Audiobooks narrated by William Dufris

The Awakening & more: A Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramatisation

"A full-cast adaptation of America’s most influential 19th century feminist writer - plus a bonus selection of short stories. Best known for her narratives about the inner lives of sensitive, daring women, Kate Chopin is a vital American author of short stories and novels. She is considered by scholars to have been a forerunner of American 20th century feminist authors, paving the way for the likes of Zelda Fitzgerald. Best known for her 1899 novel The Awakening, Chopin shocked the readers of her day by showing a woman fulfilled by throwing off the ties of marriage and children. The Awakening, brought to life by a full cast in this adaptation, is Kate Chopin's seminal tale of one woman's pursuit of moral and sexual freedom in turn-of-the-century New Orleans. Unsatisfied with societal expectations, Edna Pontellier falls in love with the dapper Robert Lebrun. Lebrun's flirtations rejuvenate Edna's sense of freedom and independence. However, Edna also has a taste of the danger that comes from living outside of social convention. Trapped between the life she is expected to live and the one she longs to lead, Edna is propelled on a course that frees, consumes and eventually destroys her. Starring Briony Glassco, William Dufris and Lorelei King. This stunning collection also contains five of Chopin’s short stories, exquisitely read by Carolyn Pickles and Claire Corbett, and available together here for the first time. ‘Ma'ame Pelagie’ is the portrait of a woman on a plantation adjusting to life after the American Civil War. In ‘A Respectable Woman’, Mrs Baroda, the wife of a sugar planter, finds herself confused and ambivalent when an old friend of her husband’s comes to stay in this cleverly observed story. In ‘The Story of an Hour’, some supposedly bad news leaves a woman feeling strangely free. But has there been a mistake? ‘The Kiss’ is the story of a woman scheming to marry a wealthy man and maintain a young lover. Finally, in 'A Pair of Silk Stockings', a woman spends a windfall on herself, instead of her children – but what are the consequences… This is the perfect immersive listen for any fan of classic storytelling with a twist. Discover an author whose work has echoed down the centuries and inspired writers for generations. ©2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd"

Kate Chopin (Author), Briony Glassco, Carolyn Pickles, Clare Corbett, Full Cast, Lorelei King, William Dufris (Narrator)

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Trapped - Figuratively or Literally Short Stories

"In this volume we explore that difficult situation where lack of choice is your only choice. We feel trapped either by the body or by the mind. Our classic authors put their characters in positions that we can all relate too, and then devise fiendish and uncomfortable ways to deepen the malaise or perhaps offer some sort of escape, however temporary.1 - Trapped Literally & Figuratively - An Introduction2 - The Pit and The Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe3 - In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka4 - In a Far Country by Jack London5 - La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac6 - The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe7 - The Iron Shroud by William Mudford8 - Parker Adderson, Philosopher by Ambrose Bierce9 - The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe10 - One Summer Night by Ambrose Bierce11 - The Awful Fate of Melpomenus Jones by Stephen Leacock12 - The End of a Show by Barry Pain13 - The Fall of the House of Usher - Part 1 by Edgar Allan Poe14 - The Fall of the House of Usher - Part 2 by Edgar Allan Poe15 - The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin16 - The Legacy by Virginia Woolf17 - Life of Ma Parker by Katherine Mansfield18 - Transients in Arcadia by O Henry19 - Hands by Sherwood Anderson20 - The Yellow Wall Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman21 - The Canary by Katherine Mansfield22 - The Storm by Kate Chopin"

Edgar Allan Poe (Author), William Dufris (Narrator)

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3 Stories - Without Character Names

"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 - Stories Without Character Names02 - In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka03 - The Lady, or the Tiger by Frank Stockton04 - The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe"

Edgar Allan Poe, Frank R Stockton, Franz Kafka (Author), Laurel Lefkow, Richard Mitchley, William Dufris (Narrator)

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3 Stories - Set During Pandemics

"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 - Set During Pandemics02 - The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe03 - The Dust of Death by Fred M White04 - The Unparallelled Invasion by Jack London"

Edgar Allan Poe, Fred M White, Jack London (Author), Christopher Ragland, David Shaw-Parker, William Dufris (Narrator)

