The Boarded Window by Ambrose Bierce

SFFaudio Online Audio

I could be wrong but I bet The Boarded Window is the second most popular Ambrose Bierce short story assigned in American schools (with the first being An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge).

The Boarded Window is super short (less than 2,000 words), leaves out the usual controversial themes Bierce went for, and is a good ghost story too.

LibriVoxThe Boarded Window
By Ambrose Bierce; Read by Joseph Langley
1 |MP3| – Approx. 13 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 28, 2009
First published in the San Francisco Examiner, July 14, 1889.

Here’s a “Special English” adaptation. Designed for ESL students this version is read at a slower pace, with a simplified vocabulary.

Voice Of AmericaThe Boarded Window
Adapted by Lawan Davis from the story by Ambrose Bierce; Read by Shep O’Neal
1 |MP3| – Approx. 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Voice Of America
Published: 2009
“A man in the deep woods deals with the death of his wife.”

Here’s a |PDF|.

And finally here’s an 1978 video adaptation for the International Instructional Television Cooperative:

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Watcher by R.H. Benson

SFFaudio Online Audio

E.F. Benson, A.C. Benson, and R.H. Benson were three brothers, all writers. They wrote weird fiction, Science Fiction and ghost stories.

R.H. Benson, the youngest of the three, started off as a clergyman in the Church of England, but later switched to the Roman Catholic Church and became an assistant to the Pope. An interesting choice since his biological father had been the Archbishop of Canterbury.

This short story of his, The Watcher, is somewhat difficult to classify. Reading it, it sounds like it could almost have been a true story – but it’s from a collection of fifteen stories depicting a fictional priest’s supernatural experiences.

I think it’s an allegory.

But the question is … an allegory for what?

Find out for yourself with Peter Yearsley’s fun reading of it…

LibriVoxThe Watcher
By R.H. Benson; Read by Peter Yearsley
1 |MP3| – Approx. 12 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 7, 2007
A face in a bush takes delight in the death of a thrush. First published in 1903.

And here’s a |PDF|.

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Ash Tree by M.R. James

SFFaudio Online Audio

“If any of [my stories] succeed in causing their readers to feel pleasantly uncomfortable when walking along a solitary road at nightfall, or sitting over a dying fire in the small hours, my purpose in writing them will have been attained.” – M.R. James

The Ash Tree - illustration by George Chastain (from Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine, December 1981)

I’m just beginning to get into M.R. James so I’m not sure quite what to make of his stories yet. To me The Ash Tree felt restrained, subtle, and it was “pleasantly uncomfortable” to be sure – but is that enough?

I haven’t hit a story of his that has grabbed me the way Guy de Mapassaunt’s The Horla has or the way William Hope Hodgson’s The Voice In The Night has.

Maybe ghost stories just need to have something other than haunting to draw me in.

LibriVoxThe Ash Tree
By M.R. James; Read by Peter Yearsley
1 |MP3| – Approx. 35 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: June 7th, 2006
A damp Suffolk house, with a curious ash tree growing close to it, may have been cursed by a woman once executed for witchcraft. First published in Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary, 1904.

Posted by Jesse Willis

19 Nocturne Boulevard: H.P. Lovecraft’s The Temple AUDIO DRAMA

SFFaudio Online Audio

Discussed in our latest podcast, and one of the best adaptations of a Lovecraft story I have heard, here is Julie Hoverson’s audio drama of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Temple.

19 Nocturne Boulevard - The Temple19 Nocturne Boulevard – The Temple
By Julie Hoverson; Adapted from the story by H.P. Lovecraft; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 34 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Podcaster: 19 Nocturne Boulevard
Podcast: April 19, 2011
The crew of a WWI U-boat finds that some danger runs…. very deep. First published in Weird Tales, September 1925.

Cast:
Cap. Karl Heinrich … Rick Lewis
Lt. Keinze … Julie Hoverson
Shawn Connor … crewman
Bryan Hendricksen … crewman

Music by Kevin MacLeod
Cover by Brett Coulstock

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals: AudioGo: H.P. Lovecraft’s Book Of The Supernatural edited by Stephen Jones

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Recently arrived, and currently being soaked in through my skin and ears, is this giant collection of weird fiction. Assembled from a list of stories found in H.P. Lovecraft’s essay Supernatural Horror In Literature, it is a collection of well known and obscure classics by authors that H.P. Lovecraft loved.

Looking at the table of contents I noted that I’d already read several of the stories in this collection – including The Turn Of The Screw (we did a podcast about that one), the engimatic Christmas horror Markheim, the scientific ghost tale What Was It?, the unutterably creepy and horrific The Voice In The Night very recently, and many years ago, perhaps in high school, The Yellow Wallpaper. But even though I’ve read some of these stories already I’m still very excited. Each of the stories seems to be preceded by some relevant words by Lovecraft himself – and at the very least I will be listening to the mini-introductions to those stories I am well familiar with.

