Showing results by narrator "John L Chatty" in All Categories

The story of the wily Robin Hood and his Merry Men has been passed down in oral legend, movies, and even a TV series. This reading of Howard Pyle's 1883 book The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood relates all the joys, woes, and adventures of the thief who "robbed from the rich to give to the poor".

Robert Louis Stevenson was best known for novels like Treasure Island and Kidnapped, but he also wrote a number of fascinating short stories, many dealing with the supernatural.

Young David Balfour is cheated out of his inheritance by his uncle, who then has him kidnapped and forced into servitude on a sailing ship bound for a long voyage. What follows is one of the most spellbinding stories ever written.

Poe is best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre and this story is no exception. In it, a man's life is seemingly ruined by one he considers an arch enemy - until a startling revelation at the end of the story.

The Body Snatcher (1884) was first published in the Pall Mall Christmas Extra in Dec 1884. It is a horrifying story of students paid to "snatch" bodies for a medical school. Strange things begin to happen and the story builds to an exraordinary and startling conclusion. A movie version of the story was made in 1945. It was directed by Robert Wise and starred Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.

This unabridged recording of the classic adventure novel from 1914 tells of an aristocratic English infant, abandoned in the African jungle upon the death of his shipwrecked parents, who is reared by apes. Given the name "Tarzan", meaning "white-skin" in the language of the apes, Tarzan is raised without knowledge of his own kind, until the beautiful socialite Jane Porter sets foot into his secluded life.

Typee is an idyll of four months among primitive South Sea islanders. However, the books also shocked its original audience with a truthful account of Polynesian tribal life, including their very liberal sexual practices. Typee won Melville great fame during his life and remains a favorite today.

The story takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, part of Puritan New England, which was a common setting for Hawthorne's work. Its theme is one often used by Hawthorne: the conflict between good and evil in human nature and, in particular, the problem of public goodness and private wickedness.

Ligeia is a haunting story told by a husband about his deceased wife. She was beautiful but, also very strange in many ways. After her untimely death,he marries again but strange things start to happen as he becomes disenchanted with his newwife and begins thinking more and more about his first wife, Ligeia. Poe's descriptive powers are at his best here in setting the mood for this incredible story.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is Edgar Allan Poe's only complete novel, published in 1838. Set in 1827, it is an exciting blend of science, romance, adventure, realism, and supernaturalism. It is based on the actual experiences of J.N. Reynolds, whose book Poe consulted.

As with The Call of the Wild, White Fang explores a world in which animals and men depend on each other for survival. The story of a dog who is part wolf has lasted because Jack London gives each of his animals a personality. London's narratives are more than epics of hardship and survival; the are morality plays in which virtuous good triumphs over corrupt evil.

Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is of the best "macabre" tales ever written. It is presented here in its entirety along with eight other incredible tales.