Short Stories audiobooks

The Body in the Library - Abridged

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Gabrielle Glaister

Length: 2 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners. Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These carefully abridged versions are shorter with the language targeted at... Read more

Crooked House - Abridged

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

Length: 3 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners. Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These carefully abridged versions are shorter with the language targeted at... Read more

They Do It With Mirrors - Abridged

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Jane Collingwood

Length: 3 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners. Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These carefully abridged versions are shorter with the language targeted at... Read more

Destination Unknown - Abridged

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Joan Walker

Length: 3 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners. Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These carefully abridged versions are shorter with the language targeted at... Read more

Sparkling Cyanide - Abridged

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

Length: 3 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners. Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These carefully abridged versions are shorter with the language targeted at... Read more

Death on the Nile - Abridged

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Roger May

Length: 3 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners. Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These carefully abridged versions are shorter with the language targeted at... Read more

4.50 From Paddington - Abridged

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Jane Collingwood

Length: 3 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners. Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These carefully abridged versions are shorter with the language targeted at... Read more

A Pocket Full of Rye - Abridged

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Jane Collingwood

Length: 3 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners. Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These carefully abridged versions are shorter with the language targeted at... Read more

Witness for the Prosecution and other stories - Abridged

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Roger May & Gabrielle Glaister

Length: 2 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners. Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These carefully abridged versions are shorter with the language targeted at... Read more

The Old House

By: Hans Christian Andersen

Narrated by: Emma Fenney

Length: 19 minutes

Abridged: No

In The Old House, a boy is invited to meet the old man across the street and offers him a gift of a toy soldier. The toy soldier, unhappy with his new surroundings, flings himself through a hole in the floor and disappears. After the old man dies, the old house is torn down, and a new one is built, but the toy soldier remains to be rediscovered. Read more

The Happy Family

By: Hans Christian Andersen

Narrated by: Emma Fenney

Length: 9 minutes

Abridged: No

In The Happy Family, a pair of snails lives inside a burdock forest near an old manor house. They remember the old days when their kinfolk were served on platters in the old house and suspect the house has since been abandoned. Deciding to grow their family, they adopt a common snail and must arrange a marriage for their new child. Read more

The Bell

By: Hans Christian Andersen

Narrated by: Emma Fenney

Length: 12 minutes

Abridged: No

In this parable about the transience of earthly things, a mysterious bell is heard by the inhabitants of a village. They search the forest but are unable to find the source. When a prince and a child eventually discover it, they realize that it is as mysterious and old as nature itself. Read more

The Naughty Boy

By: Hans Christian Andersen

Narrated by: Emma Fenney

Length: 5 minutes

Abridged: No

In The Naughty Boy, an old poet welcomes a wet and shivering boy into his home to warm up, not realizing that the boy has an ulterior motive-and a bow and arrow. This short tale ruminates on the naughtiness and ubiquity of Cupid. Read more

Somber Stroll

By: Mark Tullius

Narrated by: Tee Quillin & Dawna Gonzales

Length: 1 hour 51 minutes

Abridged: No

Short-but-sweet collection by Mark Tullius, one of the hardest-hitting horror authors around. Included are five somber strolls through what could be any suburban town. Find yourself: an overworked father trying to protect his son  an injured construction worker questioning reality  a sensitive teenage girl watching a mixed martial arts battle to... Read more

Fresh Complaint

By: Jeffrey Eugenides

Narrated by: Jeffrey Eugenides, Ari Fliakos & Cynthia Nixon

Length: 8 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

"The theme of complaint extends beyond the title story, but for listeners the key takeaway is the word 'fresh.' Jeffrey Eugenides's fresh writing...showcases his originality and — since he also narrates it — his ability to navigate multiple accents and personalities." — AudioFile Magazine

The first collection of short fiction from Pulitzer... Read more

The Red Shoes

By: Hans Christian Andersen

Narrated by: Emma Fenney

Length: 14 minutes

Abridged: No

In The Red Shoes, a peasant girl named Karen is adopted by a rich old lady and grows up vain and spoiled. She is so enamored of a new pair of red shoes that she wears them to church in spite of a warning to only wear black shoes there. She soon learns that ignoring that warning was a bad idea: a mysterious old soldier at the church charms the... Read more

The Shadow

By: Hans Christian Andersen

Narrated by: Emma Fenney

Length: 35 minutes

Abridged: No

In this bleak fairytale, a kind and good-natured learned man on vacation sends his shadow to investigate a balcony across the street. When his shadow never returns, he notices that he has grown a new one and figures all is well. However, five years later, he meets his original shadow, and it is now corporeal-but it doesn't share his principles.... Read more

The Elderbush

By: Hans Christian Andersen

Narrated by: Emma Fenney

Length: 21 minutes

Abridged: No

In The Elderbush, a boy arrives home with a cold. His mother whisks him off to bed and prepares some elderflower tea to warm him up. A kindly older neighbor stops by to visit the boy, who asks for a fairy tale. The old man struggles to think of one, but becomes inspired by the aroma of the elderflower tea. A story about how real life can provide... Read more

The Shoes of Fortune

By: Hans Christian Andersen

Narrated by: Emma Fenney

Length: 1 hour 24 minutes

Abridged: No

In The Shoes of Fortune a series of people who are dissatisfied with their lives, put on a pair of magic shoes that grants them the wishes. A civil servant who idealizes the middle ages, experiences all its inconveniences; a watchman lives the lonely life of his superior and endures a terrifying visit to the moon. The shoes pass from owner to... Read more

The Swineherd

By: Hans Christian Andersen

Narrated by: Emma Fenney

Length: 11 minutes

Abridged: No

In The Swineherd, a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, a prince who disguises himself as a swineherd woos an arrogant princess. Sending her a nightingale and a rose, the princess rejects the humble gifts preferring the man-made over the real. The prince/swineherd creates a musical pot and charges the princess ten kisses for it. The princess... Read more

The Little Match Girl

By: Hans Christian Andersen

Narrated by: Emma Fenney

Length: 7 minutes

Abridged: No

In The Little Match Girl, a barefoot girl tries unsuccessfully to make money for her family by selling matches on the street. Afraid to go home empty-handed and face her father's wrath, she decides to take shelter in an alley for the night and lights matches to keep herself warm. The harsh realism of this story reminds listeners to be grateful... Read more

The Leap-Frog

By: Hans Christian Andersen

Narrated by: Emma Fenney

Length: 5 minutes

Abridged: No

In The Leap-Frog, a flea, a grasshopper and a frog arrange a contest to see who can jump highest. The King offers the hand of the princess to the victor. The flea and the grasshopper, victims of their own vanity and ambition are matched against the patient, wise and humble frog. The short tale is a fable about the perils of high self-regard. Read more

The Princess and the Pea

By: Hans Christian Andersen

Narrated by: Emma Fenney

Length: 3 minutes

Abridged: No

In The Princess and the Pea a prince who wants to marry a princess finds it difficult to ascertain whether a princess is authentically noble. On a stormy night, a bedraggled young woman claiming to be a princess seeks shelter in the prince's castle. The Prince's mother tests the girl's claim by placing three peas underneath the twenty mattresses... Read more

The Emperor's New Clothes

By: Hans Christian Andersen

Narrated by: Emma Fenney

Length: 13 minutes

Abridged: No

In The Emperor's New Clothes, two weavers tell the emperor that they can make him a new suit of clothes that is invisible to people who are unfit for their positions or who are stupid or incompetent. Con men, the two weavers actually outfit the emperor in nothing, but will anyone be willing to tell the emperor that he is naked? As an idiom, the... Read more