Audiobooks by Barry Pain

"Welcome to The Problem Club, where logic takes a holiday and wit is the law of the land. In this delightful collection of early 20th-century comic tales by Barry Pain, twelve eccentric gentlemen gather regularly in an upscale London club to tackle bizarre, imaginative challenges—each one a “problem” designed to confound, amuse, and showcase their cleverness. From the unforgettable “Giraffe Problem”—in which each member must devise a scheme to make a woman say, “You ought to have been a giraffe”—to other equally ludicrous puzzles, Pain’s sharp humor and dry British charm shine through. Narrated with elegance and flair by Mike Polischuk, this audiobook is a perfect escape for lovers of clever banter, satirical storytelling, and tales that celebrate the absurd."

Barry Pain (Author), Mike Polischuk (Narrator)

Audiobook

The problem Club

"This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice. A whimsical gathering of Edwardian gentlemen meets regularly in a smoke-filled club room, not to debate politics or play cards, but to pose strange, cerebral, and delightfully absurd challenges—“problems” designed to amuse, bewilder, and provoke. This is The Problem Club, a unique society where wit reigns supreme, conversation is king, and no intellectual detour is too trivial or too odd. Written by Barry Pain with his signature dry humor and keen eye for social satire, this collection of tales chronicles the bizarre problems posed by the club’s eccentric members—from hypothetical giraffes in drawing rooms to paradoxical kissing dilemmas. Each episode is a celebration of logic twisted into delightful nonsense, where smug certainty often gives way to hilarious collapse. With its warm wit, refined charm, and brilliant parody of upper-class pretensions, The Problem Club offers listeners a nostalgic escape into a world where intellect meets absurdity in the most gentlemanly fashion. Perfect for fans of P. G. Wodehouse, Jerome K. Jerome, and lovers of clever, conversational storytelling."

Barry Pain (Author), Digital Voice Andrew E (Narrator)

Audiobook

Short Stories About Trickery & Deception

"Tales of manipulation, broken promises and tests of faith. As a general rule we are a trusting lot. You say something and, whilst I might disagree, I believe you are acting in good faith. Of course this may be just the beginning of a ruse. If I trust you I might let down my guard, I might seek to share and to create a bond between us. But, if you can’t be trusted, if you have an ulterior motive I might lose out. In the hands of authors such as Maxim Gorky, Ella D’Arcy, Rudyard Kipling, Ivan Turgenev and may others reality may not be what it quite seems. 1 - Short Stories About Trickery & Deception - An Introduction2 - The Man Who Would Be King - Part 1 by Rudyard Kipling3 - The Man Who Would Be King - Part 2 by Rudyard Kipling4 - Chelkash - Part 1 by Maxim Gorky5 - Chelkash - Part 2 by Maxim Gorky6 - Chelkash - Part 3 by Maxim Gorky7 - Souls Belated by Edith Wharton8 - The She-Wolf by Saki9 - Jeff Peters as a Personal Magnet by O Henry10 - The Wooing of Pastor Cummings by Georgia F Stewart11 - Mrs Packletide's Tiger by Saki12 - As the Crow Flies by John Davys Beresford13 - The Rats in the Walls by H P Lovecraft14 - The District Doctor by Ivan Turgenev15 - Irremediable by Ella D'Arcy16 - The Connoisseur by Perceval Gibbon17 - The Kiss by Kate Chopin18 - The Hired Baby, A Romance of the London Streets by Mary Mackay writing as Marie Corelli19 - The Open Window by Saki20 - Revenge by Samuel Blas21 - Cheating The Gallows by Israel Zangwill22 - Putois by Anatole France23 - Post Mortem by Barry Pain"

Anatole France, Barry Pain, Edith Wharton, Ella D'Arcy, Georgia F Stewart, H.P. Lovecraft, Israel Zangwill, Ivan Turgenev, John Davys Beresford, Kate Chopin, Mary Mackay Writing As Marie Corelli, Maxim Gorky, O Henry, Perceval Gibbon, Rudyard Kipling, Saki, Samuel Blas (Author), Mark Rice-Oxley, Richard Mitchley, Warren Keyes (Narrator)

