The Castle of Otranto is a 1764 novel by Horace
Walpole. It is generally held to be the first gothic novel,
initiating a literary genre which would become extremely
popular in the later 18th century and early 19th
century. Thus, Castle, and Walpole by extension is
arguably the forerunner to such authors as Ann
Radcliffe, Bram Stoker, Daphne du Maurier, and
Stephen King.
For Mother’s Day 2006, we’ve recorded five versions of this tribute to Mothers and their role in shaping the future. The title is very famous out of its context, but now you can hear how it was originally intended.
Written for the children but enjoyed by young and old alike, this intriguing novel is filled with courageous heroes, cowardly villains, secrets and even secret passages!
Ben-Hur is a story of two very different heroes. Judah Ben-Hur, a prince of Jerusalem, is involved in an accident to the Roman procurator which is taken to be intentional. He is seized and sent to the fleet as a galley-slave, while his family is imprisoned and the family goods confiscated. When Ben-Hur saves the fleet captain from drowning after his ship is sunk in a fight with pirates, that officer adopts him as son and heir. With Roman training, Ben-Hur distinguishes himself in the arena and the palistrae and appears to be on the way to high military command.
With the help of a faithful family retainer and a generous Arab sheik, Ben-Hur is enabled to take part in a widely touted ch...
Set in England at the turn of the 20th century, Wallace’s crime novel The Daffodil Mystery follows the mysterious circumstances under which shop owner Lyne has been murdered. Accordingly, it is up to detective Jack Tarling and his trusted Chinese assistant to solve the case and reach an appropriate and just resolution. Moreover, the happenings within the novel are intensified by the colorful set of characters, which are marked by their plausible façade and contribute to the novel’s appeal.
The crime novel opens when womanizer Thornton Lyne, also a wealthy heir and owner of a well-established store, makes an indecent proposition to his beautiful young cashier Odette Ri...
This story describes a house in Cadogan Square, London, in which extensive alterations have been done by the Greek owner. One of the rooms is built like a safe. The walls floor and roof are made of almost indestructible reinforced concrete. The only door to the room can only be opened or closed by the owner. The single window is unreachable and there is a steel safe built into the outer wall which is in plain sight of the local policeman who patrols the street every night. Yet it is in this barred and shuttered room that the Greek is found brutally murdered.
The Clue of the Twisted Candle is one of Edgar Wallace's most ingenious locked-room mysteries. Published in 1918...
Conventional ideas of beauty are typically associate it with goodness and kindness. However, appearances can be deceptive. Jean Briggerland is exquisitely lovely, but few know that this ethereal, angelic facade hides an utterly immoral and cruel heart within. Her insatiable lust for power and money claim many an innocent victim till one day, a lawyer named Jack Glover is called upon to defend his best friend and cousin, James Meredith in a murder trial. Meredith is alleged to have murdered a young man in a fit of jealous rage because he objected to the man's friendship with Meredith's lovely fiancée. The lady in question turns out to be Jean Briggerland.
The Angel of Terro...
In 1907 Wallace wrote the short book Is Mars Habitable? to criticize the claims made by Percival Lowell that there were Martian canals built by intelligent beings. Wallace did months of research, consulted various experts, and produced his own scientific analysis of the Martian climate and atmospheric conditions. Among other things Wallace pointed out that spectroscopic analysis had shown no signs of water vapor in the Martian atmosphere, that Lowell’s analysis of Mars’ climate was seriously flawed and badly overestimated the surface temperature, and that low atmospheric pressure would make liquid water, let alone a planet girding irrigation system, impossible.
When tragedy hits his family, in the form of a sudden illness to his father, young Teddy Thornton is forced to leave school and find work to help support his family. Without his realization he is thrown into a world of crime and counterfeiting. Will he do the right thing, or will he unwittingly be drawn down the wrong path? And will the mystery of Heron Hall be solved?