Category: Online Audio

The Oval Portrait by Edgar Allan Poe

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Oval Portrait by Edgar Allan Poe - illustration by Corben

A double Halloween treat, my favourite Edgar Allan Poe short story, a Gothic Horror tale as narrated by two of my favourite people.

First up, as narrated by Julie Davis of Forgotten Classics and A Good Story Is Hard To Find podcasts.

The Oval Portrait by Edgar Allan PoeThe Oval Portrait
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Julie Davis
1 |MP3| Approx. 10 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
The injured narrator finds, upon the pillow of a bed in an abandoned castle in the Appenines, a book describing the many paintings that adorn the room he lies in.
First published in Graham’s Magazine, April 1842.

The Oval Portrait by Edgar Allan Poe - illustrated by Jesse

And from the voice of Lovecraft and his WeirdAudiobooks.com, the great Wayne June!

The Oval Portrait - LEGOized by Jesse

And here’s an illustrated |PDF| version!

The Oval Portrait (from a French printing)

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 4 Extra: Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu [RADIO DRAMA]

SFFaudio Online Audio

This is a pretty terrific adaptation of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s vampire classic, Carmilla. David Warner is wonderful as the father of the doomed Laura. And the music sounds, to my untrained ear, like that from Wojciech Kilar‘s in the 1992 movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

BBC Radio 4 ExtraCarmilla
By Don McCamphill; Adapted from the novella by J. Sheridan Le Fanu; performed by a full cast
Approx 44. Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Brodcaster: BBC Radio 4 Extra
Broadcast: Nov 1, 2011
A young woman finds her lonely existence in a remote Austrian castle enlivened by the arrival of a mysterious and beautiful visitor – Carmilla. What was the unworldly setting in which they last met? And why does Carmilla so violently reject the hawker’s amulet designed to ward off evil spirits?

Produced for BBC Northern Ireland Drama.

Cast:
Anne-Marie Duff
David Warner
Brana Bajic
Celia Imrie
Kenneth Cranham

Posted by Jesse Willis

Sears Radio Theater: Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu [RADIO DRAMA]

SFFaudio Online Audio

Carmilla - illustration by Dean Kotz

Vincent Price hosts this adaptation of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s classic vampire story. The setting is changed, moving the events up to 1922, and placing the action in Vienna. Price begins the program quoting these lines from Lord Byron’s 1813 poem, The Giaour:

Bur first, on earth as Vampire sent,
Thy corse shall from its tomb be rent:
Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race;

Sears Radio TheaterSears Radio Theater – Carmilla
Adapted from the novella by Sheridan Le Fanu; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 47 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBS
Broadcast: March 7, 1979
Source: Archive.org

Cast:
Antoinette Bower
Ann Givin

[image by Dean Kotz]

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBSRMT: Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu [RADIO DRAMA]

SFFaudio Online Audio

Carmilla adapted for Creepy Magazine #19 (1967)

Told as if from 70 years after the events, this adaptation of the classic of Gothic Fiction, is very very good. For more opinions check out the comments over on the CBSRMT.com page for this episode.

CBS Radio Mystery TheaterCBSRMT #0318 – Carmilla
Adapted by Ian Martin from the novellette by J. Sheridan Le Fanu; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 44 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBS
Broadcast: July 31, 1975
Source: CBSRMT.com
In 20th century Austria, a young woman and her widower father are charged with the welfare of a female ward. The two girls grow up like sisters but a terrible secret in the orphan’s past threatens to tear their lives asunder.

Cast:
Court Benson
Staats Cotsworth
Martha Greenhouse
Mercedes McCambridge
Marian Seldes

And here the |PDF| of the original story.

Posted by Jesse Willis

This Craft Of Verse: lectures by Jorge Luis Borges (1967 – 1968)

SFFaudio Online Audio

Jorge Luis Borges - This Craft Of Verse

Recorded in 1967 and 1968, at Harvard, these Jorge Luis Borges lectures on poetry are a wondrous treasure.

A part of the long running “Charles Eliot Norton Lectures” the collection is entitled This Craft Of Verse.

Introduction |MP3|
The Riddle Of Poetry |MP3|
Metaphor (part 1) |MP3|
Metaphor (part 2) |MP3|
The Telling Of The Tale |MP3|
Word-Music, And Translation |MP3|
Thought And Poetry (part 1) |MP3|
Thought And Poetry (part 2) |MP3|
A Poet’s Creed |MP3|

And here’s a podcast feed:

http://huffduffer.com/tags/thiscraftofverse/rss

[via Open Culture]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Escape Pod: Barnaby In Exile by Mike Resnick

SFFaudio Online Audio

Barnaby In Exile by Mike Resnick - illustration by Carol Heyer

This retro recommendation was first podcast back in September 2006. Now twenty years old it’s still a great story and still available as a podcast episode via the still going Escape Pod podcast. Also interesting, that editorial introduction by then host Steve Eley is going to be valuable for future scholars of podcasting’s history. The attitude of gentle defensiveness of the medium and that of the then still not commonly listened to audiobook are telling of how much the world has changed.

When I’ve previously pointed to Barnaby In Exile I’ve written…

“Nicely comparable to Pat Murphy’s classic Rachel In Love. Which is about as high a compliment you can give to an SF story. Powerful listening, bring a hanky.”

And today I shall also point out the connections this story has to Daniel Keyes’ Flowers For Algernon.

Escape PodEP073: Barnaby in Exile
By Mike Resnick; Read by Paul Fischer
1 |MP3| – Approx. 37 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Escape Pod
Podcast: September 28th 2006
First published in Asimov’s, 1994.

Posted by Jesse Willis