Audiobook

3 Stories - Madness in Diaries

"There is something about the number 3. The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two. Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these more modern times, three’s a crowd may be too many, except when it’s a ménage à trois. It seems good things usually come in threes.Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore themes and literary avenues that classic authors were so adept at creating.From their pens to your your ears.01 - 3 Stories - Madness in a Diary02 - Diary of a Lunatic by Leo Tolstoy03 - The Diary of a God by Barry Pain04 - Diary of a Madman by Nikolai Gogol"

Barry Pain, Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Gogol (Author), Richard Mitchley (Narrator)

Audiobook

Lessons from Literature - Stories About the Dangers of Greed

"Being curious, learning from all of our experiences, is one of our most pleasing traits as human beings. In this series we examine particular facets of ourselves and, with the aid of many classic authors, delve into characters and stories that not only entertain us, but inform us on how short stories can help us both deal and understand issues that touch and weave into our lives with the words and narratives of many wise talents.In this volume greed and ambition are our classic authors guides to characters and narratives that turn hunger into want and excess. Enough for us is never enough for them. And whether its money, love, or any other asset they want to accrue, these stories illustrate the true cost of such behaviour. 01 - Lessons From Literature - Stories About the Dangers of Greed - An Introduction2 - How Much Land Does A Man Need by Leo Tolstoy3 - The Rocking Horse Winner by D H Lawrence4 - The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant5 - A Pair of Silk Stockings by Kate Chopin6 - The Lottery Ticket by Anton Chekhov7 - The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin8 - The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde9 - Transformation by Mary Shelley10 - Oil of Dog by Ambrose Bierce11 - The Monkey's Paw by W W Jacobs12 - The Green Light by Barry Pain13 - The General's Will by Vera Jelihovsky14 - Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov15 - Chelkash by Maxim Gorky"

Alexander Pushkin, Ambrose Bierce, Anton Chekhov, Barry Pain, D.H. Lawrence, Guy De Maupassant, Kate Chopin, Leo Tolstoy, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Maxim Gorky, Oscar Wilde, Vera Jelihovsky, W W Jacobs (Author), David Shaw-Parker, Elliot Fitzpatrick, Richard Mitchley (Narrator)

Audiobook

Lessons from Literature - Stories Dealing with Death and Loss

"Being curious, learning from all of our experiences, is one of our most pleasing traits as human beings. In this series we examine particular facets of ourselves and, with the aid of many classic authors, delve into characters and stories that not only entertain us, but inform us on how short stories can help us both deal and understand issues that touch and weave into our lives with the words and narratives of many wise talents.In this volume our literary friends offer their talents and stories to help us deal, and perhaps reconcile, our feelings of loss with the reality that the world moves on and we must too, however painful that process may seem and even become. 01 - Lessons From Literature - Stories Dealing with Death and Loss - An Introduction2 - Where Love Is, God Is by Leo Tolstoy3 - A Dead Woman’s Secret by Guy de Maupassant4 - Mary Postgate by Rudyard Kipling5 - The Altar of the Dead by Henry James6 - The Mourner by Mary Shelley7 - Misery by Anton Chekhov8 - War by Luigi Pirandello9 - The Casualty List by Winifred Holtby10 - The Border Line by D H Lawrence11 - A Complete Recovery by Barry Pain12 - An Unexpected Reunion by Johann Hebel13 - Them Others by Stacy Aumonier14 - After the Funeral by Mary Butts15 - The Dark Cottage by Mary Cholmondeley16 - The Furnished Room by O Henry17 - The Canary by Katherine Mansfield18 - The Striding Place by Gertrude Atherton19 - Since I Died by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps20 - Silence by Leonid Nikolaevich Andreyev21 - The Vendetta by Guy de Maupassant22 - The General's Will by Vera Jelihovsky23 - The Man Who Hated God by Winifred Holtby"

Anton Chekhov, Barry Pain, D.H. Lawrence, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Gertrude Atherton, Guy De Maupassant, Henry James, Johann Hebel, Katherine Mansfield, Leo Tolstoy, Leonid Nikolaevich Andreyev, Luigi Pirandello, Mary Butts, Mary Cholmondeley, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, O Henry, Rudyard Kipling, Stacy Aumonier, Vera Jelihovsky, Winifred Holtby (Author), Eric Meyers, Richard Mitchley, Robert Maskell (Narrator)

