Risultati letto da "B. J. Harrison" in Tutte le categorie

Lieutenant-General von Rabbek is a local aristocrat, who invites the officers of the Reserve Artillery Brigade to a cup of tea with brandy. Of all the guests, Ryabovitch is the most unpleasant one. While doing his best to avoid talking to people, Ryabovitch enters a dark room, where he an unknown woman surprises him by kissing him, then running away. The unexpected kiss awakes Ryabovitch's curiosity and passion, and the man spends the rest of the evening searching for the mysterious woman.

Aladdin is a boy, who lives in poverty with his mother. One day, while he is playing outside, an African magician approaches him and claims that he is Aladdin’s uncle. The mysterious man tricks the boy to work for him by promising him wealthy rewards. Aladdin agrees after having gotten his mother's permission. The African man instructs the boy to enter a dark cave and fetch him an oil lamp and Aladdin jumps into the cave to finds it. However, the boy refuses to pass it to the magician before he is helped out of the cave and back into daylight.

The First World War has left the world in agony. Disillusionment, hopelessness, and horror are rife when a despondent author gets a visit by Father Time and Father Christmas, who come to raise his spirits. He wishes for better days, but the war has taken everything, turning him into a hopeless and angry nihilist. Nevertheless, the Christmas spirit is here to bring hope and another chance at happiness.

B. J. Harrison does not tire of the adventurous and mysterious settings in his choice of narratives. This time, the horror element is a bit subdued, though Edgar Allan Poe makes up for the lost thrills with his haunting poems "The Raven", "Annabel Lee", and "The Sleeper". P. G. Wodehouse appears with four works, scoring points for his humor.

The great detective, Sherlock Holmes, is dying from a highly contagious tropical disease called Tapanuli fever. Dr. Watson is shocked when he hears about his friend’s illness. He travels to examine him, but Holmes refuses his help. Instead, a man called Culverton Smith arrives after being called by Watson. He is not a professional doctor but knows more about the disease than anyone else.

"The Furnished Room" is a short story about love and dedication, about exhaustion and despair. A young man is searching for a girl he fell in love with. He rents a room near the theatre where she could sometimes be seen and he devotes his days to the dream of finding her. When all of a sudden the sweet fragrance of her perfume fills his room... Has he finally found her? Or is this an evil ghost from the past? Will he get to embrace the girl he loves or she will drag him to the verge of madness? B. J.

"I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again." When Benjamin Button is born he looks oddly like an old man. He's not interested in playing with other kids and he's too low on energy to participate anyway. When Benjamin turns 20 it dawns on his family that he is aging backwards. The younger he grows, the more he learns to embrace life.

While hosting a party, a banker makes a bet with one of his guests, who is a lawyer. The topic of the bet is capital punishment and whether it is worse or better than a life sentence. The banker sees the capital punishment as more humane than life imprisonment, whilst the young lawyer completely disagrees. The bet is as follows: if the lawyer spends fifteen years in complete isolation, the banker will give him two million rubles. As the years pass, the banker realizes that he will go bankrupt if he loses the bet.

Forty-two years old Marlow is drinking with four other Englishmen. They have known each other since the beginning of their working lives. Some of them have other jobs now, but they still gather to recall the good old days. Marlow tells his friends a story of his early life, when he travelled to the East as a young man in search of adventure. He shares his experience and impressions of the different cultures he came across with the four men.

Quiquendone is a small town in West Flanders, whose citizens are the wisest, most sociable and hospitable people. The town’s mayor, Van Tricasse, claims that the one if a person dies without having decided anything in his life then he has attained perfection. One day, Dr. Ox comes to the mayor with an offer. He wants to build a gas lightning system, at no cost for the city. However, Ox's intentions are completely different and this seemingly noble deed is just a facade. Will Van Tricasse accept the proposal? And what is Dr.

