The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 1 Free Audiobooks Plays Prose Tale Teller Books.
chapter one of the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde chapter one

the studio was filled with the rich odor of roses and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac or the more delicate perfume of the pink flowering thorn from the corner of the divan of persian saddlebags on which he was lying smoking as was his custom innumerable cigarettes lord henry watten could just catch the gleam of the honey sweet and honey-colored blossoms of a la burnham whose tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the burden of a beauty so flame-like as theirs and now and then the fantastic shadows of birds in flight flitted across the long tursor silk curtains that was stretched in front of the huge window producing a kind of momentary japanese effect and making him think of those pallet jade-faced painters of tokyo who through the medium of an art that is necessarily immobile seek to convey the sense of swiftness and motion the sullen murmur of the bees shouldering their way through the long unknown grass or circling with monotonous insistence around the dusty guilt horns of the straggling woodbine seemed to make the stillness more oppressive the dim roar of london was like the bordeaux note of a distant organ in the center of the room clamped to an upright easel stood the full length portrait of a young man of extraordinary personal beauty and in front of it some little distance away was sitting the artist himself basil hallwood whose sudden disappearance some years ago caused at the time such public excitement and gave rise to so many strange conjectures as the painter looked at the gracious and comely form he had so skillfully mirrored in his art a smile of pleasure passed across his face and seemed about to linger there but he suddenly started up and closing his eyes placed his fingers upon the lids as though he sought to imprison within his brain some curious dream from which he feared he might awake it is your best work basil the best thing you've ever done said lord henry languidly you must certainly send it next year to the grosvenor the academy is too large and too vulgar whenever i have gone there there have either been so many people that have not been able to see the pictures which was dreadful or so many pictures that i have not been able to see the people which was worse other grosvenor is really the only place i don't think i shall send it anywhere he answered tossing his head back in that odd way that used to make his friends laugh at him at oxford no i won't send it anywhere lord henry elevated his eyebrows and looked at him in amazement through the thin blue wreaths of smoke that curled up in such fanciful walls from his heavy opium tainted cigarette not send it anywhere my dear fellow why have you any reason and what odd chaps you painters are you do anything in the world to gain a reputation as soon as you have one you seem to want to throw it away it is silly of you where there's only one thing in the world worse than being talked about and that is not being talked about a portrait like this would set you far above all the young men in england and make the old men quite jealous if old men are ever capable of any emotion i know you will laugh at me he replied but i really can't exhibit it i have put too much of myself into it lord henry stretched himself out on the divine and laughed yes i knew you would but it is quite true all the same too much of yourself in it upon my word basil i didn't know you were so vain and i really can't see any resemblance between you with your rugged strong face and your cold black hair and this young adonis who looks...

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde 6-7 Free Audio Books by Tale Teller Club Public Domain horror, adult,free-audiobooks,adult-library,fantasy-horror,entertainment,recitals,

this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org the canterville ghost by oscar wilde chapter six

about ten minutes later the bell rang for tea and as virginia did not come down mrs otis sent up one of the foot men to tell her after a little time he returned and said that he could not find miss virginia anywhere as she was in the habit of going out to the garden every evening to get flowers for the dinner table mrs otis was not at all alarmed at first but when six o'clock struck and virginia did not appear she became really agitated and sent the boys out to look for her while she herself and mr otis searched every room in the house at half past six the boys came back and said that they could find no trace of their sister anywhere they were all now in the greatest state of excitement and did not know what to do when mr otis suddenly remembered that some few days before he'd given a band of gypsies permission to camp in the park he accordingly at once set off for blackfell hollow where he knew they were accompanied by his eldest son and two of the farm servants the little duke of cheshire who was perfectly frantic with anxiety begged hard to be allowed to go to but mr otis would not allow him as he was afraid there might be a scuffle on arriving at the spot however he found that the gypsies had gone and it was evident that their departure had been rather sudden as the fire was still burning and some plates were lying on the grass having sent off washington and the two men to scour the district he ran home and dispatched telegrams to all the police inspectors in the county telling them to look out for a little girl who'd been kidnapped by tramps or gypsies he then ordered his horse to be brought round and after insisting on his wife and the three boys sitting down to dinner rode off down the ascott road with a groom he'd hardly however gone a couple of miles when he heard somebody galloping after him and looking round saw the little duke coming up on his pony with his face very flushed and no hat i'm awfully sorry mr otis gasped out the boy but i can't eat my dinner as long as virginia is lost please don't be angry with me if you let us be engaged last year there would never have been all this trouble you won't send me back will you i can't go i won't go the minister could not help smiling at the handsome young scapegrace and was a good deal touched at his devotion to virginia so leaning down from his horse he patted him kindly on the shoulders and said well cecil if you won't go back i suppose you must come with me but i must get you a hat at asgard oh bother my hat i want virginia cried the little duke laughing and they galloped on to the railway station there mr otis inquired of the station master if anyone answering to the description of virginia had been seen on the platform but could get no news off her the station master however wired up and down the line and assured him that a strict watch would be kept for her and after having bought a hat for the little duke from a linen draper who was just putting up his shutters mr otis rode off to bexley a village about four miles away which he was told was a well-known haunt of the gypsies as there was a large common next to it here they roused up the rural policemen but could get no information from him and after riding all over the common they turned their horses heads homewards and reached the chase about eleven o'clock dead tired and almost heartbroken they found washington and the twins waiting for them at the gatehouse with lanterns as the avenue was very dark not the slightest trace of virginia had been discovered the gypsies had been caught on broccoli meadows but she was not with them...

