Short Stories audiobooks

The Cremona Violin

By: E. T. A. Hoffmann

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 1 hour 1 minute

Abridged: No

E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) was a German Romantic author of fantasy and horror as well as a jurist, composer, music critic, draftsman and caricaturist. His stories were highly influential during the 19th century, and he is one of the major authors of the Romantic movement.

'The Cremona Violin' is the story of Councillor Krespel, an eccentric... Read more

The Conjurer

By: Richard Middleton

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Richard Barham Middleton (1882-1911) was an English poet and author who is remembered mostly for his short ghost stories and supernatural tales. 'The Conjurer' is a short story about a stage performer whose act includes juggling and magic tricks. In one trick he makes his pretty young female assistant, who happens to be his wife, disappear.

It is... Read more

Squirrel in a Cage

By: E. M. Delafield

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 20 minutes

Abridged: No

Edmée Elizabeth Monica Dashwood, née de la Pasture (1890-1943), was a prolific English author who wrote under the pseudonym E. M. Delafield. She is best known for her largely autobiographical Diary of a Provincial Lady, which took the form of a journal of the life of an upper-middle-class Englishwoman living mostly in a Devon village of the... Read more

The Cost of Kindness

By: Jerome K. Jerome

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 20 minutes

Abridged: No

Jerome Klapka Jerome (1859-1927) was an English writer and humourist.

The Cost of Kindness is an ironic tale about a congregation desperate to see the back of their cantankerous and highly unpopular vicar. Fortunately the dreadful man has agreed to leave and is preparing a vituperative final sermon admonishing his ungrateful flock for ousting... Read more

The Dust that was Barren

By: P.C. Wren

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 20 minutes

Abridged: No

Percival Christopher Wren (1875 - 1941) was an English writer of adventure fiction mostly dealing with colonial soldiering in Africa. He is remembered best for Beau Geste, a much filmed book of 1924, involving the French Foreign Legion in North Africa.

'The Dust That Was Barren' is a strange tale of a peculiar incident in the French Foreign... Read more

The Everlasting Club

By: Arthur Gray

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 16 minutes

Abridged: No

Arthur Gray (1852-1940) wrote under the pseudonym Ingulphus for several years, and it was only in 1919 when his stories were collected as Tedious Brief Tales of Granta and Gramarye under Gray's own name that the identity of the author was discovered.

'The Everlasting Club' is a peculiar ghost story set in Jesus College Cambridge. A student... Read more

Seven American Stories

By: Walter D. Edmonds

Narrated by: Mark Turetsky

Length: 10 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

This collection features seven tales inspired by America’s colorful history, from colonial times to the early twentieth century, including the Newbery Medal winner The Matchlock Gun.In The Matchlock Gun, young Edward must protect his family from marauding Indians when his father is called away. In Two Logs Crossing, John Haskell spends two harsh... Read more

Guys Read: Terrifying Tales

By: Jon Scieszka, Adam Gidwitz, R.L. Stine, Dav Pil...

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer, Andrew Eiden, Vikas Adam, Johnny ...

Length: 5 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

Be afraid, be very afraid of Terrifying Tales, the sixth volume in the Guys Read Library of Great Reading.Eleven masters of suspense—Kelly Barnhill, Michael Buckley, Adam Gidwitz, Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown, Claire Legrand, Nikki Loftin, Daniel José Older, Dav Pilkey, R.L. Stine, and Rita Williams-Garcia—have come together to bring you a... Read more

Water Never Hurt a Man

By: Walter D. Edmonds

Narrated by: Mark Turetsky

Length: 21 minutes

Abridged: No

This short story pulled from Seven American Stories, and originally published in Harper’s in 1930, is a classic of historical fiction. Read more

Bitter of Tongue

By: Cassandra Clare & Sarah Rees Brennan

Narrated by: Torrance Coombs

Length: 1 hour 26 minutes

Abridged: No

When Simon is kidnapped by the fey, he’s amazed to find a friend in former Shadowhunter Mark Blackthorn. One of ten adventures in Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy.

After Simon is kidnapped by faeries (why is he always kidnapped?), he uncovers rumors of a secret weapon Sebastian left behind for the faerie queen. He must escape the Fey, relying... Read more

Love Takes the Cake

By: Betsy St. Amant

Narrated by: Kristy Ragland

Length: 2 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

They’ve helped orchestrate the perfect day for countless couples. Now twelve new couples will find themselves in the wedding spotlight in the second Year of Weddings novella collection.She’s known for her delicious cakes, but there’s no recipe for dealing with the new man in her life.Charlotte Cantrell is always the baker; never the bride.... Read more

Slasher Girls & Monster Boys

By: April Genevieve Tucholke

Narrated by: Robbie Daymond, Emma Bering, Nora Hunter, Jorje...