Hungary during the Ottoman wars: Turks attack Buda and set up a siege of Eger. Gergely Bornemissza is a poor half-orphan who is about to become a national hero. "Eclipse of the Crescent Moon" follows Gergelys life from the age of eight until his early thirties. His life is a vivid combination of poverty, love, battles and dangers. He is on the front line when the Turks capture Buda and later when they approach Eger. His country is in danger and so is his family. The battle is one of life or death.

The swineherd John spots a tree outside the palace that it is so high it reaches the sky. It blossoms in the morning, by noon it bears fruits and by midnight they are ripe. However someone steals each and every apple and the king does not get to taste it. Furious, hr decides to find out who the culprit is. Find out the end of this Hungarian fairy tale in "The Tree That Reached the Sky". B. J. Harrison started his Classic Tales Podcast back in 2007, wanting to breathe new life into classic stories.

Isidore Smythe is in danger. He has received threating letters and he does not see a way out. John Angus offers Smythe his help and Smythe is escorted back to his flat. Angus is determined to find out who has sent the letters and he heads out to the former criminal Flambeau and the private detective Father Brown. Before he leaves Smythe’s apartment, he instructs four people to keep an eye on him. Yet when he comes back Smythe is missing and there's a bloodstain on the floor.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are discussing the lack of interesting new cases when a man bursts into the room. The panicked young man is McFarlane and he believes that he will be arrested for the murder of 52-year-old Jonas Oldacre. Oldacre’s burnt remains are found behind McFarlane house, the day after the builder Oldacre came to the lawyer McFarlane to draw up his will and made him his sole beneficiary. McFarlane is arrested as the main suspect. Holmes believes that the young man is not guilty and does his best to prove it.

From the books that inspired the new Netflix series "Lupin" with Omar Sy. Yvonne d’Origny’s life is full of misery, hatred and fear. She has tried to divorce her malicious husband, but he is willing to go to great lengths to get what he wants - and that’s her. He even uses their son as a pawn. How will Yvonne’s story unfold, and what will Lupin’s role be in it? The second story in Maurice Leblanc’s collection "The Confessions of Arsène Lupin" about gentleman thief and criminal mastermind, Arsene Lupin.

Anodos is a young boy who finds a large and mystical castle with a big and impressive library. The library hides the secret story of the poor Cosmo who was a student at the university of Prague. Cosmo’s life changed forever because of a mirror. But it was no usual mirror; it was an enchanted and a beautiful girl’s soul was kept inside of it. Cosmo was determined to free the girl but was he able to? Read this short story and find out. B. J. Harrison started his Classic Tales Podcast back in 2007, wanting to breathe new life into classic stories.

"The Castaway" is a short story by W. W. Jacobs, telling of the return of a husband, who was thought lost and buried at sea for three years. Mrs. Boxer immediately welcomes him, but his mother-in-law suspects him to be a fraud. A visit to the local fortune-teller only deepens her suspicions. "The Castaway" is a brilliant mystery story that questions reality in a remarkable way, leaving no stone unturned and dwelling into each the characters’ suspicions and fears. Recommended to short story fans and mystery fiction enthusiasts. B. J.

The "League of the Scarlet Pimpernel" is a secret society made up of twenty English aristocrats. The commander is the so-called "Scarlet Pimpernel" but almost nobody knows his real identity. The society aims to defy the French revolutionaries. The main goal is to rescue innocents from the deadly guillotine.

"Rip Van Winkle" is a short story by Washington Irving about a man who drinks some liquor then falls asleep for 20 years amidst the hills. Having missed the American Revolution, Rip Van Winke returns home but finds it completely changed. What he notices is really important, as they possess social and political messages that Irving wanted to stress.

For a very long time Monsieur de Merret has been suspecting his wife of infidelity. One night he comes home earlier than usual and knocks on the door of his wife’s chamber. Right before he enters the room, he hears the door of her closet squeak. Initially, Merret thinks that this is their maid Rosalie, but he is perplexed when the maid enters the room right after him. Merret desires to open the closet so he can once and for all find out the truth about his wife.