Showing results by narrator "Marty Krz" in All Categories

In the introduction to this selection of tales of the macabre, anthologist Arthur Reeve writes: "What is the fascination we feel for the mystery of the ghost story? Man is incurably fascinated by the mysterious. If all the ghost stories of the ages were blotted out, man would invent new ones. For, do we not all stand in awe of that which we cannot explain, of that which, if it is not in our own experience, is certainly recorded in the experience of others, of that of which we know and can know nothing?"

A famous author goes to the airport and finds himself seated beside an unknown woman who is reading his latest book. Unbeknownst to him, the woman has admired his work for years. This is her big chance! Should she speak to him? What will she say?

Stephen Leacock (1869 - 1944) is considered by many to be the Canadian counterpart to the better known American humorists Mark Twain and S.J. Perelman. In the early 20th century he was one of the most widely read authors in the English speaking world. Jack Benny and Groucho Marx considered Leacock as one of the funniest writers they had ever read. The following sketches have been adapted from pieces in the miscellanies Moonbeams from the Larger Lunacy and Further Foolishness, in which Leacock satirizes many of the social institutions of his time.

Leonid Andreyev was born in Orel, Russia, on August 21, 1871. He died on September 12, 1919, in Finland, an exile from his beloved chaos-ridden fatherland. The main characters of Andreyev's stories are "people who stand apart," solitary, lonely characters, moving among their fellow men with a baneful cloud hanging over them. The hapless Father Vassily is a well-meaning but ineffectual man, whose best intentions are remoselessly crushed by fate.

This short story is one of those things that literally took a village to accomplish. From bouncing around ideas to coming up with the characters to listening to me ramble on and on and on about it. In itself, it is a fun little piece that the author fell in love with while trying to flesh out a few of the main characters of his fLUX Runners series.

Carlo Collodi's whimsical recasting of the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea was first published in 1883 and has since become an established classic of children's literature. Geppetto, a poor wood carver, receives a piece of wood from which he carves a marionette. Much to his surprise, the puppet springs to life and embarks on a wild series of adventures.

Floyd Dell has been called "one of the most flamboyant, versatile, and influential American Men of Letters of the first third of the 20th century". Though he was primarily a newspaper and magazine editor, most prominently of the radical left-wing magazine The Masses, he also published many best-selling feminist works. As a staunch advocate of feminism, socialism, psychoanalysis, and progressive education, his writing greatly shocked the American bourgeoisie at the time, to the point where it became so controversial, he was put on trial twice for his subversive literature.

Cole, an old sea captain, lives on a ship with his daughter and her immigrant husband. The trio prepares for a deluge, while Cole meets Daphne, a mermaid who seduces and tempts him. As tensions rise with the rolling tides, Cole must make a difficult choice: take a leap into the unknown, or stay on the safe side. This is a story about connection and separation, about tolerance and the decision to cut ties.

The Raven Edition of the works of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) presents his entire literary output in five volumes. Volume Three contains The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Poe's longest work, as well as six stories. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym is Poe's only complete novel. It describes the adventures of a young stowaway on a whaling ship, and includes incidences of shipwreck, mutiny, and capture by hostile tribes.

Devil Stories - Twenty tales of the demonic selected and edited by Maximilian J. Rudwin. The Devil is an old character in literature. Perhaps he is as old as literature itself. He is encountered in the story of the paradisiacal sojourn of our first ancestors, and from that day on, Satan has appeared unfailingly, in various forms and with various functions, in all the literatures of the world.

Eugene Field was well known for his light hearted children’s poems which included, “Wynken, Blynken and Nod”, “The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat”, and the “Dinky Bird”, as well humorous quips that he wrote while working at the Chicago Daily News. Field also published the above mentioned collection of short stories which has a diversity of settings but all illustrate beautifully the essence of faith and love with warmth, humor and sentimentality. Marty Krz delivers the tales with characterizations of the voices that will transport you into the stories themselves.

Frank Wedekind (1864-1918) was the most controversial dramatist of his age. Most of his work focuses on the ubiquity and inevitably corrupting influence of sexual attraction. His most famous plays are the two that depict the rise, fall, and eventual gruesome death of the vampish Lulu, who, in Wedekind’s presentation, became a ghastly parody of Goethe’s “Eternal Feminine”. The first of the plays is Earth Spirit, in which Lulu marries and survives three husbands, only to face prosecution for the shooting of the third.

Upon waking up in the Emerald City, Dorothy discovers that Princess Ozma is missing. In Quadling Country, Glinda finds that her magical Great Book of Records is also missing. She sends a message to the Wizard for help, but the Wizard cannot find his magic tools either. A search party is formed to track down the dear princess and all the missing magic. Over in Winkie Country, Cayke the Cookie Cook is missing her diamond studded golden dishpan and enlists the Yips advisor, Frogman, to assist her in locating it. Where has all the magic gone and what will become of Princess Ozma?

European tourists travel languidly along the Nile River to Abousir, at the southern frontier of Egypt, aboard “a turtle-bottomed, round-bowed stern-wheeler,” the Korosko. But Dervish warriors threaten danger and then attack and kidnap the tourists. In this novel, Doyle explores themes of British Imperialism and a defensive European perspective on North Africa; racial paternalism; and debates on interference with other countries’ politics and religions. This wonderful novel was first published in 1898, long before Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile.

This play is a dramatization of Boccaccio’s story of Gillette of Narbonne. Only the comic parts were of Shakespeare’s invention; he added the characters of the pusillanimous Parolles, the lofty courtier Lafew, the Clown Lavatch, and the long suffering Countess. He gave new depth and vitality to the leading characters, who are mere outlines in Boccaccio’s tale.

Cap'n Bill and a little girl named Trot are out in their rowboat when a whirlpool capsizes their craft. Finding themselves in an underwater cave, they meet up with an Ork. Further along their journey, they run into Button-Bright, the little boy from The Road to Oz, who has seemingly lost his way once again. The group learns of the unjust behavior of King Krewl, who has cut off Jinxland from the rest of Oz, and how the rightful king's daughter, Gloria, is being forced to marry old Googly-Goo, despite her being in love with Pon, the gardener's son.