Length: 13 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

For fans of Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Lois Duncan, and Daphne Du Maurier comes a powerhouse anthology featuring some of the best writers of YA thrillers and horror

A host of the smartest young adult authors come together in this collection of scary stories and psychological thrillers curated by Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’s April... Read more

Fortune Smiles

By: Adam Johnson

Narrated by: W. Morgan Sheppard, Johnathan McClain, Cassandr...

Length: 8 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his acclaimed novel about North Korea, The Orphan Master’s Son, Adam Johnson is one of America’s most provocative and powerful authors. Critics have compared him to Kurt Vonnegut, David Mitchell, and George Saunders, but Johnson’s new book will only further his reputation as one of our most original writers.... Read more

The Beat Goes On

By: Ian Rankin

Narrated by: James Macpherson

Length: 20 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

There is no detective like Ian Rankin's Detective Inspector John Rebus, a man The New Yorker calls "the ideal sleuth."

Brilliant, irascible and frequently frustrating to both his friends and his long-suffering bosses, John Rebus has made the dark places of Edinburgh his home for over two decades. The Beat Goes On collects all of Ian Rankin's... Read more

Nocturnes

By: John Connolly

Narrated by: Jeff Harding

Length: 13 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

From #1 internationally bestselling author John Connolly comes Nocturnes, a dark, daring, utterly haunting shot story anthology of lost lovers and missing children, predatory demons, and vengeful ghosts.

Connolly’s collection of supernatural novellas and stories echoes the work of some of the masters of the genre while never losing his own... Read more

The State We're In

By: Ann Beattie

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 5 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

“Ann Beattie at her most magnificent…Her first new collection in ten years...These tales explore the range of emotional states the author is famous for: longing, disaffection, ambivalence, love, regret. It’s nice to hear her voice again” (People).

“A peerless, contemplative page-turner” (Vanity Fair), The State We’re In is about how we live in... Read more

The Snow

By: Hugh Walpole

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 23 minutes

Abridged: No

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole (1884-1941) was a New Zealand-born English novelist famous for his skill at scene setting and vivid plots. He was a best-selling author in the 1920s and 1930s and remains popular to this day.

"The Snow" is a multilayered ghost story in which the phantom of a jealous and vindictive first wife seems to haunt the new young... Read more

Lilac

By: Hugh Walpole

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 42 minutes

Abridged: No

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole (1884-1941) was a New Zealand-born English novelist, famous for his skill at scene setting and vivid plots. He was a best-selling author in the 1920s and 1930s and remains popular to this day.

Lilac is a multilayered tale of a marriage proposal. Frederick Anstey, an art dealer, asks his beloved Lily Brocket to marry him.... Read more

The Ruby Glass

By: Hugh Walpole

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 21 minutes

Abridged: No

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole (1884-1941) was a New Zealand-born English novelist famous for his skill at scene setting and vivid plots. He was a best-selling author in the 1920s and 1930s and remains popular to this day. One recurring theme in his works, based in his own unhappy experiences of being bullied at school, is alienation in childhood.

The... Read more

Six Short Stories by Edith Wharton

By: Edith Wharton

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 5 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and short story writer. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, 1928 and 1930.

Among her most popular and terrifying tales are the many masterly ghost stories which she wrote in her early career. This selection presents six of her best tales:... Read more

The Deserter

By: Stacy Aumonier

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 52 minutes

Abridged: No

Stacy Aumonier (1877–1928) was a British writer, best known for his outstanding short stories. Nobel Prize-winner John Galsworthy described Aumonier as "one of the best short story writers of all time" and predicted that he would "outlive all the writers of his day."

Aumonier wrote over 85 short stories in his lifetime. He has been described as... Read more

The Lovely Lady

By: D. H. Lawrence

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 48 minutes

Abridged: No

David Herbert Richards Lawrence (1885 – 1930) was one of England's greatest novelists, poets, playwrights, and writers of short stories. His works often explore are emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct.

"The Lovely Lady" is a short story which tells of an unnervingly dysfunctional family. The elderly mother and aunt, the lovely... Read more

The Biter Bit

By: Wilkie Collins

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 1 hour 6 minutes

Abridged: No

William Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories and was a great friend and collaborator of Charles Dickens.

The Biter Bit is a detective story with a twist. A rookie investigator, Matthew Sharpin, has been thrust on Scotland Yard with instructions to try him out on a case. He is assigned the... Read more

The Case of the White Footprints

By: R. Austin Freeman

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 1 hour 16 minutes

Abridged: No

Richard Austin Freeman (1862-1943) was a British writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr. Thorndyke. Freeman used some of his early experiences as a colonial surgeon in West Africa in his novels.

The Case of the White Footprints is a murder mystery set in Margate.

A lady has been found dead in her... Read more