Get the Popular Titles Audiobooks in Classics, British Literature

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Title: Short Tales of Joseph Conrad

Author: Joseph Conrad

Narrator: Wolfram Kandinsky

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-16-99

Publisher: Books on Tape

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

The author of Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim also wrote brilliant works of short fiction. His stories, ironic and penetrating, expose the dark recesses of the human character that make us squirm, for we recognize them in ourselves.

The eight stories in this collection include "Karain: A Memory", "The Idiots", "The Lagoon", "The Tale", "Prince Roman", "Amy Foster", "Falk: A Reminiscence", and "The Warrior's Soul".

Members Reviews:

What a Shame

I agree with much of the other comments concerning the prestation of this book. . . the sound quality is bad and the reader offers a less than stellar performance. But beyond this my greatest gripe is with Audible. . . rather than taking the time to seperate the download by stories (and it really wouldn't take much time to do it) they settled on putting in random breaks. Such a half hearted effort (especially with a compilation of short stories) left me frustrated and unsatisfied. Sorry Mr. Conrad, you really didn't deserve this!

poor sound quality

The sound quality of this audio book is poor. The stories are very good but to follow a Joseph Conrad Tale you can not be straining to understand what the narrator is saying. Hope they remaster.

Avoid Kandinsky

What ever made Wolfram Kandinsky think he could read audio, and what ever made Blackstone hire him? I have never bought an audio book of his where I didn't have to fight the urge to erase it, and several times I have. But I love Conrad so much I took the chance I could enjoy it in spite of his affected, nasal, irritating style. Alas, even Conrad can't survive such treatment.

Poor choice of reader

The voice used to read the words of Joseph Conrad is totally inappropriate. It is an American voice, but this could have been acceptable if some effort had een made to select a good voice. This one is thin, nasal and very irritating. I can barely manage to continue listening.

interesting reader

What made the experience of listening to Short Tales of Joseph Conrad the most enjoyable?

both content and reader's interpretation

What did you like best about this story?

there were many of them. i liked Karain very much for its depiction of the main character.

Which scene was your favorite?

the final scene in Karain.

If you could take any character from Short Tales of Joseph Conrad out to dinner, who would it be and why?

the narrator, which is these stories really is Conrad because he was a part of the world he writes about in the stories.

Any additional comments?

i highly recommend this reader. he is quite different from my usual favorites -- he does not for example do dialog particularly well -- and at first i didn't like his style. but midway into the first story, i became fascinated with it. usually, a good reader creates something which is both himself or herself and the author's work. Kandinsky did not do that, but instead made me focus on the work itself, on Conrad's words. i felt at times as if while reading the stories, he was at the same time yelling, "look at them, the words, the text! how magnificent!" and making me see them in my mind's eye almost as if for the first time.

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Title: Grace

Author: James Joyce

Narrator: Richard Setlok

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-16-99

Publisher: Findaway World

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

"Grace," a moving account of alcoholism, friendship, and redemption among Irishmen, begins this collection from Dubliners, Joyce's masterwork of short fiction. Richard Setlok's gentle reading matches the elegance of the stories, which also include "After the Race," "Clay," "A Little Cloud," "Counterparts," and "Araby," a bittersweet tale of first love.

(P) and ©1993 Commuter's Library

Critic Reviews:

"Setlok reads with a gentle accent that enhances Joyce's Dublin.... Recommended for most collections." (Library Journal)

Members Reviews:

Goodbye James Joyce.

Another James Joyce....not interesting. In fact, morbidly depressing, particularly in his voice!

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Title: The Strange Orchid

Author: H.G. Wells

Narrator: Ralph Cosham

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-16-99

Publisher: Findaway World

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Speculative novelist H.G. Wells wrote engaging short fiction dealing with the strange, the unsettling, and the unknown. Here, Ralph Cosham lends his narrative expertise to 5 classic tales. "The Strange Orchid" concerns a horticulturist who must contend with the macabre appetites of an exotic orchid. "The Truth About Pyecraft" explains why an overbearing fat man wears lead underwear. "The Man Who Could Work Miracles" recounts the problems with defying nature. "The Purple Pileus" deals with a life-altering fungus. Finally, in "Aepyornis Island," a man has a special relationship with a prehistoric bird.