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3 Stories - Dark Romanticism

E T A Hoffman, Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving (Author), Christopher Ragland, Elliot Fitzpatrick, William Dufris (Narrator)

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Stories Involving Animal Cruelty

"Our best loved friends may not even be human but animals of the moggy and mutt variety. Many of us wax lyrical about our friends in the animal world no matter the distractions available in the real and rather more demanding world of partners, children, parents and friends. So often then that when the media brings news of appalling tragedies across the globe the distress of cruelty to animals seems to gather more immediate attention. In this volume our literary wordsmiths turn their attention to tales that make our hearts wince and our emotions bleed. 1 - Stories About Cruelty to Animals - An Introduction2 - The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe3 - The Squaw by Bram Stoker4 - The Cats of Ulthar by H P Lovecraft5 - The Ankardyne Pew by W F Harvey6 - A Dark Brown Dog by Stephen Crane7 - Strychnine for Village Dogs by Arthur Gask"

Arthur Gask, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen Crane, W F Harvey (Author), Elliot Fitzpatrick, Ghizela Rowe, William Dufris (Narrator)

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Stories Exploring the Fear of Death

"That moment in time will come. It will be the end of this life and one of three things will happen. Nothing, Heaven or Hell. Somehow, for most people, the odds don’t look so good on laying back in Paradise for eternity. And we may be there alone or with people we never really liked or―or most probably, we don’t really have any coherent idea at all. Just the fear that the end is nigh.Our literary friends including Edgar Allan Poe, Leo Tolstoy, Mary Shelley and others probably mean well but their job here is to tackle fear head on and we may well end up not getting the answer we first thought of. 1 - Stories Exploring the Fear of Death - An Introduction2 - The Premature Burial by Edgar Allan Poe3 - The Coffin Maker by Alexander Pushkin4 - The Cobweb by Saki5 - Diary of a Lunatic by Leo Tolstoy6 - Cool Air by H P Lovecraft7 - The Mortal Immortal by Mary Shelley8 - The Sphinx by Edgar Allan Poe9 - The Dream by O Henry10 - The Looking Glass by Anton Chekhov11 - The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe"

Alexander Pushkin, Anton Chekhov, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Leo Tolstoy, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, O Henry, Saki (Author), Bill Wallis, Patrick Barlow, William Dufris (Narrator)

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Lessons from Literature - Stories Exploring the Relationship Between Human and Animal

"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 two legged and large brained authors examine just how we and animals co-exist with a mutual dependency on one another. Often these stories will show the finer aspects of our interactions although, of course, humanity often shows a crueller streak.01 - Lessons From Literature - Stories Exploring the Relationship Between Human and Animal - An Introduction2 - To Build a Fire by Jack London3 - A Passion in the Desert by Honore De Balzac4 - Federigos Falcon by Giovanni Boccaccio5 - Mumu by Ivan Turgenev6 - Esme by Saki7 - A Dark Brown Dog by Stephen Crane8 - The Canary by Katherine Mansfield9 - A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett10 - How I Killed a Bear by Charles Dudley Warner11 - The White Silence by Jack London12 - Running Wolf by Algernon Blackwood"

Algernon Blackwood, Charles Dudley Warner, Giovanni Boccaccio, Honore de Balzac, Ivan Turgenev, Jack London, Katherine Mansfield, Saki, Sarah Orne Jewett, Stephen Crane (Author), David Shaw-Parker, Richard Mitchley, William Dufris (Narrator)

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13 Unlucky Tales of Edgar Allan Poe

