Résultats lu par "Cathy Dobson" dans Toutes les catégories

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was the pre-eminent figure in late nineteenth century detective fiction. A physician by profession, he soon found such popularity as a writer of detective stories that his writing was far more profitable than his medical practice. "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" is a classic Sherlock Holmes story in which the Commissionnaire brings Holmes a hat and a goose which have been dropped by a man on the street, during an attempted mugging.

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer of outstanding short stories, known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise endings. In The Cop and the Anthem, a New York tramp, Soapy, is determined to be arrested and sent to jail on 'The Island' for three months during the coldest part of the winter. But it proves astoundingly difficult to get arrested...however hard he tries, no policeman seems inclined to take him into custody.

All roads lead to Rome. The young boy telling this story cannot quite comprehend this assertion - but of one road, he is certain it is true. The Knights' Road, as he and his friends call it. A road without hedges or ditches, a road that heads straight over the downs with a purpose. One day he will set off to Rome along this road... but for the moment his attention is arrested by an artist he meets on the Knights' Road. An artist who seems to know many strange and wonderful things...

Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist, and short story writer, best known for his evocative and beautifully narrated ghost and horror stories. 'The Bed by the Window' is the story of a man who takes himself off to a remote guest house so as to be free of distractions while he finishes a project. While he is there, he begins to have odd dreams and visions...and the calendar on the desk seems to keep showing him the wrong date...always May 8th.

Perceval Gibbon (1879-1926) was an author and journalist working on the Rand Daily Mail in South Africa and several other publications. He is best remembered for his masterly short stories, which were often characterized by an ironic twist at the end. The Victim tells the tale of César Savinien, a French poet who finds himself enjoying a terrifying streak of good fortune. Everything he does turns out brilliantly....

Basil Murray (1902 - 1937) was a prominent British journalist and prominent anti-Fascist during the Spanish civil war. Alongside his short stories, he was well known for his radio broadcasts from Valencia. He died in Spain, officially of pneumonia. According to a memoir by journalist Claud Cockburn, however, Murray was bitten to death by his pet ape while lying in a drunken stupor in a Valencia hotel. 'Three Pennyworth of Luck' is the story of a superstitious man who puts three coins in a penny in the slot fortune telling machine and becomes increasingly alarmed at the pronouncements of the mechanical soothsayer.

A. J. Alan was the pseudonym of Leslie Harrison Lambert (1883-1941), an English magician, intelligence officer, short story writer, and radio broadcaster. He was hugely popular in the '20s and '30s for his radio broadcasts, when he performed his own humorous and often macabre short stories, which he always delivered wearing full evening dress. A Joy Ride is one of A. J. Alan's most amusing stories and has a classic twist at the end.

Max Adeler was the nom de plume of the American writer and humorist Charles Heber Clark (1841 - 1915). His tale A Desperate Adventure begins thus: "WANTED, four persons who are bent upon committing suicide, to engage in a hazardous adventure. Apply etc. to Captain Cowgill, No. 1, Blank Street after nine o'clock in the morning."

M. Cassecruche is a French actor, left behind by his theatre troupe in St. Petersburg. It is October, the Russian winter is approaching and he is deep in debt. He wants nothing more than to escape his creditors and flee back to France, but he has only three sous to his name, and the Russian authorities are watching him.Suddenly inspiration strikes him and he devises a cunning, elaborate, and hilarious plan to escape Russia. Not to mention, getting his own back on his unpleasant landlord.

'The Anticipator' is the tale of two rival writers. Esplan is a true craftsman. His stories are finely crafted, inspired works of true genius. His foe, Burford, is as bad a writer as Esplan is good. But Burford has an uncanny knack of publishing stories with the exact same plot as Esplan has been working on for weeks, making Esplan's tales unsaleable...or worse, making it seem that he is plagiarising his inept competitor.

M. Savalle, a small-town notary and amateur operatic singer with pretensions, travels to Paris to visit the opera and takes the opportunity to rub shoulders with famous artists in the cafés of Montmartre. He is unexpectedly invited to a housewarming party by a notable painter...but things do not go at all as he expected. His host vanishes unexpectedly and M. Savalle is left in charge of the occasion. When the guests arrive, they mistake him for the waiter...and from there things only get worse.

Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist, and short story writer, best known for his evocative and beautifully narrated ghost stories. 'Royal Visitors' is a humorous story set at Trinity College, Cambridge, and tells the story of a revenge prank by the undergraduate nicknamed 'The Babe' on his tutor, Mr. Stewart, who at short notice had withdrawn a lunch invitation to dine with visiting foreign royals.

English novelist and journalist Wilfrid Ewart (1892-1922) survived the battlefields of the First World War only to die a few years later in Mexico City where near midnight, he stepped out onto his hotel balcony to observe the New Year's festivities and was killed by a stray bullet fired by a reveler below. This is Ewart's firsthand account of his first visit to the trenches in February 1915.

Fleete, a relative newcomer to India, becomes extremely drunk on New Year's Eve and on the way home desecrates the temple of the monkey-god Hanuman, by stubbing out his cigar on the statue of the deity. A mysterious leper appears and bites Fleete on the chest, leaving a strange mark. Another priest warns Fleete that Hanuman has not yet finished with him.During the next day, Fleete's behaviour becomes stranger and stranger. He gnaws ravenously on raw meat, grovels in the earth of the garden and begins to howl like a wolf.

Six creepy horror stories of sinister, murderous and ghostly cats. 'The White Cat' by Hugh Walpole; 'The Cat' by E. F. Benson; 'The Cats of Ulthar' by H. P. Lovecraft; 'The Black Cat' by William James Wintle; 'The Grey Cat' by Barry Pain; 'The Black Cat' by Edgar Allan Poe.

Edmund Gill Swain (1861-1938) was an English cleric and author of ghost stories. He was a longtime friend of M. R. James, and his ghost stories show James' influence. In this story the vicar of Stoneground, Mr. Batchel, is having the rockery at his vicarage dug up. He and the gardener discover an old yew stake buried in the rockery on which is nailed a copper plaque bearing the inscription: 'Move Not This Stake, Nov. 1. 1702'.

William Chambers Morrow (185- 1923) was an American writer, famous for his short stories of horror and suspense. 'The Inmate of the Dungeon' is the powerful and poignant tale of a prisoner who is unjustly punished for sticking to his principles... and how the injustice finally comes to light.

A scintillating collection of tales with unexpected endings.

When a letter of great significance is stolen from the royal palace in Paris, the prefect of police is at great pains to discover its whereabouts. The identity of the thief is known, but try as the detectives will, they are unable to pinpoint the hiding place where the incriminating letter is secreted. When the Prefect approaches Dupin for his advice on the matter, the latter sees the solution immediately. An insight from which he is able to profit handsomely. Poe at his most ingenious!

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole (1884-1941) was a New Zealand-born English novelist famous for his skill at scene setting and vivid plots. He was a best-selling author in the 1920s and 1930s and remains popular to this day. "Seashore Macabre" tells the story of a curious boy who inexplicably follows a sinister-looking man at a seaside resort. The old man goes to a remote cottage on the edge of the sand dunes.