Embrace the darkness

Read by Mark Rice-Oxley, David Shaw-Parker, Robert Maskell(Unabridged: 11hrs 41mins)

Featuring stories by Achmed Abdullah, J Y Ackerman, Leonid Andreyev, F Anstey, Alice and Claude Askew, Gertrude Atherto, Ryunosuke Akutagawa & many more

An author’s talents may seem obvious and indisputable as they move words and ideas into gathered phrases and stories.

But where do these ideas and stories come from? A lonely thought that suddenly gathers form? An inspiration from a Muse? A suggestion from an everyday event?

Perhaps in the case of their darker, more malevolent stories, other forces are at work. They help to nourish single words into sentences and paragraphs that ease themselves from the shadows and are suddenly upon us in twisted revelation that may thrill, may disturb, but will always engage and help us explore the edge of darkness where some of the very best literature patiently lurks …. waiting …. for the likes of me and you.

01 - Stories From the Shadows - Volume 1 - An Introduction

02 - Light by Achmed Abdullah

03 - The Miniature by J Y Ackerman

04 - Lost in a Pyramid (or the Mummy's Curse) by Louisa May Alcott writing as A M Bernard

05 - The Lie by Leonid Andreyev

06 - Shut Out by F Anstey

07 - Alymer Vance & The Vampire by Alice and Claude Askew

08 - The Little Skeleton by Mary Anne Atherstone writing as M A Bird

09 - When the Devil Was Well by Gertrude Atherton.wav

10 - In A Grove by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

11 - The Readjustment by Mary Austin

12 - Many Waters Cannot Quench Love by Louisa Baldwin

13 - The Weird of the Walfords by Louisa Baldwin

14 - La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac

15 - The Spectre of Tappington - Part 1 by Richard Harris Barham

16 - The Spectre of Tappington - Part 2 by Richard Harris Barham

17 - The 9.30 Up-Train by Sabine Baring-Gould

18 - An Alpine Divorce by Robert Barr

19 - The Generous Gambler by Charles Baudelaire

20 - A Dreamer by Barbara Baynton

21 - The Murder in an Omnibus by Harold Begbie

22 - Phantom by Arnold Bennett

23 - Behind the Curtain by Gertrude Barrows Bennett writing as Francis Stevens

24 - Christmas Formula by Stella Benson

25 - The Closed Window by A C Benson

26 - Caterpillars by E F Benson

27 - The Blood Eagle by R H Benson

28 - The Boarded Window by Ambrose Bierce