Narrated Archives

In this episode we're sharing  "The Mark on the Wall" by Virginia Woolf. 

It is not a story of grand plots or sweeping action. Instead, is an intimate journey which tracks the fluid, wandering thoughts of a narrator sitting by a fire, transfixed by a mysterious dark mark on the wall just above the mantelpiece. Have you ever found your thoughts wandering so far you can barely trace them back to where you started.  List...

From the classic compilation Mysteries of the Missing—first serialized in 1924 by crime journalist Edward H. Smith—we bring you the strange and heartbreaking tale of Jimmy Glass. 

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Today we’re diving into a true story involving pirates and a Scottish teenage girl named Charlotte Honeyman as written in the 1901 book True Stories of Girl Heroines by Evelyn Everett-Green.

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Thanks for listening!  Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast provider. SUBSCRIBE for at least 2 Bonus Episodes each month.

Send requests for authors or short stories to: s...

Today, we step back into the year 1913, turning the pages of Ernest Thompson Seton’s seminal masterpiece, Wild Animals at Home. 

• Forward - by the author 
• The Cute Coyote - A look at a creature Seton felt was profoundly misjudged 
• The Canada Lynx - Into the open plains and the deep, snow-laden northern forests, we encounter a phantom of a completely different nature 
• The Mole-Gopher (aka the Upheaver) -&nbs...

We're stepping straight into the smoky, sharp-witted world of early 1930s crime detection.

We are sharing a collection of fast-paced brainteasers from H.A. Ripley’s legendary 1932 book, Minute Mysteries. These short puzzles—originally called "detectograms"—challenged readers to act as the detective, using pure logic to solve crimes in under sixty seconds.

This episode includes:

• A Crack Shot
• Fatal Error
• The Poison M...

In this episode, we’re diving into the psychological and atmospheric worlds of Alfred Coppel, a master of mid-century speculative fiction. 

First, we travel to the lunar surface in 'First Man on the Moon', originally published in a 1950 issue of Planet Stories. But this isn't a story of triumphant exploration; it is a dark, gripping look at an obsession so blinding that it leads to murder. 

Then, we shift our gaze to ...

Today, we’re setting sail into the deep, unpredictable waters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We have curated three maritime short stories centered around the wonders of ocean life.

As always we begin with a biographical look at our authors.

Our voyage begins with an unusual encounter in the waters around Bermuda in 'Gregory and the Scuttle', penned by the renowned American naturalist Charles Haskins Townsend. 

F...

In this episode we're diving into the brilliant, sharp, and deeply observant world of Alice Ruth Moore—perhaps better known by her later married name, Alice Dunbar-Nelson.

• Biography of Alice Ruth Moore
• The Woman - a piece highlighting her early feminist perspectives.
• Ten Minute Musing - brief, introspective thoughts while watching boys on a playground.
• Anarchy Alley - a walk through a vibrant, atmospheric street of ...

Step back into the bustling, competitive literary world of 19th-century London with this double-feature reading from Washington Irving's classic collection, Tales of a Traveller. Through the sharp, witty chapters "Literary Life" and "A Literary Dinner," Irving pulls back the curtain on the old publishing scene to reveal how companies used to wine and dine authors to win their favors. We also kick off the episode with a beautiful, v...

This is final chapter of our journey through Sinclair Lewis’s sharp, satirical short story, Things. We are narrating the final two parts: Seven and Eight. 

If you missed the build-up to this finale, jump back to our last episode to catch Theo Duke’s story from the beginning before diving into the conclusion.

When we last left Theo, her quiet desperation was turning into an all-consuming resentment. Today, the twin bu...

This 2nd of a 3 part series of episodes continues Sinclair Lewis’s story “Things”.

Today, the weight of societal expectations and material objects deepen in parts Four, Five, and Six, As Lewis peels back the layers of societal expectation, we witness Theo's quiet desperation turn into resentment and determination.

If you missed the start, go back to our last episode to catch up before diving into this one. 

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In this episode we begin a special three-part journey into the sharp, brilliant mind of Sinclair Lewis—the first American author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before he shook the literary world with his grand novels, Lewis penned a quieter, deeply piercing masterpiece for The Saturday Evening Post in 1919. Simply titled "Things," this atmospheric story explores a timeless truth: what happens to the human heart when th...

We chose today's piece, "A Message from the Flood", purely for its gripping narrative. But as we dug into the archival history, we uncovered a thrilling twist.

When this story was first published in Chambers’s Journal, it was completely anonymous. For nearly a century, readers had no clue who wrote it. But thanks to modern literary detectives digging through dusty, 19th-century publisher payment ledgers, the mystery was solved...

Today, we are listening to one of Henry Cuyler Bunner's most famous satirical sketches, first published in his 1891 collection Short Sixes: "The Nice People." Set in a summer boarding house perched on Orange Mountain, this story explores what happens when a polite, seemingly perfect young couple arrives and turns a group of small-town gossips completely upside down. It is a clever, funny look at societal expectations, conformity, a...

In our last regular episode, we explored Guy de Maupassant’s famous masterpiece, “The Necklace”.  We witnessed Mathilde Loisel spend ten years in grueling poverty to replace a piece of costume jewelry she believed was real.

Today, we dive into a fascinating companion piece by the very same author. This short story is called “The False Gems”. It acts as a brilliant, mirrored reflection to “The...

This episode holds  a story that has become a universal cautionary tale about vanity, class, and the crushing weight of a single mistake. Published in 1884, 'The Necklace' is perhaps the most famous work by the master of the short story, Guy de Maupassant. It follows Mathilde Loisel, a woman consumed by a longing for a life of luxury she believes she deserves, only to have her world shattered by one glittering evening.

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Today, we are cracking open a specific piece of literary history. We’re looking at two tales that were hand-picked over a century ago for the classroom in the 1921 collection, Modern Short Stories: A Book for High Schools.

This influential volume was edited by Frederick Houk Law, Ph.D., a scholar who believed that short fiction should not just entertain, but challenge the reader to think deeply about human nature. The two stor...

Today, in this bonus episode we’re exploring the work of C.A. Mercer. 

In this story, we follow a man returning to his childhood home after twenty years away. He expects to find the sprawling, majestic domain of his youth; instead, he finds a garden that has grown "dreary and desolate," past its prime and its paths narrowed by neglect.

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 Today, we unseal a file from Perceval Gibbon, a man who saw the world from the deck of a merchant ship and the frontlines of war. Gibbon was a master of the 'ironic twist,' and today’s story is a masterclass in the high cost of human desperation. It’s a tale where the currency isn't just gold, but morality and survival.

In 'A Deal in Exchange,' we see that exact mastery on display—a farcical, tense journey of...