(P) and ©1993 Commuter's Library

Critic Reviews:

"Wells exploits the baroque nature of British speech, his characters telling first-person tales that are prone to unexpected curves and twists. [Cosham's reading] is dry-witted and droll, giving these literary chestnuts an acerbic bite." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

hideous sound quality - should be free

this is unlistenable. it is terrible. i cant stand it. i have never heard anything so terrible on audible. this is the bottom of their collection. i cant believe they charge money for this.

now be assured, friend, i like "vintage" programs. i like those that are old and those that sound old. but this is not vintage, this is garbage.

and and and it will not instant return; i have to call the operators to make the exchange.

geeeezzz

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Title: Six Short Stories by Arthur Morrison

Author: Arthur Morrison

Narrator: Cathy Dobson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-18-17

Publisher: Red Door Audiobooks

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Arthur George Morrison (1863-1945) was an English writer and journalist known for his realistic novels and stories about working-class life in London's East End. This collection contains a selection of Morrison's best work, including humorous and horror stories.

Featuring:

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Title: The Apple

Author: H. G. Wells

Narrator: Cathy Dobson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-22-16

Publisher: Red Door Audiobooks

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

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 Apple' is a strange tale about a young student who, in a third-class railway carriage, is unexpectedly offered the genuine fruit of the Tree of Knowledge from the Garden of Eden by a stranger with piercing grey eyes. The strange tale of how the stranger came to have the fruit is almost as unusual as the story of what the student then did with it.

Members Reviews:

Terrible narration

Couldn't go through first 3 minutes of Cathy Dobson narration. Learnt my lesson as that was the first Audiobook I didn't listen to the sample of... Avoid...

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Title: Carmilla

Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Narrator: Cathy Dobson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-19-16

Publisher: Red Door Audiobooks

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the leading ghost-story writer of the 19th century and was central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era.

Carmilla is Le Fanu's famous classic vampire story which has been filmed numerous times, including Vampyre (1932), Blood and Roses (1960), Crypt of Horror (1964), The Vampire Lovers (1970) and Carmilla (1999).

It tells the story of a strange and mysterious guest who arrives unexpectedly to stay at a castle and takes a great liking to the daughter of the house. Her attraction soon takes on a sinister aspect...and the similarity to the experience of a neighbouring family, whose girl died recently in mysterious circumstances, becomes increasingly alarming....

Members Reviews:

Excellent Pre-Dracula Vampire Story

I will say that though the language within this book was extremely difficult having been written in the second decade of the 19th century, I found it a very engaging and interesting book. I think the thing that held my interest most is that this is a book about a female vampire who has lesbian tendencies, though in the Victorian era this would have been viewed as outrageous, that was published almost 30 years prior to Bram Stoker's Dracula. And to be perfectly honest, I really think that Bram Stoker paralleled Dracula in many ways to Carmilla.

Anyone interested in reading classic horror should give this book a try. It was not long, probably considered a short story, however it is very engaging because you want to understand the hows and whys of Carmilla. To be honest, I almost wish the writer had written more, as it would have been very interesting to gage into Carmilla's story as a vampire. The book, however, is written from Laura's point of view about her experiences with Carmilla, who actually had three names: Carmilla, Mircalla, and another name I can not remember.

All in all, it was a very good read... one that has probably been lost in history.

I wish modern vamps would take a page from Carmilla

The first time I read this story, I had no idea what it was about. It was in an old library book whose cover had mostly faded away, along with any description of the stories and their contents. I thought it was a sweet romance story, pleasantly "liberal" for its time. Then the recognizable signs began.

If you've read other reviews, you probably know what this story is about.

More than any other vampire story I've read, this truly shows how creepy the whole concept of the vampire can be.

It's like the old story of the fox and the scorpion crossing the river. Scorpion wants to get across, Fox offers to let Scorpion ride on his back. Scorpion knows he'll be safe, because he knows that Fox would never eat him for fear of his poisonous tail. Halfway across the river, Fox tosses his head back to eat Scorpion. "What are you doing?!" Scorpion cried. "If you eat me, we'll BOTH die!" "I know," Fox replies. "But I must eat you. It's in my nature."

I think Carmilla truly did love Laura, and Laura likely loved her back. Carmilla isn't cruel or evil or manipulative, she isn't tortured over the fact that she wants to kill humans.

