1832-1888))
Fans of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women will remember that her heroine Jo wrote racy novels before turning her hand to more "serious" literature. Alcott, writing under the pseudonym A. M. Barnard, often did the same, and Behind a Mask (1866) is one of her sensation novels. It focuses on Jean Muir, who enters the home of the wealthy Coventry family as governess to their sixteen-year-old daughter. But is the Read more [...]
Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
Set in a time of oppressive colonisation, when large areas of the world were still unknown to Europe, and Africa was literally on maps and minds as a mysterious shadow, Heart of Darkness famously explores the rituals of civilisation and barbarism, and the frighteningly fine line between them.
We get the tale through a classic unreliable narrator, relating as Marlow, a ship's captain, tells how he was sent by the Company to retrieve the wayward Read more [...]