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde 4-5 Free Audio Books by Tale Teller Club Public Domain.
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the canterville ghost by oscar wilde chapter four

the next day the ghost was very weak and tired the terrible excitement of the last four weeks was beginning to have its effect his nerves were completely shattered and he started at the slightest noise for five days he kept his room and at last made up his mind to give up the point of the bloodstain on the library floor if the otis family didn't want it they clearly did not deserve it they were evidently people on a low material plane of existence and quite incapable of appreciating the symbolic value of sensuous phenomena the question of fantasmic apparitions and the development of astral bodies was of course quite a different matter and really not under his control it was his solemn duty to appear in the corridor once a week and to jibber from the large oriole window on the first and third wednesdays in every month and he didn't see how he could honorably escape from his obligations it is quite true that his life had been very evil but on the other hand he was most conscientious in all things connected with the supernatural for the next three saturdays accordingly he traversed the corridor as usual between midnight and three o'clock taking every possible precaution against being either heard or seen he removed his boots trod as lightly as possible on the old worm eaton boards he wore a large black velvet cloak and was careful to use the rising sun lubricator for oiling his chains i'm bound to acknowledge that it was with a good deal of difficulty that he brought himself to adopt this last mode of protection however one night while the family were at dinner he slipped into mr otis's bedroom and carried off the bottle he felt a little humiliated at first but afterwards was sensible enough to see that there was a great deal to be said for the invention and to a certain degree it served his purpose still in spite of everything he was not left unmolested strings were continually being stretched across the corridor over which he tripped in the dark and on one occasion while dressed for the part of black isaac or the huntsman of hogly woods he met with a severe fall through treading on a butter slide which the twins had constructed from the entrance of the tapestry chamber to the top of the oak staircase this last insult so enraged him that he resolved to make one final effort to assert his dignity and social position and determined to visit the insolent young etonians the next night in his celebrated character of reckless rupert or the headless earl

he'd not appeared in this disguise for more than 70 years in fact not since he'd so frightened pretty lady barbara modish by means of it that she suddenly broke off her engagement with the present lord canterville's grandfather and ran away to gretna green with handsome jack castle town declaring that nothing in the world would induce her to marry into a family that allowed such a horrible phantom to walk up and down the terrace at twilight poor jack was afterwards shot in a duel by lord canterville on ones with common and lady barbara died of a broken heart at tombridge wells before the year was out so in every way it had been a great success it was however an extremely difficult makeup if i may use such a theatrical expression in connection with one of the greatest mysteries of the supernatural or to employ a more scientific term the higher natural world and it took him fully three hours to make his preparations at last everything was ready and he was very pleased with his appearance the big leather riding boots that went with the dress were just a little too large for him and he could only find one of the two horse pistols but on the whole he was quite satisfied...