Audiobook

Psychological Stories

"What we have in front of us here in this volume is a simple premise but an author’s words may say one thing and mean another. With talents such as E T A Hoffman, Katherine Mansfield, Willa Cather, Mikhail Bulgakov and many others our minds are under almost permanent assault with words, characters and narratives that pursue us to the end. 1 - Psychological Stories - An Introduction2 - The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Fyodor Dostovesky3 - Psychology by Katherine Mansfield4 - Diary of a Madman by Nikolai Gogol5 - The Yellow Wall Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman6 - The Bet by Anton Chekhov7 - The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe8 - A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka9 - A Respectable Woman by Kate Chopin10 - The Other Woman by Sherwood Anderson11 - Morphine by Mikhail Bulgakov12 - Paul's Case by Willa Cather13 - Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne14 - The Diary of a God by Barry Pain15 - Seeds by Sherwood Anderson16 - Was It An Illusion. A Parson's Story by Amelia Edwards17 - In The Dark by Edith Nesbit18 - The Cold Embrace by Mary Elizabeth Braddon19 - The Mines of Falun - Part 1 by E T A Hoffman20 - The Mines of Falun - Part 2 by E T A Hoffman21 - Shut Out by F Anstey22 - Hands by Sherwood Anderson23 - The Fly by Katherine Mansfield24 - Bobok by Fyodor Dostoyevsky"

Amelia B. Edwards, Anton Chekhov, Barry Pain, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, E T A Hoffman, Edgar Allan Poe, Edith Nesbit, F Anstey, Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostovesky, Kate Chopin, Katherine Mansfield, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Mikhail Bulgakov, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Nikolai Gogol, Sherwood Anderson, Willa Cather (Author), Bill Wallis, Liza Ross, Richard Mitchley (Narrator)

Audiobook

Dear Diary - A Short Story Collection

"The diary is that most intimate of journals, of records. Within its pages the writer records and gives expression to their thoughts, their feelings, their emotional state on all the things that make up and surround them in this world. For most people the diary is a way to record the milestones of life; a birthday, a new love, the passing of someone as well as the minutiae of everyday life that seems worth passing into written memory. It may be a daily task, or an occasional flurry of words whenever it's deemed necessary yet, apart from politicians and celebrities, these pages are never really shared. The truth they hold is personal to the writer, and others are not privy to its contents. With authors of the calibre of Bulgakov, Woolf, Tolstoy, Twain and many others this volume explores characters who lives seemed dominated by these diaries, and the events that unfold are both compelling and literary journeys into the very personal and intimate side of their characters' lives. 1 - Dear Diary - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 2 - Diary of a Lunatic by Leo Tolstoy 3 - The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 4 - The Diary of a God by Barry Pain 5 - Eve's Diary by Mark Twain 6 - Morphine by Mikhail Bulgakov 7 - The Horror of the Heights by Arthur Conan Doyle 8 - The Legacy by Virginia Woolf 9 - Diary of a Madman by Nikolai Gogol 10 - The Horla by Guy De Maupassant"

Barry Pain, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Guy De Maupassant, Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Mikhail Bulgakov, Nikolai Gogol, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Virginia Woolf (Author), Ian Holm, Liza Ross, Richard Mitchley (Narrator)

Audiobook

Inside the Mind of Madness

"To have logic, to reason things out, to have a sense of what is and isn't and what can and can't is one of the traits we identify with being human. Sad to say that sometimes there are some amongst us who lose touch with this function, are unable to bring order and control to their world. That is not only a tragedy for themselves but can also have horrific consequences on those around them. Our wordsmiths in this volume, including Leo Tolstoy, Anatole France, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Barry Pain and others explore and exploit their stories and characters in a quest to share and shape our view and experience of what it may be like inside the Mind of Madness."

