Short Stories audiobooks

A Comedy of Capricorn

By: Morley Roberts

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 50 minutes

Abridged: No

Morley Roberts (1857-1942) was an adventurer who worked on railways and cattle and sheep ranches all over Africa and the Americas and still found time to write a large number of very varied novels and stories with a zest that only real-life experience can give.

'A Comedy of Capricorn' is a humorous romantic tale. When Gwendolen invites the... Read more

John Bartine's Watch

By: Ambrose Bierce

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 15 minutes

Abridged: No

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (1842-circa 1914) was an American author, journalist, short story writer and satirist who disappeared in 1913 under mysterious circumstances and was never seen again.

"John Bartine's Watch" is the strange and terrifying tale of an evening guest who reacts with horror when his host asks him what is the time. But why is John... Read more

Mrs. Scarr

By: Elinor Mordaunt

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 38 minutes

Abridged: No

Elinor Mordaunt (1872 - 1942) was an English author, writer and traveller. She lived extensively in Mauritius, Australia and the East Indies, which provided the inspiration and background for many of her works.

Mrs. Scarr is a tense and mysterious ghost story set in Mauritius, a place where local mythology and European morals sit uneasily... Read more

An Angel in Disguise

By: T. S. Arthur

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 17 minutes

Abridged: No

Timothy Shay Arthur (1809 – 1885) who wrote as T.S. Arthur, was a popular 19th-century American author.

"An Angel in Disguise" is an uplifting story of a childless couple who reluctantly take in a disabled child and discover what joy and fulfillment it brings them. Read more

Cap'n Jollyfax's Gun

By: Arthur Morrison

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 19 minutes

Abridged: No

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.

Cap'n Jollyfax, a retired sea captain, has a brass cannon which he likes to fire on special occasions. New Year, Waterloo day, the anniversary of Nelson's funeral, Trafalgar day,... Read more

Bats in the Belfry

By: Harry Graham

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

Harry Graham (1874 - 1936) made a great name for himself as a writer of light verse and humorous stories, including the inimitable Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes.

Bats in the Belfry is a humorous short story in the tradition of the Victorian bedroom farce. Percy Biffin, an awkward house-guest at the summer residence of Sir Borwick Trout, is... Read more

Aunts and Pianos

By: E. F. Benson

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 21 minutes

Abridged: No

Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist, and short story writer, best known for his masterly and uncanny ghost stories. Less well known are his wonderful humorous stories, of which "Aunts and Pianos" is one. Bobby is an accomplished and charming pianist who has befriended a number of rich... Read more

The Goldfish

By: Elinor Mordaunt

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 32 minutes

Abridged: No

Elinor Mordaunt (1872-1942) was an English author, writer and traveller. She lived extensively in Mauritius, Australia and the East Indies, which provided the inspiration and background for many of her works.

'The Goldfish' is a strange tale set in the murky underworld of the London docklands. Dor, a raffish petty criminal in London, has a... Read more

A Newspaper Story

By: O. Henry

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 8 minutes

Abridged: No

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer of outstanding short stories known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise endings.

'A Newspaper Story' is an ingenious tale about a lost newspaper blowing through the streets of New York. Each passer-by who comes into contact with any part of... Read more

Ways of Escape

By: J.D. Beresford

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 36 minutes

Abridged: No

John Davys Beresford (1873-1947) was an English writer, now remembered for his early science fiction and short stories in the horror and ghost story genres.

'Ways of Escape' is a mystery story. The strange Mrs. Trevarrian lives in a lonely cottage on the moors with her elderly housemaid. The villagers are beginning to suspect that there is... Read more

The Young Bull

By: Geraint Goodwin

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 19 minutes

Abridged: No

Arthur Geraint Goodwin (1903 – 1941) was a Welsh novelist and short story writer. Although Goodwin died at the age of 38 of tuberculosis, the works he has left to posterity remain full of life, fresh and vigorous.

"The Young Bull" is the story of a farmer on the Welsh border who is trapped in a hostile and combative marriage which is nonetheless... Read more

Little Tobrah

By: Rudyard Kipling

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist.