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde 1-3 Free Audio Books by Tale Teller Club Public Domain.
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the canterville ghost by oscar wilde chapter one when mr hiram b otis the american minister bought canterville chase everyone told him he was doing a very foolish thing as there was no doubt at all that the place was haunted indeed lord canterville himself who was a man of the most punctilious honor had felt it his duty to mention the fact to mr otis when they came to discuss terms we have not cared to live in the place ourselves said lord canterville since my grandaunt the david duchess of bolton was frightened into a fit from which she never really recovered by two skeleton hands being placed on her shoulders as she was dressing for dinner and i feel bound to tell you mr otis that the ghost has been seen by several living members of my family as well as by director of the parish the reverend augustus dampier who is a fellow of king's college cambridge after the unfortunate accident to the duchess and none of our younger servants would stay with us and lady canterville often got very little sleep at night in consequence of the mysterious noises that came from the corridor and the library my lord answered the minister i will take the furniture and the ghost at evaluation i've come from a modern country where we have everything that money can buy and with all our spry young fellows painting the old world red and carrying off your best actors and primadonnas i reckon that if there were such a thing as a ghost in europe we'd have it at home in a very short time in one of our public museums or on the road as a show i fear that the ghost exists said lord canterville smiling though it may have resisted the overtures of your enterprising impresarios it has been well known for three centuries since 1584 in fact and always makes its appearance before the death of any member of our family well so does the family doctor for that medal or canderville but there is no such thing sir as a ghost and i guess the laws of nature are not going to be suspended for the british aristocracy you are certainly very natural in america answered lord canterville who didn't quite understand mr otis's last observation and if you don't mind a ghost in the house it's all right only you must remember i warned you a few weeks after this the purchase was concluded and at the close of the season the minister and his family went down to canterville chase mrs otis who as miss lucretia r tapan of west 53rd street had been a celebrated new york bell was now a very handsome middle-aged woman with fine eyes and a superb profile many american ladies on leaving their native land adopt an appearance of chronic ill health under the impression that it is a form of european refinement but mrs otis had never fallen into this era she had a magnificent constitution and a really wonderful amount of animal spirits indeed in many respects she was quite english and was an excellent example of the fact that we have really everything in common with america nowadays except of course language her eldest son christened washington by his parents in a moment of patriotism which he never ceased to regret was a fair-haired rather good-looking young man who had qualified himself for american diplomacy by leading the german at the newport casino for three successive seasons and even in london was well known as an excellent dancer gardenias and the peerage were his only weaknesses otherwise he was extremely sensible miss virginia e otis was a little girl of fifteen lithe and lovely as a fawn with a fine freedom in her large blue eyes she was a wonderful amazon and had once raced old lord bilton on her pony twice round the park winning by a length and a half just in front of the accolades statue to the huge delight of the...

Short Mystery and Suspense Collection 2 The Brand of Cain Ward Sterling Free Audiobook

Short Mystery and Suspense Collection 1 After Midnight Spooky Tales Free Adult Audiobook.

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after midnight by marta neville this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by colleen mcmahon good night mr lennon louise willoughby extended her hand we breakfast at nine she said i'll see you then i hope you sleep well thank you i'm sure i shall she gathered the folds of an embroidered chiffon gown about her and slowly mounted the stairs lannon stood leaning against the kneel post and watched her ascend as he turned away he faced his host the cold metallic glitter in the older man's black eyes gave him a strange uncomfortable feeling well said willoughby she's charming andrew you should be proud of her she's improved wonderfully in the three years since i saw her a slow smile crept about the drawn lips of the physician it did not extend to his eyes but became lost in the heavy mustache and van dyke beard he wore lannon again shivered the snakey glitter in his physician friend's eyes fascinated him he wondered if it could be true that the woman who had just left him with purity written on every curve and line of her could be the wanton thing her husband fancied that she had so forgotten herself and her social position as to stoop to an intrigue with her gardener it seemed impossible of louise willoughby yet many changes had taken place during the three years he had been abroad he'd not known her well before his departure perhaps he did not know her at all now come up into my laboratory willoughby said suddenly he closed the windows and switched off all the lights with the exception of one held in a bronze venus at the foot of the stairs andy lennon said as they entered the heavily odorous room i'd rather you said nothing more about this to me someday you'll be sorry for having taken me into your confidence and then our friendship will end there are some things a man has no right to discuss with another i don't need to remind you of that this is one of them i've got to talk to someone or go mad you think it's my imagination you think i'm a jealous fool i tell you i know from the day that man came here she's been different i've watched them i've seen his arm around her i've heard him call her louise he broke and buried his head on his arms he had flung on the table before him lennon gripped his shoulder and shook him why don't you send him away willoughby raised his bloodshot eyes and admit defeat give him the pleasure of saying he was fired because andrew willoughby's wife fell in love with him never besides he sprang to his feet and paced the little room nervously his long hands with their gnarled crooked fingers stained with chemicals twitching and pulling in his coat as he walked how do i know she won't go with him if i send him away lanan remembered the brief glimpse he'd had of the gardener a slim tall fellow little more than a boy with close-cropped dark hair a pale almost ethereal face a quiet unassuming manner how long has he been here allering six weeks willoughby hit the glass top table nervously as he did so a tiny vial of amber colored liquid fell over knocking the stopper out of it a pungent sickish odor filled the room the doctor gave a startled cry flinging a small rubber blanket over the table he lifted the vial gingerly he placed the stopper back in it carefully keeping it away from his face then he covered it with the rubber he'd become ashen colored as though unable to speak he motioned to landon to throw up the windows damn careless of me he muttered a moment later he placed the bottle high up in a cabinet above him then he locked the door of the chest damn careless it's an experiment of buying arthur do you feel all right lennon left uneasily i shouldn't care to remain in here along with that odor it's heady to...

