Short Stories audiobooks

Openings in the Old Trail

By: Bret Harte

Narrated by: John Lescault

Length: 7 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

Although American author Bret Harte is most readily associated with stories about the West, it is his skill with characterization that distinguishes him from the hundreds of others who set fictional tales in the region. The miners, soldiers, gamblers, entrepreneurs, and lost souls who populate these pages are limned with Harte’s unique... Read more

The Lightning-Rod Man

By: Herman Melville

Narrated by: Mark Owen

Length: 19 minutes

Abridged: No

Chosen for inclusion in William Evans Burton's Cyclopediae of Wit and Humor of 1857, with an illustration by Henry Louis Stephens, The Lightning-Rod Man was the one Melville tale to be available throughout his lifetime, thanks to reissues of this volume. More a parable than a character-driven story, The Lightning-rod man is a charlatan who tries... Read more

The Encantadas

By: Herman Melville

Narrated by: Mark Owen

Length: 2 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

The Encantadas (or Enchanted Isles), is a series of ten descriptive sketches, and a reminiscence from Melville's sailor days revealing the ecologically pristine Galapagos Islands as both enchanting and horrifying. Containing some of Melville's most memorable prose, The Encantadas were a critical success at a time when Melville's fortunes were... Read more

The Bell-Tower

By: Herman Melville

Narrated by: Mark Owen

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

Considered to be the least characteristic of Melville's stories, somewhat resembling the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe, The Bell-Tower is a dark literary work that explores, though never fully reveals, its central mystery. An eccentric artist and architect dreams up plans for a magnificent bell tower. After receiving approval... Read more

The Mistery Of The Book

By: Angelo Grassia

Narrated by: Megan Green

Length: 1 hour 45 minutes

Abridged: No

The lucky occasion with Sabrina, a beautiful girl known by chance at Gaeta on a hot August day, transforms Paki`s life. Thanks to her, Paki goes to a flea market. There he meets a wardrobe who, attracted by his sympathy, decides to give him a typewriter. At first Paki refuses, but given his insistence, he is forced to accept. That book reveals... Read more

The Piazza Tales

By: Herman Melville

Narrated by: Mark Owen, Pete Cross & Michael Lackey

Length: 4 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Written in seclusion following the intense negative public reaction to the publication of his novel Pierre, The Piazza Tales is Melville's accessible and entertaining collection of short stories concerning love, labor and loss. The collection includes the author's three most important achievements in the genre of short fiction, Bartleby, the... Read more

This Accident of Being Lost

By: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Narrated by: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Length: 3 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

A knife-sharp new collection of stories and songs from award-winning Nishnaabeg storyteller and writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson that rebirths a decolonized reality, one that circles in and out of time and resists dominant narratives or comfortable categorization.This Accident of Being Lost is the knife-sharp new collection of stories and... Read more

Fight No More

By: Lydia Millet

Narrated by: Madeleine Lambert

Length: 5 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

In her first story collection since Love in Infant Monkeys, which became a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Lydia Millet explores what it means to be home. Nina, a lonely real-estate broker estranged from her only relative, is at the center of a web of stories connecting fractured communities and families. She moves through the houses of L.A.'s wealthy... Read more

Mentiras contagiosas

By: Jorge Volpi

Narrated by: Victor Iturrioz

Length: 7 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

Las novelas se comportan como virus o parásitos: buscan contaminar al mayor número posible de lectores y, para lograrlo, están condenadas a luchar apasionadamente entre sí. Desde la publicación de El Quijote, las novelas infectan y contagian y a veces se convierten en auténticas epidemias. Jugando de modo provocador con este enfoque evolutivo,... Read more

Every Exquisite Thing

By: Cassandra Clare & Maureen Johnson

Narrated by: Lara Pulver

Length: 1 hour 50 minutes

Abridged: No

Anna Lightwood, eldest child of Gabriel and Cecily, is mad, bad, and dangerously dapper. Every rake has an origin story, though: now under Brother Zachariah’s eye we see Anna’s doomed love story unfold. Read more

Good Trouble

By: Joseph O'Neill

Narrated by: Various

Length: 5 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

A masterly collection of eleven stories about the way we live now from the best-selling author of Netherland.

