Résultats lu par "Cathy Dobson" dans Toutes les catégories

Stacy Aumonier was described by John Galsworthy as "one of the best short-story writers of all time". Odd Fish gives a keen insight into why the Nobel Prize winner believed Aumonier would outlive the writers of his day. In this collection of sketches of London Characters, Aumonier amply exhibits his genius for characterisation, his keen wit and his ruthless ascerbity.

"The Storm" is Kate Chopin's most sexually charged story, and as such is quite exceptional for a work which was written in 1898. It describes a chance sexual encounter between Calixta and her former flame Alcée during a heavy storm in Louisiana when her husband Bobinôt and her son Bibi are absent. Chopin's description of the events of that day is refreshingly modern and free of the stifling morals of the day.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer, now best remembered for his science fiction novels and often credited as being the father of science fiction. 'The Plattner Story' is the strange tale of Gottfried Plattner, a modern languages teacher at a private school in England who, while conducting a chemistry experiment, accidently causes an explosion. The results of the explosion are mysterious. First, Plattner disappears completely.

Running away from a failed love affair, the lead character of the story, a very shy, bashful man, finds himself snowed up in a remote coaching inn called The Holly Tree. He spends much of the next seven days recalling strange tales of inns around Great Britain, Europe and America and remembering those which he has himself visited. After several days he overcomes his shyness sufficiently to ask the boot-boy for a drink and a chat.

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was a prolific English writer best known for his outstanding science fiction stories and novels. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. 'The Crystal Egg' is a science fiction short story about an antiquarian dealer, Mr. Cave, who discovers that a crystal egg in his shop has strange properties. In certain light conditions it functions as a window on the planet Mars and he is able to observe the Martians and their bizarre cities and machines.

Allan Quatermain, or Hunter Quatermain as his friends call him, recounts his South African adventure of hunting four lions.

Morley Roberts (1857-1942) was an English novelist and short story writer. In The Young Man Who Stroked Cats, Thomas Meredith finds himself the recipient of a very mysterious and unexpected gift. A Persian kitten in a basket. More mysterious still, the note accompanying it only reads: For the young man who strokes cats. Thomas is indeed a cat-lover, and is both delighted and intrigued by his new present. But before long things take another strange turn.

William Chambers Morrow (1854-1923) was an American author famed for his short stories of horror and suspense. 'An Uncommon View of It' is the story of a man who has discovered that his wife is having an affair with his best friend. He decides that one thing is clear...he must have his revenge. He will kill them both and then commit suicide. But what will he do exactly? Will he use a revolver or poison? As he sits down to plan his revenge in detail, he develops a plan of action which is really quite extraordinary!

James Hume Nisbet (1849 - 1923) was born in Scotland but travelled extensively in Australia before returning to his native country. He became a writer in middle-age and wrote prolifically, mainly mystery and adventure fiction. The Vampire Maid is a classic vampire story about a traveller who takes lodgings with an apparently kind landlady and her pale invalid daughter, who instantly casts a spell upon him.

Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936), who wrote as M. R. James, was an English author, medieval scholar, and provost of King's College, Cambridge, and of Eton College. He is best known for his outstanding ghost stories. James reinvented the ghost story for the modern audience by moving away from Gothic elements and using realistic contemporary settings. His protagonists and plots often reflected his own antiquarian interests.

Baring-Gould's strangest and most enduring works are those which are based on fantastical medieval myths and folklore. 'A Dead Finger' is a strange vampire story about a parasitic dead human finger which feeds off living humans in an attempt to draw the life force out of them and thus regrow its body.

When Paul Forsyth and his archeologist friend Professor Niles are exploring the Cheops pyramid in Egypt, they become separated from their guide and lose their way in the labyrinthine tunnel network. Finding themselves close to a female mummy, they decide to create a fire using the wooden case in the hope of attracting the attention of the Egyptian guides. Professor Niles is keen to unwrap the mummy and see what items may have been hidden in the bandages. They do indeed find treasures...one of which is a golden box containing some mysterious seeds...and another is a scrap of parchment casting a curse on anyone who disturbs the rest of the mummy....

An atmospheric tale in which a lady receives a box of six hand-made Egyptian cigarettes in a mysterious package. When she smokes the first one, she is immediately transported into a strange and disturbing vision of herself, abandoned alone in the desert, in which she feels the acute sensations of love, loss, grief and suicidal despair. An eight minute emotional rollercoaster.

When Joseph Gibson, an oil and colourman from London, faces bankruptcy, he seizes the opportunity to take the bargain lease on Stape Hill near Poole in Dorsetshire. The deal turns out to be less a bargain than a swindle. The farm is worth nowhere near the price paid for it. The grasping owner, a retired lawyer, Arthur Blagden, had charged him more than twice the property's worth. Gibson and his delicate daughter face ruin next Michaelmas day when the next annual rent payment is due.

"A Witch in the Peak" tells the story of a moneylender trying to recover a debt from an old woman who has been recently widowed. She throws him out of her house with a curse...and what happens next terrifies the man almost to death.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English novelist and poet whose work is best known for combining the traditions of Romanticism with a realistic portayal of a declining rural society in Victorian England. "The Fiddler of the Reels" tells the story of a love triangle. The enigmatic, brilliant and rakish violin player, Wat Ollamore, who arrives in the small South Wessex village of Mellstock, exercises a diabolical fascination with the young, impressionable Car'line Aspent.

Thirteen terrifying horror stories from the master of the macabre....1. 'Pickman’s Model' 2. 'The Terrible Old Man' 3. 'Dagon' 4. 'From Beyond' 5. 'The Cats of Ulthar' 6. 'Nyarlathotep' 7. 'Imprisoned with the Pharaohs' 8. 'The Book' 9. 'Memory' 10. 'The Beast in the Cave' 11. 'The Evil Clergyman' 12. 'In the Vault' 13. 'Cool Air'

William Wymark Jacobs (1863 - 1943) was an English author of short stories and novels. Most of his works were either humorous tales or horror stories. Many of his popular tales are written in the cockney vernacular and are based either on the docks at Wapping, or in the bar of the infamous tavern The Cauliflower. 'A Tiger's Skin' is a tale narrated by the oldest regular at The Cauliflower. It is the story of the Claybury tiger... a beast which had apparently escaped from a travelling circus....

Barry Eric Odell Pain (1864-1928) was an English journalist, poet, and writer best known for his outstanding mystery and horror stories, often with a strange twist at the end. "A Considerable Murder" is the odd tale of a retired gentleman and his daughter who are suddenly imposed upon by an old, sick and highly cantankerous man...a former friend of their father and grandfather, who had helped them out in earlier years.

When Dan Kinsolving inherits a fortune from his late father, he wants to make amends for the immoral way in which the money was amassed. Kinsolving senior had been responsible for a rise in the price of bread which had caused great hardship among the poor of New York. Kinsolving's friend Kenwitz shows Dan the impact of the bread price on real people's lives... and also explains the impossibility of undoing the damage which has been done.