Other books that might interest you

• 

  Stolen Bacillus The (Unabridged)

  H. G. Wells

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents is a collection of fifteen fantasy and science fiction short stories written by the English author H. G. Wells between 1893 and 1895. It was first published by Methuen & Co. in 1895 and was Wells's first book of short stories. All of the stories had first been published in various weekly and monthly periodicals.

  Show book

• 

  Dagon

  H.P. Lovecraft

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Title: Dagon 
  Author: H. P. Lovecraft 
  Narrator: Jonathan Dunne 
  Original Publication: 1919 
  Public Domain: Yes 
  Series Placement: Number 9 in the Timeless Terrors series 
  Description: 
  Dagon by H. P. Lovecraft is an early and haunting work of cosmic horror, first published in 1919 in The Vagrant. The story is framed as the desperate confession of a World War I veteran who recounts a terrifying encounter at sea. Adrift after escaping captivity, he drifts onto a nightmarish stretch of seabed where he witnesses the rise of an ancient, monstrous being. 
  This brief yet powerful tale introduces many of the themes that would come to define Lovecraft’s mythos—cosmic dread, the insignificance of humanity, and encounters with entities beyond comprehension. 
  Narrated by Amazon bestselling horror author Jonathan Dunne, this recording captures the unsettling mood and creeping madness that permeate the story. While the text is in the public domain, this performance is an original work and copyright © 2025 Jonathan Dunne.

  Show book

• 

  The House of the Dead - Or...

  Fyodor Dostoyevsky

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The semiautobiographical prison account of convict Aleksandr Petrovich Goryanchikov, from the author of Crime and Punishment.   Originally published in 1862, The House of the Dead is based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s own four-year imprisonment in Siberia for his involvement in the Petrashevsky Circle. This masterpiece of Russian literature begins with a nameless narrator coming upon former convict Aleksandr Petrovich Goryanchikov in a remote Siberian town. Previously a nobleman and landowner, Goryanchikov had been given a ten-year sentence of hard labor for the murder of his wife, a crime of passion sparked by jealousy. After Goryanchikov’s death, the narrator finds a handwritten record of his decade of penal servitude. From his first days in the barracks, friendless and broken in spirit, to the removal of his shackles and freedom, Goryanchikov portrays the experiences of a “lost tribe of men,” and the horrors and degradation they experienced.  “Episodic, rambling, full of keen and deliberately stretched-out character sketches, the book is the drama of a person working out how to reproduce prison life in prose: its longueurs, its diversions, its pleasures, traumas, and inurements  . . . If Dostoyevsky’s captors had found the ribald, cacophonous commonplace book he assembled out of overheard insults and tossed-off sayings during his time in prison, they would have recognized that they were dealing with a spirit not easily suppressed.” —The Paris Review  “I know no better book in all modern literature.” —Leo Tolstoy

  Show book

• 

  Anathema - From their pens to...

  Alexander Kuprin

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Alexander Kuprin was born in Narovchat, Penza in Russia on 7th September 1870. 
  At 3 his Father died and he and mother moved to Moscow. By 10 he was enrolled at the Second Moscow Military High School and there his interest in literature began. The Alexander Military Academy followed and two years later he was a sub-lieutenant and posted to an Infantry Regiment for a further four years. 
  Despite his duties he was a now a keen writer and published his first short story at this time. His military duties also garnered him experiences for his breakthrough work ‘The Duel’.  Leaving the military he left for Kiev to work for local newspapers.  He continued to publish both stories and novels and by 1901 he was in St Petersburg becoming part of a group that included Chekhov, Ivan Bunin, Maxim Gorky and Leonid Andreyev.  
  In the years that followed further controversial works and acclaim followed.  His comments on the regime meant he was also put under secret police surveillance.   
  As World War I erupted, Kuprin opened a military hospital but was then given command of an infantry company in Finland. He was soon discharged on grounds of ill health.  
  The October Revolution saw him praise Lenin, but he warned that the Bolsheviks threatened Russian culture and might cause further widespread suffering to the peasants.  As Civil War raged he took his family to Helsinki and then on to Paris. 
  Exile saw his talents decline further and his succumbing to alcoholism. He became lonely and withdrawn. The family's poverty increased his malaise.   
  In May 1937, the Kuprin’s returned to Moscow.  He now saw his work published but wrote almost nothing new.  In 1938 his health rapidly deteriorated.  Already suffering from a kidney problems and sclerosis, he had now developed cancer of the oesophagus.  
  Alexander Kuprin died on 25th August 1938.

  Show book

• 

  Twenty Thousand Leagues Under...

  Jules Verne

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Published in 1870, "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" is one of Jules Verne's most famous works. This science fiction novel takes readers on an underwater journey with Captain Nemo and his submarine, the Nautilus. The story is narrated by Professor Pierre Aronnax, who, along with his assistant Conseil and the harpooner Ned Land, becomes an unwilling guest of Captain Nemo. The trio experiences a series of adventures under the sea, encountering exotic sea creatures, exploring sunken ships, and discovering the wonders and dangers of the ocean depths. The book is renowned for its scientific foresight and imaginative storytelling.

  Show book

• 

  The Red House Mystery

  A. A. Milne

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Authors all too often become the victims of their own success, forever associated with only a handful of their works which are a relatively small part of an otherwise prolific output. For an author of successful plays and novels as A.A. Milne was, to be then only known as a children's writer was an annoyance to say the least. Yet it comes as no surprise that in Milne's 1922 book "The Red House Mystery" we find much of the warmth and wit that was a few years later to characterize his children's writing in The" Winnie The Pooh" books; albeit in the very different setting of a murder mystery! 
  Here is a classic "locked room" conundrum with a delicious twist in the tale. 
  Narrated by Simon Hester. With original music.

  Show book