House Classics

A Vine on a House is a classic Gothic haunted house story. The old abandoned Harding house, which is now overgrown by an unusual vine, has a strange and sinister story behind it. Years before, the mother of the household disappeared suddenly. Two years later the family abandoned the house. More recent visitors have discovered the vine growing up the front of the house behaving very oddly. Finally the local authorities decide to dig up the vine....

In the northern outreaches of the Canadian wilderness, it was understood that the Hudson Bay Company governed all trading, and one factor named Galen Albret took his position seriously. Free traders, or those who dared try to do their trading outside of the Company, found themselves having to face Galen Albret and his methods of dealing with them. One or two offenses he might tolerate, but for those who repeatedly refuse to acknowledge his warning out, he would send them on “La Longue Traverse” through the wilderness without supplies, and from which they seldom returned.

In Craven House, among the shifting, uncertain world of the English boardinghouse, with its sad population of the shabby genteel on the way down and the eternal optimists who would never get up or on, the young Patrick Hamilton, with loving, horrified fascination, first mapped out the territory that he would make uniquely his own. Although many of Hamilton's lifelong interests are here, they are handled with a youthful brio and optimism conspicuously absent from his later work.

The house is called "Pleasance" and is rented by two sisters, Blanche and Aileen. The story revolves around the fortunes of two neighbouring families of varied social standing. The sisters' semi-detachment is to the Hopkinsons. Whilst Blanche's husband, Arthur, is abroad on a mission, the neighbours soon prove themselves invaluable as friends and Blanche and Mrs Hopkinson discover that their husbands are already acquainted!

Asked to write a story to be included in an actual dollhouse’s library, M. R. James crafted a macabre tale where a collector buys a doll house that turns out to be more than he bargained for. Rebecca Thomas narrates this tale of a dolls’ house haunted by the last days of the residents of the actual house.

When Mr. Dillet buys a breathtakingly beautiful antique dolls' house from a dealer, he is delighted with his purchase and has it installed in his bedroom at home. When he goes to bed, however, he hears a clock strike one and then a strange scene unfolds before his eyes, leading him into a vision from the past in which he unravels a mysterious unsolved murder...

"Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English writer and one of the foremost modernists of the 20th century. During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury group of intellectuals." (Wikipedia)

Nora, a banker's pampered and petted wife, forges a signature to obtain money for her ailing husband. The play's theme, touting a woman's independence, shocked audiences at the time of its premiere.

Adeline Virginia Woolf (January 1882-1941) was an English writer and one of the preeminent modernists of the 20th century. Her stories often seem to take the form of a stream of consciousness. 'A Haunted House' tells the story of a ghostly couple flitting from one room to the next in search of their hidden treasure...but what is it?

Bleak House is one of a series of retellings of classic literature by publishers Real Reads. True to the original plot, characters and themes, Real Reads also imitate the original author's style.

The house on Benefit Street is shunned. With a dark forbidding exterior, a garden overrun by corrupt weeds and bent malformed trees, it simply looks wrong. The locals know its history, know how many people that house has killed, and fear it. Dr Elihu Whipple is not afraid of the house, he's fascinated by it and its history, and now he's decided to investigate its horrifying secret.

Imagine living in a house over 100 years old, and of course wondering about the former occupants, and now the couple living in the home meets the former residents. Only one problem; the former residents have been dead for many years, and these are the ghosts of the loving couple who lived in the home searching for treasure. Glenn Hascall does a magnificent job performing as the narrator of this charming story by Virginia Woolf.

This is a story from the Dubliners, Volume 1 collection.

Now, this is a story about the doll family I liked, and the doll family I didn't. When you read it you are to remember something I am going to tell you. This is it: If you think dolls never do anything you don't see them do, you are very much mistaken. When people are not looking at them, they can do anything they choose. They can dance and sing and play on the piano and have all sorts of fun... but they can only move about and talk when people turn their backs and are not looking.

This is an unabridged audio recording of M R James' excellent ghost story "The Haunted Dolls House". Read by David Collings, this is sure to scare and delight in equal measure.

Perhaps the finest novel of nineteenth-century England, Bleak House embodies artful narrative, an engaging cast of characters, biting satire, and a detailed depiction of Victorian society. At the height of his creative power in this great work, Dickens pursues two great themes.

"Barbara of the House of Grebe" is a short story from Thomas Hardys collection "A Group of Noble Dames". It is a dark that intertwines madness and desire. Barbara Grebe is already promised to a wealthy lord when she elopes with another young man, Edmond Willowes. He suffers a terrible disfigurement, and the couples love begins to falter. Hardys pessimism is revealed in his total rejection of the idea of eternal love, certain of its ephemerality.

"The Adventures of Hansel and Gretel" is a unique take on the classic Brothers Grimm tale. It follows siblings Hansel and Gretel as try to survive in the woods after being left there by their father and evil stepmother. Then, they must thwart a witch in able to make it home. "To Grandmother's House" is an adaptation of Little Red Cap, another Brothers Grimm fairy tale. Little Red Cap goes to take her sick grandmother some cake and milk, only to be met by a big, bad wolf.

John Buchan's hero Edward Leithen chances upon a worldwide plan for domination. With his own life (and those of his friends) depending on the outcome of his struggle, he engages in combat with the anarchic brain behind The Power-House. The author, despite being very busy in public service, wrote over 50 books during his life, but his particular talent was for writing fast-moving adventure stories. The Power-House, a good example of this genre, was first published in 1916.

The Adventure of the Empty House is the lead story in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, first published in 1903. The author had attempted to kill off Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Final Problem. However, there was such a public outcry that he relented and brought him "back from the dead" in this ingenious story.