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Saturday, 30 May 2015

Frankenstein [by Mary Shelley]


Frankenstein begins in epistolary form, documenting the correspondence between Captain Robert Walton and his sister, Margaret Walton Saville. Walton sets out to explore the North Pole and expand his scientific knowledge in hopes of achieving fame and friendship. The ship becomes trapped in ice, and, one day, the crew sees a dog sled in the distance, on which there is the figure of a giant man. Hours later, the crew finds a frozen and emaciated man, Victor Frankenstein, in desperate need of sustenance. Frankenstein had been in pursuit of the gigantic man observed by Walton's crew when all but one of his dogs died. He had broken apart his dog sled to make oars and rowed an ice-raft toward the vessel. Frankenstein starts to recover from his exertion and recounts his story to Walton. Before beginning his story, Frankenstein warns Walton of the wretched effects of allowing ambition to push one to aim beyond what one is capable of achieving. In telling his story to the captain, Frankenstein finds peace within himself. (Introduction by Wikipedia)

Read by Caden Vaughn Clegg.

link to the free audiobook
Frankenstein [by Mary Shelley]

Dracula's Gift and other Weird Tales [by Bram Stoker]

LibriVox recording of Dracula's Gift and other Weird Tales, by Bram Stoker.

Nine Gothic Horror Tales by the author of Dracula

link to the free audiobook
Dracula's Gift and other Weird Tales [by Bram Stoker]

Friday, 29 May 2015

Frankenstein [by Mary Shelley] [(dramatic reading]




Mary Shelley's 1818 classic horror novel presents the Faustian story of a man who aspires to createlife out of death, with disastrous results. The novel is constructed as a series of first-person narratives, delivered by Captain Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and his Creature, which makes it perfect for a dramatic reading. This is a LibriVox full cast recording edited by Elizabeth Klett.


Cast
Robert Walton: Chuck Williamson,
Victor Frankenstein: Bob Neufeld
Lieutenant: KerrieRae Clarke,
Caroline Frankenstein: Arielle Lipshaw
Alphonse Frankenstein: Todd,
M. Krempe: Anthony, 
M. Waldman: Martin Geeson,
Henry Clerval: Grace Garrett, 
Elizabeth Lavenza/Master/Irishman: Elizabeth Klett
Ernest Frankenstein: Ernest Pattynama, 
Justine Moritz: Availle,
Officer: Ken Garrett
The Creature: John Trevithick,
Felix: Tiffany Halla Colonna
De Lacey: Steve W. Thompson,
Landlord: April Gonzales
William Frankenstein: Miss Avarice,
Old Woman: Caprisha Page
Mr. Kirwan: EMStach,
Magistrate: Max Korlinge

link to the free audiobook

Thursday, 28 May 2015

Can Such Things Be? [by Ambrose Bierce]


24 short stories in fairly typical Bierce fashion - ghostly, spooky, to be read (or listened to) in the dark, perhaps with a light crackling fire burning dimly in the background. Stories of ghosts, apparitions, and strange, inexplicable occurrences are prevalent in these tales, some of which occur on or near Civil War fields of battle, some in country cottages, and some within urban areas. Can Such Things Be? implies and relates that anything is possible, at any time. 

Read by Roger Melin.


link to the free audiobook
Can Such Things Be? [by Ambrose Bierce]

Wednesday, 27 May 2015

The Ghost Ship [by John C. Hutcheson]


This book intentionally veers in and out of the supernatural, as the title implies. The officers get more and more bewildered as they work out their position, and yet again encounter the same vessel going in an impossible direction.

Having warned you of this, I must say that it is a well-written book about life aboard an ocean-going steamer at about the end of the nineteenth century. 


link to the free audiobook
The Ghost Ship [by John C. Hutcheson]

Thursday, 21 May 2015

Widdershins [by Oliver Onions]


Onions wrote several collections of ghost stories, of which the best known is Widdershins (1911). It includes the novella The Beckoning Fair One, widely regarded as one of the best in the genre of horror fiction, especially psychological horror. On the surface, this is a conventional haunted house story: an unsuccessful writer moves into rooms in an otherwise empty house, in the hope that isolation will help his failing creativity. His sensitivity and imagination are enhanced by his seclusion, but his art, his only friend and his sanity are all destroyed in the process. The story can be read as narrating the gradual possession of the protagonist by a mysterious and possessive feminine spirit, or as a realistic description of a psychotic outbreak culminating in catatonia and murder, told from the sufferer's point of view. The precise description of the slow disintegration of the protagonist's mind is terrifying in either case. Another theme, shared with others of Onions' stories, is a connection between creativity and insanity; in this view, the artist is in danger of withdrawing from the world altogether and losing himself in his creation. (Introduction from Wikipedia)

Read by Don W. Jenkins.


link to the free audiobook
Widdershins [by Oliver Onions]

Tuesday, 19 May 2015

The Haunted Hotel, A Mystery of Modern Venice [by Wilkie Collins]


A kind, good-hearted genteel young woman jilted, a suspicious death or two that only a few think could be murder, strange apparitions appearing in an hotel all combine to create a horrifying conundrum. Who was the culprit and will finding out finally put an end to the mystery?


link to the free audiobook
The Haunted Hotel, A Mystery of Modern Venice [by Wilkie Collins]