House Classics

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.

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.

The Bluesman - musician, magician, lethal killer. Thrown to Earth from a parallel universe, the Bluesman seeks to save our world from being overrun by the horrid, mutated creatures that came with him. Armed with magic, skill, and his companion, Scotch, he faces these monsters hoping to create a peaceful world for all. In Death House Jam Session, an after hours barroom jam session turns deadly when a ferocious monster that likes dark places attacks.

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.

One of the earliest short stories of the horror genre, Ambrose Bierce’s A Vine on a House tells the compelling story of the Harding family. When Matilda Harding mysteriously vanishes, people begin to notice that a vine growing on the Harding house bears an uncanny resemblance to her. The events that unfold next are terrifying to the Harding family...and quite possibly to the listener as well. You will be riveted to the end of this old-fashioned ghost story.

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.... 

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...

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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...

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.