Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

'The Signal' is the story of two peasants who work as track walkers on the railway, Semyon Ivanov and Vasily Stepanych. Semyon is grateful for his job and the hut and the vegetable patch which goes with it, but Vasily is discontented with his lot and constantly complains, including to his employers. This grumbling irritates the railway officials and eventually the situation escalates, driving Vasily to take terrible revenge on the state railway.

A wonderful collection of 50 phenomenal stories by the world’s great short story writers.

A young novelist is in the process of serialising a racy novel in the Fleet Street Magazine. It tells the story of a Duchess who murders her husband by giving him cheap sherry, in the knowledge that his constitution will not stand such rough liquor. The author is surprised to find a mysterious advertisement in the personal column of The Times which addresses the author of the sherry story and exhorts him to contact a certain firm of solicitors. On making enquiries, the author is invited to a remote stately home to stay with a genuine mysterious duchess who also harbours a guilty secret.

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (1812-1885) was a Norwegian writer, scholar and collector of traditional folktales. Peter Gynt is the story of a hunter who gets the better of a group of trolls who like to take over peoples' farms.

'The Parrot' is the tale of a newlywed couple. Soon after the marriage, the husband must go away on business, so he gives his wife a parrot to keep her company while he is away. But another man sees the young wife at the window and falls in love with her. He engages the help of the woman who lives downstairs to try to seduce the young wife. But each time the woman is on the point of going with her neighbour, the parrot offers to tell her a story. So enchanting and absorbing are the parrot's tales that the young wife never leaves the house until her husband's return.

A fascinating collection of some of the great - but less well known - fairy tales of all time.

'East of the Sun and West of the Moon' is a fairy tale from Norway. A poor family is visited one night by a white bear who promises to make them rich if they will give him their youngest daughter. At first the girl refuses, but over several days she is persuaded to go with the bear. She is carried away on his back to a marvellous castle, where she learns that the bear turns into a prince at night.

'The Curse of the Seven Children' is a fairy tale about a king and queen who already have six sons. When the seventh child is due, the king must travel away. He tells his wife that when the baby is born, she should hang a lance out of the window if it is a boy and a distaff if it is girl. Shortly after this the queen bears a daughter. But a mistake is made, and a lance is hung out of the window. Desperate for a daughter, the king returns and curses his seven sons. When he realises his mistake it is already too late. Only the baby princess can save her brothers....

'The Wise Princess' is a take on the traditional Russian fairy tale of the frog princess. Three princes are instructed by their father, the king, to fire their arrows at random and marry whichever maidens they land near to. The youngest son's arrow lands in a marsh next to a frog. But the frog turns out to be a wise princess in disguise - and when the prince sees the princess in her true form he falls in love with her. One night when the princess is not wearing her frog skin, the princes takes it and burns it.

'The Bronze Ring' is a story in which a princess falls in love with the son of the palace gardener, although her father wishes her to marry the son of his Prime Minister. The King devises a quest for the two suitors and attempts to engineer the situation so that the rich youth will win. But the gardener's son does a good deed to an old woman, who in return helps him win a magic ring which will grant wishes. But the youth's adventures are not over when he marries the princess. The ring is stolen, and he must enlist the aid of some very clever mice to get it back.

'The Donkey Skin' is a strange fairy tale of a princess who escapes an unwanted marriage by running away from the palace dressed in a donkey skin, to a hard life of poverty as a hen-wife. When a young prince happens to catch a glimpse of her without her donkey skin, he falls in love with her. But how is he to find the beautiful maiden again?

Three princes are sent on a quest by their father, to find who it is who steals the golden apples from the King's tree. The youngest son befriends a wolf who is in reality a magician. From the wolf he learns that a magical golden bird is the thief. In attempting to steal the golden bird, the prince is captured by its owner, the Emperor. The latter agrees to spare the prince's life if he can steal the golden horse from the ruler of the neighbouring kingdom. In attempting to do this the prince is again captured.

Maurice Baring (1874-1945) was an English short story writer, children's writer, novelist, travel writer and war correspondent during the First World War. This is a collection of six of the magical fairy stories he wrote for children.

'The Enchanted Knife' is the story of a young man who seeks to marry the princess. Her father sets him an impossible task to perform before he will grant the suit - but with the aid of the cunning princess and a magic knife, the youth is able to win his bride.

The Brahman, the Tiger and the Six Judges is the tale of an ungrateful tiger who gets his just desserts. The tiger has been captured but persuades the passing Brahman to release him. When the Brahman does so, the tiger announces that he intends to eat him. But the Brahman persuades him to wait until they have consulted six others before deciding his fate.

Punchkin is a traditional fairy tale about a Rajah with seven daughters. When he remarries, the princesses' stepmother is determined to do away with the girls and make her own daughter the heir to the throne. A series of adventures and trials follows which leads to the overthrow of an evil magician.

The Blind Man, the Deaf Man and the Donkey is a strange but compelling tale of two codependent friends who nonetheless mistrust each other. They find a donkey and a large container...and then when sheltering from a storm in what they mistake for a temple, they find a Rakshas' (terrifying monster with elephant tusks) treasure. While attempting to trick the Rakshas and steal the treasure, the two are still also intent on swindling each other...then karma deals a strange twist to the tale.

The Alligator and the Jackal is the story of a jackal who narrowly escapes being eaten by an alligator on the banks of a river. Following this incident, the alligator is determined to catch the cunning jackal. The Jackal is equally determined not to be eaten. A series of close escapes escalates the feud until the dramatic finale.

The Stonecutter is a fairy tale Lang collected in Japan. A stonecutter sees how rich people live when he is delivering a gravestone one day. From that day on he is dissatisfied with his own lot and wishes to be rich. His wish is granted by the spirit that lives in the mountain...but the stonecutter is still not satisfied with his life and makes further wishes, each taking him a little further on his quest for happiness.

The Princess Who Was Hidden Underground is the tale of a king who goes to extreme lengths to safeguard his daughter from potential suitors unworthy of her hand. But one cunning young lad manages to outwit the king by disguising himself as a sheep.