House Classics

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.

Esther Summerson, a young woman raised in a tough and unloving atmosphere, is unexpectedly requested to be a companion to two teenage orphans, Richard Carstone and Ada Clare, for whom the court has appointed as guardian, John Jarndyce. They take up residence at Mr. Jarndyce’s home, Bleak House. The story of their lives and fortunes is the main thrust of the novel, and is related at times through the eyes of Esther, whose gentle point of view gives the listener a different and more intimate perspective.

This short story is taken from Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit, by Joel Chandler Harris. Uncle Remus is a collection of animal stories, songs, and oral folklore collected from Southern black Americans.

"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.

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...

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.

Algernon Blackwood was a contemporary of Arthur Machen, a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and writer of the weird and supernatural. Originally published in 1906, The Empty House tells the tale of Jim Shorthouse when his aunt shows up in town with keys to the local haunted house and expects him to help her investigate.

This terse and startling novel is the story of a struggle for possession and of its devastating consequences. Three women seek to secure the affections of one man, while he, in turn, tries to satisfy them all. But in the middle of this contest of wills stands his unwitting and vulnerable young daughter. The conclusion of The Other House makes it one of the most disturbing and memorable of Henry James' depictions of the uncontrollable passions that lie beneath the polished veneer of civilized life.

A group of travellers are telling increasingly tall tales about horse thieves and robbers...but one traveller's story trumps the lot. It is the story of a miserly farmer who steals a meeting house and carries it off. But his plans do not go at all as he expects...

The affectations of a nouveau riche, avaricious pair are contrasted with the kindness and consideration of the landed gentry and the neighboring villagers.

Award-winning audiobook narrator Mike Vendetti performs Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, one of Poe's best. Poe had a fear of being buried alive, and this theme runs through many of his tales, as it does this one. Poe may have also been a bit mad, and there is definitely madness in the House of Usher. Turn out the lights, and give this Gothic tale of horror a listen, but make sure you aren't alone.

The narrator knows very little about his friend. Upon arriving, the narrator describes the Usher family mansion in great detail, focusing on its most fantastic features and its unearthly atmosphere. Shortly after entering, the narrator is greeted by Roderick, who displays a number of strange symptoms. He claims his senses are especially acute: therefore, he cannot wear clothes of certain textures or eat particularly flavourful foods, and his eyes are bothered by even the faintest lights.

The creator of Dracula, Bram Stoker, wrote many other novels and works of short fiction. Here are four of his short stories which have some of the same weird, unsettling, and entertaining qualities as his gothic masterpiece. They are "The Judge's House", "The Secret of the Growing Gold", "The Squaw", and "A Dream of Red Hands."

When Roderick Usher sends a letter begging his old schoolfriend to visit him, it becomes apparent that he is suffering from a severe mental illness caused by an extreme overload of his senses. His sister too is very ill, suffering from cataleptic deathlike trances. When Roderick announces that his sister has died, and they place her coffin in the vaults of the House of Usher for two weeks prior to burial, neither of them can imagine the horror which is to follow.Poe at his most macabre.

A book that explores the great American novelist and playwright Edna Ferber, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Ficton, whose work was made into many Academy Award-winning movies; the writing of her controversial, international best-selling novel about Texas, and the making of George Stevens’ Academy Award winning epic film of the same name, Giant.

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Two tales from the golden age of supernatural fiction.

This selection of Poe's critical writings, short fiction and poetry demonstrates his intense interest in aesthetic issues and the astonishing power and imagination with which he probed the darkest corners of the human mind. The Fall of the House of Usher is a slow-burning Gothic horror, describing the final hours of a family tormented by tragedy and the legacy of the past.