Other books that might interest you

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  The Open Window

  Saki Saki

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  Title: The Open Window 
  Author: Saki (H. H. Munro) 
  Narrator: Jonathan Dunne 
  Original Publication: 1914 
  Public Domain: Yes 
  Series Placement: Number 30 in the Timeless Terrors series 
  Description: 
  The Open Window by Saki is a masterful blend of subtle wit and unsettling irony — a tale where polite conversation becomes a stage for deception and the supernatural lingers just out of sight. When the nervous Mr. Nuttel visits a country home for rest and recovery, his young hostess, Vera, entertains him with a chilling story of loss, ghosts, and an open window that never closes. 
  Deceptively light in tone, Saki’s story conceals a dark brilliance — a study in manipulation, imagination, and the thin line between truth and terror. The quiet domestic setting becomes the perfect trap for the reader’s expectations, as the tale turns from social comedy to ghostly suspense with unnerving precision. 
  Narrated by horror author Jonathan Dunne, this performance captures Saki’s sharp dialogue, dry tension, and sudden twist of fear. While the text itself is in the public domain, this narration is an original performance and copyright © 2025 Jonathan Dunne. 
  Part of Timeless Terrors, a series devoted to reviving the classic and uncanny, The Open Window stands as a timeless parable of storytelling itself — where every tale may open onto something far more chilling than it seems. 
  Prepare for a story that begins with civility and ends with a shiver — a moment when laughter and fear share the same breath.

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  A Book of Myths

  Jean Lang

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  Within this book are timeless stories from Ancient Greece such as Icarus, the young man whose infamous flight became a cautionary tale on folly and the heeding of advice, and Orpheus, the fabled musician whose wife Euridice encounters great peril. Adventure stories, such as The Caledonian Hunt, bring stunning displays of action while the exploits of ancient and Godly heroes such as Perseus and his winged horse relay the elemental power with which the ancient Gods were attributed.Later in the text we find several representative examples of Nordic myth - the valiant story of Roland the Paladin and Freya, the formidable Queen of the Northern Gods are told. The epic story of Beowulf is rendered here in prose form, and all allude to the furious capacities of the Nordic Gods.Compiled and authored by Greek historian and scholar Jeanie Lang, the accounts within this text combine superb research with strong readability, with the freshness and originality of each story easy to behold and enjoy whether you be a student of the classics or a general enthusiast for enduring ancient mythology.

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  The Tempest

  William Shakespeare

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  What happens when revenge gives way to mercy?
  
  The Tempest is one of William Shakespeare's most enchanting and thought-provoking plays. Set on a mysterious island after a violent storm, the story follows Prospero, a wronged duke who wields magical power to control fate, enemies, and even nature itself.
  
  As shipwrecked nobles confront betrayal, ambition, and illusion, Shakespeare weaves a tale rich with magic, music, and wonder. Through unforgettable characters such as Ariel and Caliban, the play explores themes of authority, freedom, colonization, forgiveness, and the healing power of compassion.
  
  Often considered Shakespeare's farewell to the stage, The Tempest blends fantasy with deep human insight, offering a hopeful vision of reconciliation and renewal.
  
  Inside this eBook, you'll experience:
  
  A magical island world filled with wonder and mystery
  
  Themes of power, forgiveness, and transformation
  
  Lyrical language and unforgettable characters
  
  One of Shakespeare's most imaginative and symbolic plays
  
  Widely studied and performed across the world, The Tempest remains essential reading for anyone interested in classic literature, theater, and the power of imagination.
  
  Enter the storm, and discover the calm beyond it. Buy now and experience one of Shakespeare's most visionary masterpieces.

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  Cheerful Weather for the Wedding

  Julia Strachey

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  Young bride-to-be Dolly must overcome several obstacles in this hilarious, sardonic novella by Julia Strachey set in 1930s England. Following an excellent film adaptation in 2012, this audio edition of Cheerful Weather for the Wedding is read by internationally acclaimed actress Miriam Margoyles. Dolly is twenty-three and about to marry the Honourable Owen Bigham. Her wedding day is filled with hasty and chaotic preparations for the entire household. Matters are complicated further by Dolly swigging from a bottle of Jamaica rum, which she later transfers into the folds of her white dress. Will she arrive at her own wedding on time, or will the fumbling advances of Joseph, the man she really loves, get in the way? Cheerful Weather for the Wedding is part of the Persephone Audiobook Collection, a series of forgotten classics including neglected fiction and non-fiction by women writers. This edition was first published in 1932 by Leonard and Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press. It includes a preface by the late author Frances Partridge, a longtime friend of Strachey’s who wrote her biography, Julia, A Portrait of Julia Strachey (1983).‘A very cute, clever, indeed rather remarkable acidulated story . . . I think it is astonishingly good – complete and sharp and individual’ – Virginia Woolf

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  Top 10 Short Stories The -...

  D H Lawrence, Nikolai Gogol,...

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  Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. 
   
  In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?  
   
  The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. 
   
  Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 
   
  In this volume our author’s pens turn to tales of sadness.  This distressing feeling can arrive at a moment’s notice or gradually build and overwhelm.  Within these stories Anton Chekhov, Sherwood Anderson, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Katherine Mansfield and many others explore and reveal the consequences.  
   
  1 - The Top 10 Short Stories - Sadness - An Introduction 
  2 - Odour of Chrysanthemums by D H Lawrence 
  3 - The Cloak by Nikolai Gogol also known as 'The Overcoat' 
  4 - Life of Ma Parker by Katherine Mansfield 
  5 - Paul's Case by Willa Cather 
  6 - Silence by Leonid Andreyev 
  7 - The Stones of the Village by Alice Dunbar Nelson 
  8 - Hide And Seek or Pliatki by Fyodor Sologub 
  9 - Hands by Sherwood Anderson 
  10 - Vanka by Anton Chekhov 
  11 - A Dark Brown Dog by Stephen Crane

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  The Lame Priest - Settlers and...

  Susan Morrow writing as S Carleton

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  Susan Morrow was born in Halifax in Nova Scotia in 1864.   
   
  Little is known of her life although she preferred to write under pseudonyms, one of which she shared with her sister, or as S Carleton, an abbreviated version of her name which gave the illusion of a male identity presumably to give her books a more rugged and male personality given their content. 
   
  Her books only seem to have been published from 1900 onwards when she was in her mid-30’s by which time she had married and became Susan Carleton Jones. 
   
  She died in 1926.   
   
  In ‘The Lame Priest, a story of life on harsh terrain is amplified by the possibility that a werewolf lurks nearby.

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