Publisher: Interactive Media
An Unpleasant Predicament is a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky that tells the story of a man who is forced to make a difficult decision. The man is in a difficult situation because he is being blackmailed, and he must choose between two unpleasant options. He eventually decides to commit suicide rather than face the consequences of his decision.
'The Velveteen Rabbit' is a classic children's story about a boy's toy rabbit becoming real. It is one of my favorite stories that my mother used to read to me growing up. I'm very grateful to bring you this audiobook recording and to keep the magic alive for another generation.Show book
A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection Evil Roots. The Victorian era saw orchids become one of the most expensive and collectable plants, and this short story follows orchid collector Wedderburn, who gets more than he bargained for with his latest floral specimen.Show book
"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in Graham's Magazine in 1841. It has been recognized as the first modern detective story; Poe referred to it as one of his "tales of ratiocination".C. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mystery of the brutal murder of two women. Numerous witnesses heard a suspect, though no one agrees on what language was spoken. At the murder scene, Dupin finds a hair that does not appear to be human.As the first fictional detective, Poe's Dupin displays many traits which became literary conventions in subsequent fictional detectives, including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Many later characters, for example, follow Poe's model of the brilliant detective, his personal friend who serves as narrator, and the final revelation being presented before the reasoning that leads up to it. Dupin himself reappears in "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" and "The Purloined Letter".Show book
This short story by Kipling of two British adventurers in British India who become kings of Kafiristan, a remote part of Afghanistan is read by David Philo.Show book
'The Prussian Officer'. There is an anti-militarism theme, unpopular as the nation drew near to war and an examination of latent homosexuality as the officer in the story struggles with his feelings for his orderly. The young soldier is driven beyond breaking point but finds a kind of redemption in his final return to natural surroundings and, symbolically, he finds equality in death with his tormentor as they are put side by side in the mortuary.Show book
Iron John is about taking men back, through myth and legend, to the source of their masculinity, and finding a middle path between the greater awareness of the 'sensitive new age guy', and the power and vitality of the warrior. The Iron John story has been around in one form or another for thousands of years.Show book
