Short Stories audiobooks

Sredni Vashtar

By: Saki

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 14 minutes

Abridged: No

Conradin is a sickly and introverted child who hates his guardian, Mrs. De Ropp. When she takes away his pet hen and threatens to do the same with his pole-cat, whom he worships like a god, Conradin makes a special prayer and his sinister wish is answered. Hector Hugh Munro (aka Saki) at his most sinister and macabre. Superb! Read more

Tales of the Macabre

By: Saki

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 44 minutes

Abridged: No

A quartet of short stories by the British master of the macabre, Hector Hugh Munro, better known under his pseudonym “Saki”. This collection brings together four of his most macabre tales, all of which will surprise the listener with an uncanny twist at the end. "The Background": When Henri Deplis comes into a small inheritance and celebrates... Read more

The Unrest Cure

By: Saki

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 17 minutes

Abridged: No

When the prematurely middle-aged J.P. Huddle is recommended to take an “unrest-cure” by a friend, he little realizes that the other passenger in the railway compartment, the prank-loving Clovis, will take this as a personal challenge. The havoc which Clovis’s macabre and at times shocking practical joke causes is beyond anything that the sleepy... Read more

Tales of Naughty Pranks

By: Saki

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 44 minutes

Abridged: No

A quartet of short stories by the mastermind of practical jokes, Hector Hugh Munro, better known under his pseudonym “Saki”. This collection brings together four of his most ingenious tales, all of which involve one character playing a prank on the others. The results range from the comic to the macabre… but all are brilliantly narrated with... Read more

The Background

By: Saki

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 9 minutes

Abridged: No

When Henri Deplis comes into a small inheritance and celebrates his new found wealth by getting an elaborate tattoo, he little realizes what a series of catastrophic events will ensue. The tattoo is recognized as a masterpiece of modern art and given to the city of Bergamo. This is the start of a series of restrictions on Henri Deplis’ lifestyle... Read more

Curious Animal Tales

By: Saki

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 56 minutes

Abridged: No

A quartet of short stories by Britain’s raconteur supreme, Hector Hugh Munro, better known under his pseudonym “Saki”. This collection brings together four of his most curious and amusing tales, all of which involve animals. Saki’s satirical take on the morals and eccentricities of Edwardian society, combined with a compelling narrative and an... Read more

The Stampeding of Lady Bastable

By: Saki

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Mrs. Sangrail is determined to offload her wayward son Clovis onto Lady Bastable for six days while she takes a trip to Scotland. Is desperation she resorts to cunning bribery, but Clovis has other ideas and devises an ingenious scheme to thwart his mother’s plans. Another piece of genius humour writing by Hector Hugh Munro, peppered with his... Read more

Tobermory

By: Saki

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 21 minutes

Abridged: No

When Mr. Cornelius Appin announces that he has succeeded in teaching the cat, Tobermory, to speak, nobody in the house party believes him. But when Tobermory makes his entrance and begins to reveal the kind of personal secrets only a cat can know about the assembled company, chaos breaks out. Tobermory must be destroyed at all costs. Hector Hugh... Read more

Esme

By: Saki

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 13 minutes

Abridged: No

The Baroness recounts a hunting story with a twist. Instead of a fox, the quarry turns out to be an escaped hyena, which adopts her and Constance Broddle and leads them to cover up a heinous killing. Hector Hugh Munro at his most macabre. Read more

Mrs. Packletide's Tiger

By: Saki

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 10 minutes

Abridged: No

Mrs. Packletide is determined to shoot a tiger in order to get one up on her arch rival Loona Bimberton. In a comical and at times ironic sequence of events, Mrs. Packletide finds herself at the mercy of another rival, just when she had least expected it. Hector Hugh Munro at his most witty and ironic. A masterpiece! Read more

The Chaplet

By: Saki

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 10 minutes

Abridged: No

When master chef Monsieur Aristide Saucourt presents his signature dish to diners at the Grand Sybaris Hotel, he anticipates they will acknowledge this as the pinnacle of his career. But the moment does not go as planned and ends in a fatal tragedy involving hot soup. Read more

Bullfighting

By: Roddy Doyle

Narrated by: Lorcan Cranitch

Length: 5 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Roddy Doyle has earned a devoted following for his wry wit, his uncanny ear, and his ability to fully capture the hearts of his characters. Bullfighting, his second collection of stories, offers thirteen bittersweet takes on men and middle-age, revealing a panorama of Ireland today. Moving from classrooms to local pubs to bullrings, these tales... Read more