Anatole France, Barry Pain, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Edgar Allan Poe, Leo Tolstoy, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Nikolai Gogol, Radclyffe Hall, Vsevolod Garshin (Author), Bill Wallis, Richard Mitchley, Vincent Marzello (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Media - A Short Story Collection

"The Modern Age is one of information overload. Bombarded, surrounded, and battered by facts, figures, opinions and seemingly whatever else comes out of anyone's head from all directions at all hours of the day and night. It's exhausting. However, in this volume we go back a little way to when social media was an actual chat on the street corner or a dinner party, when breaking news was tomorrow's newspaper or something momentous when a TV or radio programme could be interrupted with the outbreak of war or the death of a leader or sovereign. In the pens of such luminaries as Henry James, E M Delafield, C E Montague, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and many others we connect with old fashioned media from publishing and advertising to telegrams and radio and everything in between in ways that are surprising, enlightening but always entertaining. 1 - The Media - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 2 - The Death of the Lion - Part 1 by Henry James 3 - The Death of the Lion - Part 2 by Henry James 4 - The Voice of God by Winifred Holtby 5 - Home Life Relayed by E M Delafield 6 - His Wife's Deceased Sister by Frank R Stockton 7 - Over the Wires by H D Everett 8 - The Night Wire by W F Arnold 9 - The Millionaire's Telegram by Barry Pain 10 - Mutiny by Dorothy Edwards 11 - The Eidoloscope by Robert Duncan Milne 12 - The Cloud-Men by Owen Oliver 13 - Why Herbert Killed His Mother by Winifred Holtby 14 - Looking at the Classics by E M Delafield 15 - Making a Living by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 16 - Two or Three Witnesses by C E Montague"

Barry Pain, C E Montague, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Dorothy Edwards, E M Delafield, Frank R Stockton, H D Everett, Henry James, Owen Oliver, Robert Duncan Milne, W F Arnold, Winifred Holtby (Author), Eric Roberts, Richard Mitchley, Robert Maskell (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Top 10 Short Stories - English Murder

"Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author's brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted 'Top Tens' across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions - Why that story? Why that author? The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. In this volume the pens of our English authors examine murder. This dark and evil deed is carried out with many motives. Our authors, including G K Chesterton, A M Burrage, Amelia Edwards, Algernon Blackwood and many others are those charged with revealing each and every crime scene. 1 - The Top 10 Short Stories - The English Murder - An Introduction 2 - Father Brown - The Blue Cross by G K Chesterton 3 - In The Dark by Edith Nesbit 4 - The Hounds of Fate by Saki 5 - Cheating The Gallows by Israel Zangwill 6 - The Acquittal by A M Burrage 7 - The Kit Bag by Algernon Blackwood 8 - The Three Sisters by W W Jacobs 9 - August Heat by W F Harvey 10 - The Green Light by Barry Pain 11 - No 5 Branch Line. The Engineer by Amelia Edwards"

A.M. Burrage, Algernon Blackwood, Amelia B. Edwards, Barry Pain, Edith Nesbit, G K Chesterton, Israel Zangwill, Saki, W F Harvey, W W Jacobs (Author), Bill Wallis, Mark Rice-Oxley, Patrick Barlow (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Top 10 Short Stories - Unreliable Narrator

"Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author's brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted 'Top Tens' across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions - Why that story? Why that author? The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. In this volume our authors play games. Their talents are undoubted, but their intentions are to lead us astray, maybe to confuse or place many a red herring in our path. With the undoubted talents of Robert W Chambers, J M Barrie, Nikolai Gogol, George Eliot amongst those telling the truth short stories may never be the same. 1 - The Top 10 Short Stories - Unreliable Narrator - An Introduction 2 - The Lifted Veil - Part 1 by George Eliot 3 - The Lifted Veil - Part 2 by George Eliot 4 - The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe 5 - The Horla by Guy De Maupassant 6 - Diary of a Madman by Nikolai Gogol 7 - The Yellow Wall Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 8 - The Diary of a God by Barry Pain 9 - An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce 10 - The Inconsiderate Waiter by J M Barrie 11 - In A Grove by Ry?nosuke Akutagawa 12 - The Repairer of Reputations Part 1 by Robert W Chambers 13 - The Repairer of Reputations Part 2 by Robert W Chambers"

Ambrose Bierce, Barry Pain, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Edgar Allan Poe, George Eliot, Guy De Maupassant, J. M. Barrie, Nikolai Gogol, Robert W Chambers, Ry?nosuke Akutagawa (Author), Ian Holm, Liza Ross, Richard Mitchley (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks by Barry Pain

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