Publisher: Arthur Conan Doyle
This is Book 3 of the series "The Chronological Sherlock Holmes". "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" is a collection of twelve stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his famous detective, and illustrated by Sidney Paget.
The Veteran: A Stephen Crane StoryThe Veteran featured Henry Fleming as a grand father many years after he appeared as the 18 year old Yankee first time soldier in The Red Badge of Courage. He retells the story succinctly and honestly about how he ran from his first battle as so many did. His grandchild was alarmed as children are when they learn the adults are not perfect in what they do.Fleming exhibits bravery in the story as he saves his farm animals and lurches into his barn to save what he could, despite knowing the long odds against it. This story could well have been an Afterword to The Red Badge of Courage. The last paragraph is well worth the listening: "When the roof fell in (the barn), a great funnel of smoke swarmed toward the sky, as if the old man's (Fleming) spirit, released from its body-a little bottle-had swelled like the genie of fable. The smoke was tinted rose-hue from the flames, and perhaps the unutterable midnights of the universe will have no power to daunt the color of this soul."Show book
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a chilling novella written by Robert Louis Stevenson and published in 1886. The subject matter may be partly that of a shilling shocker, but the whole is executed with great panache and a fine Gothic sensibility. Lawyer Gabriel Utterson leads us apace through the rain-swept streets of Victorian London in pursuit of the diminutive but thoroughly monstrous Mr. Hyde. The upright Dr. Jekyll, inexplicably Hyde's patron and defender, grows increasingly reclusive, and Utterson is further alarmed by the bizarre alterations made by Jekyll to his Last Will and Testament. Robert Louis Stevenson here explores the duality of man, examines concepts of good and evil and the desire to escape the straightjacket of social rectitude whilst keeping up appearances and avoiding the consequences. But like his other enduring classic, Treasure Island, it is much more than that: it is a thrilling tale brilliantly told.Show book
A selection of ghost stories which make your blood run cold. * "An Account Of Some Disturbances In Aungier Street" - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu * "The Spectre Of Tappington" - Richard Harris Barham * "The Man Of Science" - Jerome K. Jerome * "The Romance Of Certain Old Clothes" - Henry James * "The Spectre Bride" - William Harrison Ainsworth * "A Haunted House" - Virginia Woolf * "To Be Taken With A Grain Of Salt" - Charles DickensShow book
One would think that after the momentous events of 1969 H.G Wells’ science fiction adventure “The First Men in The Moon” would have lost any fascination for the modern reader. Yet of course, Wells is never concerned merely with the mechanics of science fiction. It is surely the human reaction to these events that grips us and causes us to return again and again to this story. Narrated by Simon Hester, with original music.Show book
Jack London (born John Griffith Chaney, January 12, 1876 - November 22, 1916) was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone.THE UNEXPECTED: It is a simple matter to see the obvious, to do the expected. The tendency of the individual life is to be static rather than dynamic, and this tendency is made into a propulsion by civilization, where the obvious only is seen, and the unexpected rarely happens.Show book
"When will this fearful slumber have an end?" Titus Andronicus: The Complete Play in Five Acts A Shakespeare Recording Society Production Titus Andronicus is William Shakespeare's harrowing vision of unending vengeance. After defeating the Goths in battle, Titus Andronicus returns to Rome only to be cold-bloodedly deceived and barbarically tormented by his enemies. This sets in motion an unceasing, seemingly unstoppable spiral of horrific violence and retribution. Vibrantly relevant to our times, Titus Andronicus is one of the most haunting of Shakespeare's plays and a powerful listening experience. Cast: Michael Hordern, Anthony Quayle, Maxine Audley, Colin Blakely, Charles Gray, Jack Gwillim, Alan Howard, John Moffatt, Judi Dench, Michael Meacham, Richard Brooke, Stephen Moore, James Cairncross, Christopher Guinee, John Dane, Rosalind Atkinson, and Trevor MartinShow book