Piranha to Scurfy

By: Ruth Rendell

Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin

Length: 10 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

The best-selling author of Harm Done and A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell has written dozens of gripping works under her own name and as Barbara Vine. She has received three Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America and four Dagger Awards from England's Crime Writers Association. How frightening can a book be? Ambrose Ribbon,... Read more

Ten Stories by Katherine Mansfield

By: Katherine Mansfield

Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin

Length: 7 hours 49 minutes

Abridged: No

Although Katherine Mansfield was born in New Zealand in 1888, she spent much of her short life in England and on the Continent. As she wrote about the privileged worlds she encountered there, her stories quickly attracted literary attention. Prelude was hand-published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at their Hogarth Press. Readers today still... Read more

New Stories From the South

By: Allan Gurganus

Narrated by: Carol Monda, Johnny Heller, Ed Sala, Cynthia Da...

Length: 12 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

Pages magazine says this collection represents "the absolute best in short literary fiction." This installment exhibits a fresh batch of immensely talented writers, all of whom exemplify the level of accomplishment that has kept this acclaimed series running strong since 1985. Comprising 20 stories, this rich and varied collection features... Read more

The Open Window

By: Saki

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Framton Nuttel pays an unannounced call on Mrs. Sappleton and finds himself in the midst of a macabre spectacle which is not as it seems. Hector Hugh Munro’s genius storytelling at its best. Read more

Sunlight and Joy

By: Barbara Delinsky

Narrated by: Kimberly Farr

Length: 1 hour 32 minutes

Abridged: No

“Sunlight and Joy” is Barbara Delinsky’s heartwarming story about a couple relearning how to appreciate the simple things. Also included is an exclusive conversation with Barbara about what inspires her writing and an advance peek at her newest novel, Escape.
 
Blessed with three wonderful children and a life full of material comforts, Rick and... Read more

The Black Monk and Other Stories

By: Anton Chekhov

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 4 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

Chekhov, noted author, playwright and physician, is one of the most accessible and enjoyable of the Russian writers. He writes about life's routines in a way that encompasses the heights and depths of human emotion all in the span of a day, or even a meal. This recording includes four of his most acclaimed short stories, including: The Black... Read more

New Stories From the South 2004

By: Shannon Ravenel

Narrated by: Jeff Woodman, Pete Bradbury, George Guidall, Si...

Length: 12 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

The 19th addition of this annual anthology exhibits a collection of short fiction from award-winning Southern authors and rising stars including Edward P. Jones and Silas House. Each story's derivation is explained in an illuminating note from the author following the rich and entertaining tales. "Both the familiar and the strange are eloquently... Read more

The Diaries of Adam and Eve

By: Mark Twain

Narrated by: B.J. Harrison & Cilla Harrison

Length: 1 hour 4 minutes

Abridged: No

Adam had a fine life. He had all the food he wanted, a fine garden to live in, and miles and miles of peace and quiet. Until one day, a woman entered his life. And amongst her other garrulous qualities, she says that his beautiful garden doesn't really look like a garden at all. She thinks it looks more like a park. Read more

The Highwayman

By: Alfred Noyes

Narrated by: B.J. Harrison

Length: 9 minutes

Abridged: No

A Highwayman ravages the countryside, robbing the unsuspecting traveler. He promises to come at midnight for Bess, the landlord’s daughter. But when the redcoats come, and lay a trap for the Highwayman at the inn, Bess warns her lover in a method and manner never to be forgotten. Read more

Swim Back to Me

By: Ann Packer

Narrated by: Various

Length: 7 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

From Ann Packer, author of the New York Times best-selling novels The Dive from Clausen’s Pier and Songs Without Words, a collection of burnished, emotionally searing stories, framed by two unforgettable linked narratives that express the transformation of a single family over the course of a lifetime.

A wife struggles to make sense of her... Read more

Berenice

By: Edgar Allan Poe

Narrated by: B.J. Harrison

Length: 26 minutes

Abridged: No

Edgar Allan Poe pieces together the mind of a monomaniac, who is obsessed with the simple and mundane. He discovers, too late, that obsessions, though simple and mundane, can lead you to do unspeakable things. Read more

All the Time in the World

By: E.L. Doctorow

Narrated by: John Rubinstein, Joshua Swanson & Jesse Bernstein

Length: 9 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

From Ragtime and Billy Bathgate to World’s Fair, The March, and Homer & Langley, the fiction of E. L. Doctorow comprises a towering achievement in modern American letters. Now Doctorow returns with an enthralling collection of brilliant, startling short fiction about people who, as the author notes in his Preface, are somehow “distinct from... Read more