"Little Tobrah" is a disturbing murder story set in India. The eight year old Tobrah stands accused of the murder of his younger blind sister. The evidence is purely circumstantial... and then he recounts his own tale of what happened. Read more

The Importance of Being Earnest

By: Oscar Wilde

Narrated by: Matt Montanez

Length: 2 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

Oscar Wilde created his final and most lasting play, comic masterpieces of all time, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, in 1895. Considered one of the greatest THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST is a farce, playing with love, religion, and truth as it tells the tale of two men. Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, who bend the truth in order to add... Read more

Major Arcana

By: RoAnna Sylver

Narrated by: RoAnna Sylver

Length: 40 minutes

Abridged: No

IN WHICH: In 19th-Century Venice, Italy, A Very Cool (And Familiar) Witch Informs A Homicide Inspector That He’d Better Get Used To Vampire Stories. He's In One.
* * *
Someone is murdering by night, and leaving the bodies to burn in rings of fire outside cathedral doors. Holy Inspector Giovanni is here to get to the bottom of the horrors by any... Read more

Zwergerlgschichtn

By: Jakob Pischeltsrieder

Narrated by: Gerd Anthoff

Length: 1 hour 3 minutes

Abridged: No

Drunten im Wald, unter der großen Buche steht das Haus von den zwei Zwergerln. Der Wichtl und der Burzl sind beide rechte Lausbuam und wehe, ihnen wird auf d'Nacht langweilig! Dann brüten sie nämlich die wildesten Ideen aus und gehen auf Abenteuersuche. Streiche sind ihre Spezialität und Igel Ertl, Karpfen Loisl oder der alte Onkel Dachs können... Read more

The Fir Tree

By: Hans Christian Andersen

Narrated by: Phil Gigante

Length: 21 minutes

Abridged: No

In this moralistic tale about appreciating what you have, a young fir tree is so fixated on growing up that he does not value his life in the forest. When he is chopped down and decorated for a family's Christmas decorations, he expects this to be the beginning of a great career. Sadly, this is not to be. First published in 1844 alongside The... Read more

The Baboon Whose Buffoon Was Dead and other stories

By: Sadeq Chubak

Narrated by: Arman Soltanzadeh

Length: 6 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

Chubak's preoccupation with the outcasts of the society and depiction of the sordid and grim scenes and moments of their lives is equally visible in his second collection of short stories, antari keh loutiyash mordeh boud (The Baboon Whose Buffoon Was Dead) (1949). In the title story of the collection, Chubak addresses such concepts as freedom... Read more

The Penance

By: Hector Hugh Munro

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 14 minutes

Abridged: No

Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916) is better known by the pen name Saki. He remains hugely popular as a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirized Edwardian society and culture.

The Penance is an edgy and at times horrifying tale about a normally amiable man who has killed the cat belonging to his neighbour's... Read more

The Teton Bunch

By: Les Savage

Narrated by: Traber Burns

Length: 6 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

“Town of Twenty Triggers” opens this new trio of short novels by Les Savage Jr., marking their first appearance in book form. He was known only as the Joker, a portly, chuckling man with a bland smile, a poker face, and an amazing ability to make a deck of cards perform any trick he desired. His traveling companion is Emmet Pierce, a Texan fast... Read more

Red Light Run

By: Baird Harper

Narrated by: Charles Carroll

Length: 6 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

When Sonia, the prominent wife of a local cemetery owner, is killed in the worst accident anyone can remember, Hartley Nolan, a lifelong teetotaler, is hardly the person that police expect to find behind the wheel. After all, Hartley is something of an inspiration in a town that hasn't seen much luck in decades-he's the local boy who made it big... Read more

A Skinful of Trouble

By: Arthur Morrison

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 35 minutes

Abridged: No

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.

" A Skinful of Trouble" is the humorous tale of Mr. Dowdall, a gentleman who has... Read more

After Twenty Years

By: O. Henry

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 8 minutes

Abridged: No

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer of outstanding short stories known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise endings.

In this story two old friends had promised to meet up exactly 20 years to the day since their last meeting in New York. One of the friends has travelled a... Read more

Mary Postgate

By: Rudyard Kipling

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 38 minutes

Abridged: No

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist.

Mary Postgate is a horrifying story, and like much of Kipling's work it can be interpreted in different ways. It was written as propaganda in 1915 during World War I against the background of German atrocities and massacres in France, and just... Read more

The Leather Case

By: Walter S. Masterman

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 49 minutes

Abridged: No

Walter Sydney Masterman (1876 – 1946) was an English author of mystery, fantasy, horror and science fiction novels and stories.

"The Leather Case" is an adventure story about a young man who has just reached Paris after five years working in India as an engineer. While in Paris, he is startled by seeing a young woman whose face seems remarkably... Read more