Until then I will content myself in listening to the unknown ones. For example, the frightful first person narrative of Who Knows? by Guy de Maupassant is thrilling and wondering me in the exact same way The Horla almost exactly one year ago. It’s wonderful!

AUDIO GO - H.P. Lovecraft's Book Of The Supernatural edited by Stephen Jones

H.P. Lovecraft’s Book Of The Supernatural
Edited by Stephen Jones; Read by Bronson Pinchot, Stephen Crossley, Davina Porter, Madeleine Lambert, Mark Peckham
MP3 DOWNLOAD – Approx. 16 Hours 44 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: AudioGo
Published: August 1, 2012
Written by arguably the most important horror writer of the twentieth century, H.P. Lovecraft’s 1927 essay Supernatural Horror in Literature traces the evolution of the genre from the early Gothic novels to the work of contemporary American and British authors. Throughout, Lovecraft acknowledges those authors and stories that he feels are the very finest the horror field has to offer: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, Guy de Maupassant, Ambrose Bierce, and Arthur Conan Doyle, each prefaced by Lovecraft’s own opinions and insights in their work. This chilling collection also contains Henry James’ wonderfully atmospheric short novel…The Turn of the Screw. For every fan of modern horror, here is an opportunity to rediscover the origins of the genre with some of most terrifying stories ever imagined.

Here’s the table of contents:
Introduction by editor Stephen Jones – Approx. 7 Minutes
Notes on Writing Weird Fiction By H.P. Lovecraft – Approx. 11 Minutes
The Tale of the German Student by Washington Irving – Approx. 14 Minutes
Markheim by Robert Louis Stevenson – Approx. 49 Minutes
Who Knows? by Guy de Maupassant – Approx. 34 Minutes
The Invisible Eye by Erckmann-Chatrian – Approx. 41 Minutes
The Torture by Hope by Villiers de l’Isle Adam – Approx. 15 Minutes
Ms. Found in a Bottle by Edgar Allan Poe – Approx. 29 Minutes
What Was It? by Fitz-James O’Brien – Approx. 34 Minutes
The Middle Toe of the Right Foot by Ambrose Bierce – Approx. 24 Minutes
The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James – Approx. 4 Hours 52 Minutes
The Dead Smile by F. Marion Crawford – Approx. 57 Minutes
The Wind In The Rose-Bush by Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman – Approx. 38 Minutes
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman – Approx. 36 Minutes
The Recrudescence of Imray by Rudyard Kipling – Approx. 30 Minutes
The Hands Of Karma (Ingwa-banashi) by Lafcadio Hearn – Approx. 11 Minutes
The Burial Of The Rats by Bram Stoker – Approx. 1 Hour 7 Minutes
The Red Lodge by H.R. Wakefield – Approx. 35 Minutes
The Captain Of The Pole-Star by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – Approx. 1 Hour 6 Minutes
The Villa Desiree by May Sinclair – Approx. 28 Minutes
The Voice In The Night by William Hope Hodgson – Approx. 36 Minutes
Novel of the White Powder by Arthur Machen – Approx. 48 Minutes

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals from Full Cast Audio – Heinlein!

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

In from the always excellent Full Cast Audio are two classic Heinlein novels!

Science fiction audiobook - Space Cadet by Robert A. Heinlein

Matt Dodson arrives at Space Academy little prepared for the rigorous program he is about to enter. But that’s the point of the academy: to take young men and steep them in a demanding tradition of honor, courage, and sacrifice until they have earned the right to join the Patrol as guardians of the solar peace.

Unfortunately, even the academy’s high power training can’t completely prepare Matt and his friends Tex and Oscar for the harrowing test of both survival and diplomatic skills they will face when a mission goes disastrously wrong.

A classic coming-of-age tale, and one of the most influential books in the history of science fiction, Space Cadet features the compelling mix of wit, action, and a clear vision of the future that are the hallmarks of Heinlein at his best.

For more information, click here!
 
 

Science fiction audiobook - Between Planets by Robert A. Heinlein

When Don Harvey’s parents abruptly summon him from school on Earth to join them on Mars he has no idea he’s about to be plunged into a deadly interplanetary intrigue. But from the moment he begins his journey he finds himself the subject of intense – and possibly deadly – scrutiny.

A riveting coming of age story set against a backdrop of a war between planets, this classic Heinlein novel crackles with action, adventure, politics, wit, and brilliant speculation about the world to come.

For more information, click here!

Posted by Scott D. Danielson