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Title: The Withered Arm

Author: Thomas Hardy

Narrator: Cathy Dobson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-28-13

Publisher: Red Door Audiobooks

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Thomas Hardy's sinister tale of jealousy, unrequited love and a mysterious and hideous curse. When Farmer Lodge brings his new wife home, nobody is more resentful and yet curious about her than his spurned former lover, Rhoda Brooke. But a terrifying and supernatural nightmare in which the two women fight, leaves strange and sinister marks on the young wife's arm

Over the weeks and months that follow, the arm begins to wither and wrinkle. She seeks every possible cure, resorting in the end to consulting a mysterious conjurer. The remedy he proposes is too horrible to contemplate... and yet, the young woman feels she has no other choice...Gripping!

Members Reviews:

Story=5 Stars, Edition=1

"The Withered Arm" rivals "Fellow-Townsmen" as Hardy's best short work; though lacking the latter's novelistic sweep, it is more tightly written and thus a better success in pure short story terms. Anyone interested in Hardy should read it, but the fact that it is in so many collections - e.g., The Withered Arm and Other Stories - makes it hard to justify a standalone, especially as some collections cost little or no more than this.

This may even be Hardy's most superbly plotted and masterfully executed tale of all; the mysterious and foreboding threads coalesce in a dark, seemingly inevitable ending exemplifying Hardy's cruel fate twists. It does not take on grand concerns to the extent most of his best work does but is in many ways one of his bleakest stories; its vision of humanity headed toward a tragic end with little or no control over events is unforgettable. Hardy's best novels are replete with such drama, but no prior short story conveyed it so fully or well. "The Withered" is also an appropriate close for the book, being in many ways the culmination of Hardy's fiction to that point. It is one of his few works to have central scenes in both Casterbridge - the largest town in Wessex - and the surrounding countryside, while the cast of milkmaids, hanging judges, wronged women, and nervous new wives seems to have stepped out of a myriad Hardy stories. Not least interestingly, though much of Hardy's work is steeped in rural Southwest England folklore, this is virtually his only fiction with a strong supernatural element. His editor and friend Leslie Stephen criticized the element's ambiguity, saying he was unsure whether to believe or not, but this was surely Hardy's point; he again lets us judge. Far more important in any case are the dark forces at the story's heart - forces that soon dominated the little fiction he had left to write. Buying this in a collection gives one the chance to see it in other works along with this excellent one.

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Title: Splendid Adventure Stories

Subtitle: Gripping Tales from the Master Storytellers

Author: John Buchan, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, F. Marion Crawford, Arthur Conan-Doyle

Narrator: Cathy Dobson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-07-13

Publisher: Red Door Audiobooks

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

A gripping collection of some of the worlds best classic adventure stories.

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Title: White Stockings

Author: Edgar Wallace

Narrator: Cathy Dobson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-02-17

Publisher: Red Door Audiobooks

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was an English writer of 957 short stories and over 170 novels. He is widely recognized as one of the most prolific writers of his age.

'White Stockings' is a compelling and cleverly constructed story about a vengeful jilted lover with a gambling addiction, a racing tout, a gullible lover, a hairdresser and a wily old racehorse owner...most of whom are hell-bent on double-crossing each other.

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Title: The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents

Author: H. G. Wells

Narrator: Cathy Dobson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-26-16

Publisher: Red Door Audiobooks

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels and is frequently credited as being the father of science fiction.

The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents is a superb and varied collection of 15 of Wells' best stories, first published in 1894.

Members Reviews:

Enjoyable early stories by Wells if you liked his novels, The Time Machine, the Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man etc.

I am attempting to read everything written by Wells. I find even his least story has some nugget that holds its value.

There are so many surprises in every story, things Wells predicted long before Science.

These early stories are fun night time reading. Some are better than others, though I have enjoyed every one.

Here is the table of contents:

The Stolen Bacillus, predicts the Small Pox scare -- what if someone unsavory got hold of a petri dish full of disease bacteria?

The Flowering of the Strange Orchid -- what if plants were to evolve a different method of getting nutrition?

In the Avu Observatory

The Triumphs of a Taxidermist

A Deal in Ostriches Through a Window

The Temptation of Harringay

The Flying Man

The Diamond Maker -- what happens to a man who learns to make diamonds in a home-made laboratory?

Aepyornis Island

The Remarkable Case of Davidsonâs Eyes

The Lord of the Dynamos

The Hammerpond Park Burglary

A Moth â Genus Novo

The Treasure in the Forest

Enjoy!

Three Stars

A good read

Five Stars

Love it

Disappointed

I have enjoyed Mr Wells' work in the past, but I found his skills lacking in the realm of the short story. Many of the endings were essentially nonexistent, about as satisfying as "and then he woke up."

Two Stars

Many of these short stories seems underdeveloped and were very odd.