From bourgeois facial-hair trends to parental sleep deprivation, Joseph O’Neill closely observes the mores of his characters, whose vacillations and second thoughts expose the mysterious pettiness, underlying violence, and, sometimes,... Read more

We Are Where the Nightmares Go and Other Stories

By: C. Robert Cargill

Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin & Vikas Adam

Length: 9 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

From the critically acclaimed author of Sea of Rust and Queen of the Dark Things comes a hair-raising collection of short fiction that illuminates the strange, humorous, fantastical, and downright diabolical that tantalize and terrorize us: demons, monsters, zombie dinosaurs, and Death itself.In the novella ""The Soul Thief’s Son"" C. Robert... Read more

The Frog

By: Andrew Lang

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Andrew Lang (1844 – 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales."The Frog" is a variant on the Frog Princess. Three brothers are told by their mother to set specific tasks for their sweethearts to complete, to see whether they will make suitable brides. The youngest lad does not know any girls, but a... Read more

Venus

By: Maurice Baring

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 25 minutes

Abridged: No

Maurice Baring (1874-1945) was an English short story writer, novelist, and travel writer and war correspondent during the First World War.

Venus is a peculiar story about a reclusive and eccentric civil servant who becomes increasingly susceptible to strange fits where he seems to be transported to another planet where giant mushrooms grow and... Read more

The Alligator and the Jackal

By: Mary Frere

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 10 minutes

Abridged: No

Mary Eliza Isabella Frere (1845–1911) was an English author of the first English-language field-collected book of Indian folk tales."The Alligator and the Jackal" is the story of a jackal who narrowly escapes being eaten by an alligator on the banks of a river. Following this incident, the alligator is determined to catch the cunning jackal. The... Read more

The Princess who was Hidden Underground

By: Andrew Lang

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 6 minutes

Abridged: No

Andrew Lang (1844 – 1912) was a Scottish poet and novelist best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales."The Princess who was Hidden Underground" is the tale of a king who goes to extreme lengths to safeguard his daughter from potential suitors unworthy of her hand. But one cunning young lad manages to outwit the king by disguising himself... Read more

The Silver Mountain

By: Maurice Baring

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 12 minutes

Abridged: No

Maurice Baring (1874-1945) was an English short story writer, children's writer, novelist, travel writer and war correspondent during the First World War.

The Silver Mountain is a fairy story about a king who sends his three sons on a quest. They are to search for the silver mountain. Whichever one of them finds it will inherit the kingdom. But... Read more

The Stonecutter

By: Andrew Lang

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a Scottish poet and novelist, best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales.The Stonecutter is a fairy tale he collected in Japan. A stonecutter sees how rich people live when he is delivering a gravestone one day. From that day on he is dissatisfied with his own lot and wishes to be rich. His wish is granted by... Read more

The Minstrel

By: Maurice Baring

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 13 minutes

Abridged: No

Maurice Baring (1874-1945) was an English short story writer, children's writer, travel writer and war correspondent during the First World War.The Minstrel is a classic fairy tale about a childless couple who are granted a wish by a fairy. They wish for a daughter. The fairy gives them a heart-shaped copper coin to hang over their hearth,... Read more

The Giant who Had No Heart

By: Peter Christen Asbjörnsen

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 15 minutes

Abridged: No

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (1812-1885) was a Norwegian writer, scholar and collector of traditional folktales.The Giant Who Had No Heart is one of the tales he collected. It tells the story of a kind prince who sets off to rescue his brothers and their sweethearts, who have been turned to stone by a cruel giant. With the help of a raven, a... Read more

The Brahman, the Tiger and the Six Judges

By: Mary Frere

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Mary Eliza Isabella Frere (1845–1911) was an English author of the first English-language field-collected book of Indian storytales."The Brahman, the Tiger and the Six Judges" is the tale of an ungrateful tiger who gets his just desserts. The tiger has been captured, but persuades the passing Brahman to release him. When the Brahman does so, the... Read more

Punchkin

By: Mary Frere

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 31 minutes

Abridged: No

Mary Eliza Isabella Frere (1845–1911) was an English author of works regarding India. She is most famous for her beautiful retellings of Indian fairy tales. "Punchkin" is a traditional fairy tale about a Rajah with seven daughters. When he remarries, the princesses' stepmother is determined to do away with the girls and make her own daughter the... Read more

Dr. Faust's Last Day

By: Maurice Baring

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 13 minutes

Abridged: No

Maurice Baring (1874-1945) was an English travel writer, novelist and war correspondent during World War I. 'Dr. Faust's Last Day' tells the story of a 70-year-old scholar who lives a regular studious life. On his birthday he invites his friends over for lunch, but he is puzzled by a strange note written in red ink which arrives from an unknown... Read more

Swept and Garnished

By: Rudyard Kipling

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 10 minutes

Abridged: No

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. Swept and Garnished is a horrifying ghost story written shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. It is set against the background of German atrocities and massacres in France in which there was significant loss of civilian life. It... Read more