"Edgar Poe was born in Boston Massachusetts on 19th January 1809. His father abandoned his family the following year and within a year his mother had died leaving him an orphan. He was taken in by the Allan family but never formally adopted although he now referred to himself as Edgar Allan Poe. His father alternatively spoiled or chastised him and tension was frequent over gambling debts and monies for his education. His university years to study ancient and modern languages was cut short by lack of money and he enlisted as a private in the army claiming he was 22, it is more probable he was 18. After 2 years he obtained a discharge in order to take up an appointment at the military academy, West Point, where he failed to become an officer.Poe had released his 1st poetry volume in 1827 and after his 3rd turned to prose and placing short stories in several magazines and journals. At age 26 he obtained a licence to marry his cousin. She was a mere 13 but they stayed together until her death from tuberculosis 11 years after.In January 1845 ‘The Raven’ was published and became an instant classic. Thereafter followed the prose works for which he is now so rightly famed as a master of the mysterious and the macabre.Edgar Allan Poe died at the tragically early age of 40 on 7th October 1849 in Baltimore, Maryland. Newspapers at the time reported Poe's death as ‘congestion of the brain’ or ‘cerebral inflammation’, common euphemisms for death from disreputable causes such as alcoholism but the actual cause of death remains a mystery.1 - 13 Unlucky Tales of Edgar Allan Poe - An Introduction2 - The Fall of the House of Usher - Part 1 by Edgar Allan Poe3 - The Fall of the House of Usher - Part 2 by Edgar Allan Poe4 - The Facts In The Case of Monsieur Valdemar by Edgar Allan Poe5 - Elenora by Edgar Allan Poe6 - Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe7 - The Cask of Amontillardo by Edgar Allan Poe8 - The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe9 - Hop Frog by Edgar Allan Poe10 - William Wilson by Edgar Allan Poe11 - The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe12 - The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe13 - The Premature Burial by Edgar Allan Poe14 - The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe15 - The Murders in the Rue Morgue - Part 1 by Edgar Allan Poe16 - The Murders in the Rue Morgue - Part 2 by Edgar Allan Poe"

Edgar Allan Poe (Author), Bill Wallis, Eric Meyers, William Dufris (Narrator)

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Haunted House Stories – The Definitive Collection

"The Haunted House is a house that rules our minds with fear. Once we think a house is haunted we prove the point to ourselves again and again. Every floorboard creak or window rattle or unexplained happening is proof concrete.In this anthology our authors go to exceptional lengths to unsettle our minds and open them up to all sorts of terrors. 1 - Haunted House - The Definitive Collection - An Introduction2 - The Lurking Fear - Part 1 by H P Lovecraft3 - The Lurking Fear - Part 2 by H P Lovecraft4 - They by Rudyard Kipling5 - The Canterville Ghost - Part 1 by Oscar Wilde6 - The Canterville Ghost - Part 2 by Oscar Wilde7 - Carnacki, The Ghost Finder - No 1 - The Gateway of the Monster by William Hope Hodgson8 - The Ghost in the Clock Room by Hesba Stretton9 - The Ghost and the Bone-Setter by Sheridan Le Fanu10 - The Ghost at the Wrath by Rosa Mulholland11 - The Fall of the House of Usher - Part 1 by Edgar Allan Poe12 - The Fall of the House of Usher - Part 2 by Edgar Allan Poe13 - The House of the Black Evil by Eric Purves14 - The Villa by Elinor Mordaunt15 - The Empty House by Algernon Blackwood16 - The Deserted House by E T A Hoffman17 - Midnight House by W F Harvey18 - The Story of the Green House, Wallington by Allen Upward19 - The Judge's House by Bram Stoker20 - The Open Door - Part 1 by Margaret Oliphant21 - The Open Door - Part 2 by Margaret Oliphant22 - The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott23 - The Room in the Tower by E F Benson24 - The Clock by W F Harvey 25 - The Closed Window by A C Benson26 - The Shadows on the Wall by Mary E Wilkins Freeman27 - The Rats in the Walls by H P Lovecraft28 - The Whispering Wall by H D Everett29 - The Yellow Wall Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman30 - Lost Hearts by M R James31 - Man Size in Marble by Edith Nesbit32 - An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street by Sheridan Le Fanu33 - To Let by B M Croker34 - The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth by Rhoda Broughton35 - The First Evening by Catherine Crowe36 - Smee by A M Burrage37 - What Was It by Fitz James O'Brien38 - Decay by Marjorie Bowen39 - The Ankardyne Pew by W F Harvey40 - The Ebony Frame by Edith Nesbit41 - The Spectre of Tappington by Richard Harris Barham42 - The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell43 - The Last of Squire Ennismore by Charlotte Riddell44 - The Haunted and the Haunters; or, The House and the Brain - Part 1 by Edward Bulwer Lytton45 - The Haunted and the Haunters; or, The House and the Brain - Part 2 by Edward Bulwer Lytton"