The Countess Diaries Mental Health Champers Chocolate Bathing Butlers Day Off Free Book.

Join the Countess each day from the four-poster as she attempts to get through the challenges of life as a member of the British Aristocracy.

The Secret Tomb by Maurice Leblanc 1 Chateau de Roborey Free Audiobook Adult Book Club.
chapter 1 of the secret tomb this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by campbell shelp the secret tomb by maurice leblanc chapter 1 the chateau de robere under a sky heavy with stars and faintly brighter for a low-hanging sickle moon the gypsy caravan slept on the turf by the roadside its shutters closed its shafts stretched out like arms in the shadow of the ditch nearby as the taurus horse was snoring far away above the black crests of the hills a bright streak of sky announced the coming of the dawn a church clock struck four here and there a bird awoke and began to sing the air was soft and warm abruptly from the interior of the caravan a woman's voice cried saint quentin saint quentin a head was thrust out of the little window which looked out over the box under the projecting roof a nice thing this i thought as much the rascal has decamped in the night the little beast nice discipline this is other voices joined in the grumbling two or three minutes passed then the door in the back of the caravan opened and a shadowy figure descended the five steps of the ladder while two tousled heads appeared at the side window dorothy where are you going to look for saint quentin replied the shadowy figure but he came back with you from your walk last night and i saw him settle down on the box you can see that he isn't there any longer caster where is he patience i'm going to bring him back to you by the ears but two small boys in their shirts came tumbling down the steps of the caravan and implored her no no mummy dorothy don't you go away by yourself in the night time it's dangerous what are you making a fuss about pollux dangerous it's no business of yours she smacked them and kicked them gently and brought them quickly back to the caravan into which they climbed there sitting on the stool she took their two heads pressed them against her face and kissed them tenderly no ill-feeling children danger i'll find saint quentin in half an hour from now a nice business saint quentin a beggar who isn't sixteen while castor and pollux are twenty taken together retorted dorothy but what does he want to go traipsing about like this at night for and it isn't the first time either where is it he makes these expeditions to to snare rabbits she said there's nothing wrong in it you see but come there's been talk enough about it go to bye bye again boys and above all castor and pollux don't fight do you hear and no noise the captain's asleep and he doesn't like to be disturbed the captain doesn't she took herself off jumped over the ditch crossed the meadow in which her feet splashed up the water in the puddles and gained a path which wound through a cops of young trees which only reached her shoulders twice already the evening before strolling with her comrade saint quentin she had followed this half-formed path so that she went briskly forward without hesitating she crossed two roads came to a stream the white pebbly bottom of which gleamed under the quiet water stepped into it and walked up it against the current as if she wished to hide her tracks and when the first light of day began to invest objects with clear shapes darted forth afresh through the woods light graceful not very tall her legs bare below a very short skirt from which streamed behind her a flutter of many colored ribbons she ran with effortless ease sure-footed with never a chance of spraining an ankle over the dead leaves among the flowers of early spring lilies of the valley violet anemones or white narcissie her black hair not very long was divided into two heavy masses which flapped like two wings her smiling face parted lips dilated nostrils her half-closed eyes proclaimed all her delight and her swift course through the fresh air of the morning her neck long and...

The Intoxicated Ghost And Other Stories by Arlo Bates 2 Knitters in the Sun Free Audiobook.
section 3 of the intoxicated ghost and other stories this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by john harnish the intoxicated ghost and other stories by arlo bates the knitters in the sun

