Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, The Signalman by Charles Dickens, Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Dracula by Bram Stoker
Read by: Clive Hayward, Derek Perkins and Alison Larkin
Over thirty hours of great classic horror is brought to haunting new life by three A-list narrators whose performances are nothing short of electrifying.
"At once terrifying and heartbreaking" raves AudioFile Magazine about Clive Hayward's Earphones award winning reading of Frankenstein that starts the collection. "Both narrators are outstanding" says AudioFile about Audie award-winner Derek Perkins and Earphones award-winner Alison Larkin's narration of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Yellow Wallpaper.
Frankenstein was born when Mary Shelley, Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, stranded on an island, competed to see who could write the best horror story. Read by Clive Hayward.
The Signalman, a ghost story by Charles Dickens was influenced by a fatal train accident he survived, though he was haunted by the event. Read by Derek Perkins.
Carmilla is Le Fanu's tortured, powerful, female vampire who set the stage for so many vampires to come, including Dracula. Read by Alison Larkin.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde grew out of a horrifying nightmare Robert Louis Stevenson had one night in Bournemouth, England in 1886. Read by Derek Perkins.
The Yellow Wallpaper sprang from a catastrophic nervous breakdown Charlotte Perkins Gilman had following the birth of her daughter. Read by Alison Larkin.
Dracula by Bram Stoker is the quintessential vampire horror story which set out many of the conventions modern fantasy writers still embrace. Read by Clive Hayward.
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Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was born in Landport, Portsmouth, England, the second of eight children in a family continually plagued by debt. A legacy brought release from the nightmare of debtors’ prison and child labor and afforded him a few years of formal schooling. He worked as an attorney’s clerk and newspaper reporter until his early writings brought him the amazing success that was to be his for the remainder of his life. He was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era, and he remains popular, responsible for some of English literature’s most iconic characters.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) was born in Scotland. He studied engineering and law at the University of Edinburgh and then began writing while traveling in France. The publication of Treasure Island in 1883 brought him fame and entered him on a course of romantic fiction beloved by young and old alike.
Abraham “Bram” Stoker (1847–1912) was an Irish novelist and short-story writer best known for his vampire novel, Dracula. His other works include The Mystery of the Sea, The Jewel of the Seven Stars, The Man, and The Lair of the White Worm.
Mary Shelley (1797–1851), née Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, was born in London, the second daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, well known feminist, philosopher, educator, and writer, and William Godwin, famous English philosopher, novelist, and journalist. She was best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, written when she was eighteen and published when she was twenty-one. She was married to the Romantic writer Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Stefan Rudnicki first became involved with audiobooks in 1994. Now a Grammy-winning audiobook producer, he has worked on more than five thousand audiobooks as a narrator, writer, producer, or director. He has narrated more than nine hundred audiobooks. A recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards, he was presented the coveted Audie Award for solo narration in 2005, 2007, and 2014, and was named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices in 2012.
Xe Sands has more than a decade of experience bringing stories to life through narration, performance, and visual art, including recordings of the Nightwalkers series from Jaquelyn Frank. She has received several honors, including AudioFile Earphones Awards and a coveted Audie Award, and she was named Favorite Debut Romance Narrator of 2011 in the Romance Audiobooks poll.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) gained much of her fame with lectures on women’s issues, ethics, labor, human rights, and social reform. She often referred to these themes in her fiction. She is best remembered for her 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” based on her own bout with severe postpartum depression and misguided medical treatment.
Clive Hayward is a voice talent and Earphones Award–winning narrator.
Derek Perkins is a professional narrator and voice actor. He has earned numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, as well as numerous Society of Voice Arts nominations. AudioFile magazine named him a Best Voice consecutively in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Augmented by a knowledge of three foreign languages and a facility with accents, he has narrated numerous titles in a wide range of fiction and nonfiction genres.
Alison Larkin is a playwright, stage actress, stand-up comic, voice artist, and Earphones Award–winning narrator whose wide range of voices can be heard in cartoons and movies, including Pocahontas and The Wonder Pets.