Resultados narrador por "Cathy Dobson" en Todas las categorias

A glittering collection of classic stories for children, which have delighted generations and continue to appeal.

'Wicked Captain Walshawe' is a disquieting ghost story. Captain Walshawe, a dissolute rake, marries a wealthy heiress as a means to pay off his gambling debts. The marriage is an unhappy one on account if his dreadful behaviour. When his wife dies, her old Irish servant casts a curse on Walshawe...which years later leads to a bizarre and totally inexplicable scene after the captain's own death.

When the new captain takes over command of his first ship for the homeward voyage from the Gulf of Siam, he surprises his crew by taking the first nightwatch himself. While alone on deck he is surprised to find a lone swimmer in the sea who comes on board. The stranger is a murderer escaping justice, but is also eerily an almost exact doppelganger of the captain himself. Not only does he look identical, but the two almost seem to share the same thoughts and secrets. Rather than turn his fugitive-double over to the authorities, the captain hides him in his own cabin.

"The Paradise Coal-Boat" is the story of Ezra Pollard, skipper of a coal boat working between Tyneside and the South Coast. The cost-conscious shipowner, Gedge, makes it very clear to Ezra that he is to sail his route at top speed and in the event of any collision to bring home no survivors from other ships who could make claims for damages against the firm. But Ezra is haunted for years by an incident where he accidentally mows down a fishing smack and drowns its crew.

Stephen Crane (1871-1900) was a prolific American poet, novelist and short story writer. He is recognised by modern critics as one of the most innovative writers of his generation. 'The Open Boat' is probably Stephen Crane's best known and most admired story. It tells the adventure of four sailors, the captain, the oiler, the cook and the correspondent, who are sole survivors of a shipwreck at sea in a small rowing boat off the coast of Florida.

Kipling’s classic tale taken from the Just So Stories. The camel who lives in the howling desert is reluctant to join the other animals in working for man. He gets his comeuppance when he is magically given a hump, so that he can work three days in a row without stopping to eat.

When Algernon Weatherhead moves into Wisteria Villa, he finds himself living next door to the Currie family, who are besotted with their black poodle Bingo. Algernon falls in love with the Colonel Currie's adopted niece Lillian... but he cannot make friends with Bingo, a dog with a deeply psychotic desire to bite neighbours, tradespeople, the gardener and passers-by. When Algernon shoots Bingo dead by accident, events lead to him burying the body in a shallow grave and pretending the dog has run away.

'A Little Cloud' is a brilliant and evocative short story from Joyce's collection Dubliners comparing the lives of those who escaped Ireland and travelled around Europe compared to the quiet, dull existence of those who remain at home. Thomas Chandler meets an old friend, Ignatius Gallaher, for a drink. Gallaher has made a name for himself in London and has been as far as Paris and Berlin. Chandler's life by comparison is unfulfilled. His job is boring, his marriage loveless and his soul weary.

Herman Melville's deliciously hilarious tale of the day a door-to-door lightning-rod salesman called upon him.

Arthur Gray (1852-1940) wrote under the pseudonym Ingulphus for several years, and it was only in 1919 when his stories were collected as Tedious Brief Tales of Granta and Gramarye under Gray's own name that the identity of the author was discovered. 'The Everlasting Club' is a peculiar ghost story set in Jesus College Cambridge.

J. Meade Falkener's timeless classic adventure story of smugglers, hidden treasure, mysterious ghosts and daring escapes. Written in 1898, the story has remained a much loved classic among children and adults alike, owing to its gripping storyline, sympathetic characters and swift narrative pace. The village of Moonfleet has been dominated by the Mohune dynasty for centuries.

Guy de Maupassant's poignant love story of a doomed fascination between a hedonistic French artist and an eccentric English spinster. Miss Harriet is a mysterious and odd middle-aged lady who has taken up residence in an obscure corner of the French countryside, where she communes with nature and reads odd religious tracts. When a happy-go-lucky young French adventurer and artist comes to stay, Miss Harriet falls in love with him.

'Dr. Crippen, Lover and Poisoner' is Le Queux's account of the case of the famous poisoner Hawley Harvey Crippen, whom Le Queux claimed to have met personally on several occasions. Crippen, to escape the bondage of an unhappy marriage, and because he had fallen in love with another woman, Ethel Le Neve, murdered and dissected his wife and escaped with his lover in disguise, sparking a transatlantic hue and cry.

The Secret of the Moat Farm is Wallace's account of a real-life murder mystery which he had covered as a young journalist. Camille Holland, a spinster of 56, became enamoured of an attractive scoundrel named Dougal. When the two moved into the remote Moat Farm, it was not long before Miss Holland disappeared. Dougal remained at the farm, spending Miss Holland's money and entertaining a series of mistresses...until finally suspicions were aroused.

'The Green Bicycle Mystery' is Jepson's account of a true unsolved murder case. Bella Wright was found lying dead beside her bicycle on a lonely country lane in Leicestershire. She had been shot through the head. The last person seen in her company was a man on a green bicycle. When months later a green bicycle is dredged from a canal, the police are hot on the track of the mystery man.

In March 1873 Great Britain was rocked by the forgery case of the century, perpetrated against no less than the Bank of England. Four criminal brains took on the entire financial system... and would have got away with it too, had it not been for one tiny detail.

The "Mary Celeste" (or Marie Celeste as it is wrongly referred to several writers) was a British merchant brigantine. The ship is best known for having been discovered on 5 December 1872 in the Atlantic Ocean, unmanned and apparently abandoned, although the weather was fine, the ship intact and her crew experienced and capable seamen. The "Mary Celeste" was in sound and seaworthy condition and was under full sail heading for the Strait of Gibraltar.

The true crime story of Henri Désiré Landru, master of murder and the art of making love, captivated the whole of Europe for almost two years. Landru is known to have murdered at least a dozen women for their savings and their furniture. Moreover, the uncanny fascination which he held for his victims from the moment he fixed them with his strangely compelling eyes, has never been properly explained.

Mary Wilkins Freeman (1852-1930) was an American writer, best known for her stories reflecting the world of women fighting for dignity and independence from men. Her tales typically describe domestic settings and intimate relationships and are told with sensitivity and a poignancy which illuminates a bygone era in vivid detail. "The Revolt of Mother" tells the story of a strong and self-reliant farm wife who defies her obstinate husband by moving her household into his newly built barn.

On the surface, Immensee is a simple love story, of an old man, Reinhardt Werner, remembering Elisabeth, the lost sweetheart of his youth, who married his best friend, Erich. Reinhardt had neglected their relationship when he had gone away to university, and after two years when he failed to write to Elisabeth, she gave up waiting and accepted a marriage proposal from Erich, a wealthy young farmer with a fine house on the shores of the Immensee.