A C Benson, A.M. Burrage, Algernon Blackwood, Allen Upward, B M Croker, Bram Stoker, Catherine Crowe, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Charlotte Riddell, E F Benson, E T A Hoffman, Edgar Allan Poe, Edith Nesbit, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Elinor Mordaunt, Elizabeth Gaskell, Eric Purves, Fitz James O'Brien, H D Everett, H.P. Lovecraft, Hesba Stretton, M.R. James, Margaret Oliphant, Marjorie Bowen, Mary E Wilkins Freeman, Oscar Wilde, Rhoda Broughton, Richard Harris Barham, Rosa Mulholland, Rudyard Kipling, Sheridan Le Fanu, W F Harvey, Walter Scott, William Hope Hodgson (Author), Elliot Fitzpatrick, Richard Mitchley, William Dufris (Narrator)

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A Rhyme A Dozen - 12 Poets, 12 Poems, 1 Topic ? Art

"'A dime a dozen' as known in America, is perhaps equal to the English 'cheap as chips' but whatever the lingua franca of your choice in this series we hereby submit 'A Rhyme a Dozen' as 12 poems on many given subjects that are a well-rounded gathering, maybe even an essential guide, from the knowing pens of classic poets and their beautifully spoken verse to the comfort of your ears. 1 - A Rhyme A Dozen - 12 Poems, 12 Poets, 1 Topic - Art - An Introduction 2 - An Art Critic by Ambrose Bierce 3 - Art and Heart by Ella Wheeler Wilcox 4 - Colors by Stephen Vincent Benet 5 - Jade by Edith Wharton 6 - My Last Duchess by Robert Browning 7 - On Mr Alcock of Bristol, an Excellent Miniature Painter by Thomas Chatterton 8 - On Seeing the Elgin Marbles For the First Time by John Keats 9 - Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley 10 - Rome - Building a New Street in the Ancient Quarter, April 1887 by Thomas Hardy 11 - Sonnet 13 - Summer Fruit by Rainer Maria Rilke 12 - Written Under a Portrait of Keats by John Boyle O'Reily 13 - Portrait d'une Femme by Ezra Pound"

Ambrose Bierce, Edith Wharton, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Ezra Pound, John Boyle O'reily, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert Browning, Stephen Vincent Benet, Thomas Chatterton, Thomas Hardy (Author), Christopher Ragland, Ghizela Rowe, William Dufris (Narrator)

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Born in the USA - Exploring America in Poems - The Mid-West Poets

"Poetry. A form of words that seems so elegantly simple in one verse and so cleverly complex in another. Each poet has a particular style, an individual and unique way with words and yet each of us seems to recognise the path and destination of where the verses lead, even if sometimes the full comprehension may be a little beyond us. Through the centuries every culture has produced verse to symbolize and to describe everything from everyday life, natural wonders, the human condition and even in its more hubristic moments, the crushing triumph of an enemy. In the volumes of this series we take a look through the prism of individual regions of the United States through the centuries and decades. The United States may be many things: the world's policeman, a bully, a shameless purveyor of mass market culture but it also, in its better moments, a standard bearer for truth, transparency, equality and the more positive qualities of democracy. Little wonder that's its poets are rightly acknowledged as wonders of their art. Leading lights in the fight against slavery and for equality, even if the rest of the Nation is finding it problematic to catch up. In this volume we have collected verse from poets born in the Mid-West. This huge and mythic landscape that stretches from Chicago and the Great Lakes to the deserts of Texas contains a wealth of poets that could summon theme and words to describe and reveal both nature and humanity in sprawling yet intimate detail. Among their number are Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Vachel Lindsay, Alice Corbin and Ambrose Bierce, brilliant wordsmiths one and all."

Alice Cary, Ambrose Bierce, Clara Ann Thompson, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Eugene Field, Henrietta Cordelia Ray, James Riley, Mark Twain, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Priscilla Jane Thompson, Vachal Lindsay (Author), Darrell Joe, Jamal West, William Dufris (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by William Dufris