Showing results by narrator "Walter Covell" in All Categories

Watson visits Sherlock Holmes at Christmastime and finds him contemplating a battered old hat, brought to him by the commissionaire Peterson after it and a Christmas goose had been dropped by a man in a scuffle with some street ruffians. Peterson takes the goose home to eat it, but comes back later with a precious carbuncle that his wife found in the bird's crop.

By their nature fables are "fabulous," larger than life, the characters often using wit and guile to save themselves from circumstances. In away, Aesop's Fables are morality plays. They illustrate what was fundamental to Greek culture. Their appeal to us lies in a logic we can still understand. This in turn awakens an appreciation of how far ahead of their time the Greeks were, how enduring their thought was, and how much we have to be grateful to them. This collection features 185 of these famous fables.

"The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the second of the 12 Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes in most British editions of the canon and second of the eight stories from His Last Bow in most American versions.

When Foreign Secretary Sir Philip Ramon receives a threatening, greenish-grey letter signed 'Four Just Men', he remains determined to see his Aliens Extradition Bill made law. A device in the members' smoke room and a sudden magnesium flash that could easily have been nitro-glycerin leave Scotland Yard baffled. Even Fleet Street cannot identify the illusive Manfred, Gonsalez, Pioccart, and Thery, the Four Just Men dedicated to punishing by death those whom conventional justice can not touch.

On an ocean liner bound for Natal, adventurer Alan Quatermain is engaged as a guide. Supplied with arms, courage, and determination, he and his group set out through Africa's beautiful but often dangerous and inhospitable wilderness. Their trek culminates in the discovery of a lost sacred mine that could bring them all riches...or death!

In "The Invisible Man", a murderer manages to get in and out of a house, even though it is under constant observation. In some ways, the story parallels Poe's "The Purloined Letter" but adds its own unique touches, particularly in the character and methods of priest-sleuth Father Brown.

Called by Lord Byron, "The most exquisite of all romances in miniature," The Vicar of Wakefield is the story of a simple reverend who, losing his fortune, moves his family to a new part of the country and tries to live according to his beliefs. He and his family make an Arcadian picture of affectionate accord. That is, until the idyll is rudely disturbed by a notorious seducer. The book is a classic comedy of manners and a satire on the moralistic tales of the period.

Like Charles Dickens' other early novels, The Old Curiosity Shop was a huge success, even eclipsing The Pickwick Papers. The melodramatic saga of the flight of Little Nell and her grandfather captured the public's attention, so much so that people would wait in long lines for the release of the next installment of the saga. For the character of Little Nell, the beautiful child thrown into a shadowy, terrifying world, Dickens drew on a tragedy in his own life.

"Patient Griselda" is arguably the best and certainly one of the most famous tales from The Decameron.

Raffles is Sherlock Holmes' polar opposite, a foil for great detectives and a man with all the immoral charms of a hero-thief, plus a remarkable ability at cricket. Raffles is the godson of Robin Hood, the model for Cary Grant in "To Catch a Thief," and the inspiration of Leslie Charteris' "The Saint." As the great reinvention of the trickster for the 20th century, Raffles convinces readers to throw away their scruples and follow along for wit, bold adventures, and thrilling suspense.

The Four Million was written in 1906 when roughly four million people lived in New York City. It opens with a reference to Ward McAllister's "assertion that there were only "400" people in New York City who were really worth noticing.

"The Adventure of the Abbey Grange" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and is one of 13 stories in the collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes.

When young Edwin Drood disappears, suspicion centers on John Jasper, a drug-addicted choirmaster who hungers after Drood's fiancé. So does Neville Landless, a Ceylonese who has previously quarreled violently with the missing man. The mystery if further enhanced because it was left unfinished at the author's death. Thus the book has challenged the imagination of generations of readers.

Via a series of letters between himself and a friend, a man falls in love with a woman he has never met - and receives a shocking surprise when he travels to meet her.

Fitz-James O'Brien was an Irish-born poet, journalist, and short-story writer who migrated to America in 1852. He died from an injury acquired during the Civil War. O'Brien was called "the preeminent writer of supernatural stories of his time", and he is best remembered for two or three widely anthologized stories that border on science fiction. Among them is this masterpiece.

Gaston Leroux is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera. However, he also wrote some excellent detective stories. In fact,Leroux's contribution to French detective fiction is considered a parallel to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's in the United Kingdom and Edgar Allan Poe's in America. In this, his most popular mystery, rival detectives try to crack a case.

Benjamin Franklin's wide range of activities and interests opened the doors of the world to him. Printer, inventor, philosopher, ambassador, champion of liberty - his influence has been felt by every American generation. And to everything he touched, including this autobiography, Franklin brought originality and wit.

Many consider "The Canterville Ghost" the most famous ghost story of all time. It is a parody featuring a dramatic spirit named Sir Simon and an American ambassador named Mr. Hiram B. Otis. Mr. Otis travels to England with his family and moves into a haunted castle. Lord Canterville, the previous owner of the castle, warns Mr. Otis that the ghost of Sir Simon de Canterville has haunted the castle ever since he killed his wife, Eleonore, centuries ago.

One lonely night, a cabbie discovers that his intoxicated passenger has been suffocated with a handkerchief saturated in chloroform. The murderer, the victim, and the motive are all unknown. Fergus Hume's first literary attempt, became the best-selling mystery novel of the 19th century.

Wilkie Collins was the author of two of the greatest mysteries ever written, The Moonstone and The Woman in White. However, like Poe before him and Conan Doyle after, he shifted easily from rational domains to the "superrational". Like them, he often preferred to indulge his occult predilection, a lifelong interest. "The Dream Woman" is one his most anthologized stories of the supernatural.