the mellow light of the october sun fell full upon the porch of the stately old greyman house and the long shadows of the lombardy poplars pointed to the two silvery-haired women who sat there placidly knitting the mansion dated back to colonial times that it had been erected before public sentiment was fully settled in regard to the proper site of the village might be inferred from its lonely position on the banks of the river which flowed through the little town a mile away the funeral popplers winter killed and time beaten now in their tops had been in their prime half a century ago yet they were young when compared to the house before which they stood sentinel from the small paint windows of this dwelling greymans whose tombstones were long sunken and rusted with patient moss had seen british vessels sailing up the river with warlike intent and on the porch where the women sat knitting peacefully captain maynard grayman had stood to review his little company of volunteers before leading them against the redcoats and had spoken to them in fiery words of the patriots whose blood had bought a week before been shed at lexington the place had still the air of pre-revolutionary dignity and self-respect as the poplars had steadily cast their somber shadows upon the greyman's father and son and son's son as generation after generation they lived and died in the old mansion so had the southers no less constantly remained the faithful servants of the family they had seen the greatness of the masters waned sadly from its original splendors the family pride alone of all the pristine glories remaining unimpaired they had striven loyally against the fate which trenched upon the wealth and power of the house and they had seen money waste reputation fade until now even the name was on the verge of extinction and the family reduced to a bedridden old man queerlessly dwelling in feudal dreams of vanished importance and the lovely and lonely daughter who wore out her life beside him as the greymans diminished the southers perhaps from the very energy with which they strove to aid the fallen fortunes of their masters had waxed continually the change which keeps from stagnation republican society abasing the lofty and exalting the lowly could not have had better illustration than in the two families it was from no necessity that old sarah was still the servant of the house a servant in truth with small wage and one who secretly helped out the broken revenues of her master dollar for dollar she could have out counted the entire property of her employers and might have lived where and as she pleased had she been minded to have servants of her own in old sarah's veins however flowed the faithful southern blood transmitted by generations of traditionary adherents of the greyman family and neither the persuasions of her children who felt the quickening influence of the new order of things nor the amount of her snug account in the village savings bank could tempt the steadfast creature from her allegiance when long ago she had married her cousin and an inoffensive meek man dead now a quarter of a century she had made it a condition that she should not abandon her service and her position in the grayman mansion like her name had remained practically unchanged by matrimony she was a not uncommonly figure as she sat in the october sunlight knitting steadily her hair abundant although silvery and her figure still alert and erect from her dark print gown to the tips of her snowy cap strings she was spotlessly neat while an air of mangled energy and...

Intoxicated Ghost 2 A Problem in Portraiture Free Adult Audiobook Club Public Domain.
section 2 of the intoxicated ghost and other stories this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by marty in winston-salem north carolina the intoxicated ghost and other stories by arlo bates a problem in portraiture

it does not look like him celia statham said moving aside a little that the afternoon light might fall more fully upon a portrait standing unfinished upon the easel and yet it is unquestionably the best picture you ever painted it interests me it fascinates me and i never had at all that feeling about ralph himself and yet she added smiling at her own inconsistency it is like him it isn't what i call a good likeness and yet the artist tom claymore leaned back in his chair and smiled you are right and wrong he said i'm a little disappointed that you don't catch the secret of the picture i knew ralph wouldn't understand but i had hopes of you a puzzled look came into celia's face as she continued to study the canvas her companion smoked a cigarette and watched her with a regard which was at once fond and a little amused the studio was a great room which had originally been devoted to no less prosaic and occupation than the painting of oil cloth carpeting great splashes of color which time and dust had softened into a pleasing dimness remained to testify to its former character it stood down among the wharves of old salem a town where even the new is scarcely to be distinguished from the old and tom had been delighted with its roomy quiet the play of light and shadow among the bare beams overhead and the ease with which he had been able to make it serve his purpose he had done comparatively little toward furnishing it for his summer occupancy he had hung a few worn out signs over the high beams and placed here and there his latest acquisitions in the way of bric-a-brac while numerous sketches were pinned to the walls with no attempt at order on the door he had fastened a zither of which the strings were struck by nicely balanced hammers when the door was moved and in the still rather barn-like room he had established himself to teach and to paint through the summer months i cannot make it out at all celia said at last turning away from the easel and walking towards claymore it looks older and stronger than ralph as if ah she interrupted herself suddenly a new light breaking in her face now i see you have painted his possibilities you are making a portrait of him as he will be as he may be claymore corrected her his words showing that her conjecture was in truth the key to the riddle when i began to paint ralph i was at once struck by the undeveloped state of his face it seemed to me like a bud that hadn't opened and i began at once to try and guess what it would grow into i didn't at first mean to paint it so but the notion mastered me and now i deliberately give myself up to the impulse i don't know whether it's professional but it is great fun celia went back and looked at the picture once more but she soon returned to stand leaning upon the tall back of the chair in which her betrothed was sitting it is getting too dark to see it she remarked but your experiment interests me wonderfully you say you are painting what his face may be why not what his face must be because the artist replied i am trying to get in the best of his possibilities to paint the noblest there is in him how can i tell if he will in life realize it he may develop his worst side you know instead of his best celia was silent a moment the darkness seemed to have gathered quickly rising clouds cutting off the light of the afterglow which had followed the sunset with the lucid promise she leaned forward and laid her fingertips lightly upon tom's forehead with a caressing motion you are a clever man she said it is fortunate you are a good...