Back of the Bookshelf
by C.J. Carter-Stephenson
**A monthly podcast of classic short stories narrated by author, C.J. Carter-Stephenson, with music by Kevin MacLeod and immersive sound effects.**Journey back to a time of horse-drawn carriages and fantastical inventions... the fiction of yesterday brought vividly to life by the technology of today.
Episodes
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Season 2, Episode 9 - The Adventure of Prince Florizel and a Detective
The city of Paris has captured the imagination of many writers over the years, so it was perhaps inevitable that we would end up journeying back there for another of our adaptations. This one is The Adventure of Prince Florizel and a Detective by Robert Louis Stevenson, originally published in...
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Season 2, Episode 8 - Circumstantial Evidence
It's time to fire up the Back of the Bookshelf time machine for another trip back into the literary past. Our story this time is an Edgar Wallace mystery called Circumstantial Evidence, which was originally published in 1929 along with seven of his other works in a collection called…
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Season 2, Episode 7 - Beyond Lies the Wub
Over the years, we at Back of the Bookshelf have carried our listeners to countries far and wide, to dizzying heights in the sky and deep underground, but we have never taken them beyond the bounds of the planet… until now. That's right, in this seventh episode of our second season, we'll be...
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Season 2, Episode 6 - The Torture by Hope
It's becoming a Back of the Bookshelf tradition that we release a horror themed episode on Halloween and 2022 is no exception. This time we've gone with a little known French story called La Torture Par L'Espérance (The Torture by Hope) by Villiers de L'Isle Adam. The story was originally…
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Season 2, Episode 5 - A Drama in the Air
It's taken a lot longer than we intended - for which we humbly apologise - but episode 5 of our second season is finally ready. It's another aeronautical adventure, this time from the pen of the great Jules Verne. It was first published in August 1851 under the title La Science En Famille. Un...
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Season 2, Episode 4 -The Fir Tree
Festive Greetings, You are cordially invited to join us for a sleigh ride back into the past courtesy of the Christmas episode of our second season. It's our version of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Fir Tree, which was originally published in 1844 in New Fairy Tales, Volume One,...
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Season 2, Episode 3 - In the Court of the Dragon
Halloween is here – that wonderful time of year when trick-or-treaters in colourful costumes roam the streets… along with other less wholesome things. In honour of the occasion, the third episode of our second season is a horror story by Robert W. Chambers. It's called In the Court of the Dragon...
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Season 2, Episode 2 - Gods of the North
Sword and sorcery fans should enjoy this second episode of our second season, Gods of the North (also known as The Frost Giant's Daughter and other similar titles). It's a tale of savage warriors and mystical beings by Robert E. Howard, a true pioneer of the genre, in whose fertile imagination…
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Season 2, Episode 1 - When the World Screamed
Greetings listeners. After a long hiatus, Back of the Bookshelf has returned for its second season with more classic fiction from yesteryear. If you thrill at the clatter of carriage wheels on the road, yearn for astounding adventures in space, then you won't be disappointed (we hope). Kicking...
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Episode 12 - How An Old Man Lost His Wen
Welcome one and all to episode 12 of Back of the Bookshelf, the final episode of our opening season. That's right, everyone, this little podcast of ours has made it to the end of its first year of content and is still going strong. We've uncovered some true literary gems on the journey and we'd...
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Episode 11 - The Mortal Immortal: A Tale
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be immortal? Well in our eleventh episode we provide an answer, courtesy of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's The Mortal Immortal: A Tale. Commissioned in 1833 for literary annual, The Keepsake, the story tells of a man who ceases to age when he drinks…
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Episode 10 - The Liverpool Mystery
After a short hiatus, we're back with our tenth episode. It's a mystery this time in the tradition of the Sherlock Holmes and Hercules Poirot stories and was written by Baroness Emma Orczy of Scarlet Pimpernel fame. It's called The Liverpool Mystery, and as the title suggests, is set in the…
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Episode 9 - A Strange Christmas Game
Some people say Christmas is over-commercialised, but for us, it never loses its sheen, so for our ninth episode, released at midnight on 25th December 2018, we have embraced the tradition of the Christmas ghost story. The story we've chosen is A Strange Christmas Game by Charlotte Riddell, which...
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Episode 8 - The Legend of Sir Dinar
Don your armour and saddle your horse, because in episode eight we're journeying back to the age of chivalry courtesy of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch's classic Arthurian fantasy, The Legend of Sir Dinar. The story was originally published in The Speaker in 1891 under Quiller-Couch's pseudonym of Q.…
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Episode 7 - The Higher Life
In honour of Halloween, our seventh episode is a ghost story by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Braddon is remembered chiefly for her sensation novel, Lady Audley's Secret, a true classic of the genre, but left behind a considerable body of other work which is equally worthy of attention, as this story...
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Episode 6 - The Cone
Few people have had a bigger impact on science fiction than the great H.G. Wells, who is our episode 6 author. His contributions to the genre are regularly adapted for stage and screen, and his debut novella The Time Machine is widely regarded as one of the best ever written. His other work is…
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Episode 5 - A Masked Ball
In this episode we return to 19th century Paris for Alexandre Dumas' A Masked Ball, which was originally published in 1833 in Scènes du Beau Monde. Dumas is loved the world over for his novels, which include classics like The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo and The Man in the Iron…
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Episode 4 - The White Cat Of Drumgunniol
Here at Back of the Bookshelf, we love a good ghost story, so for this week's episode we are giving you exactly that, courtesy of J. Sheridan Le Fanu, a true master of the genre. Le Fanu is most famous for his classic vampire novel, 'Carmilla', but in line with our mission statement, the story we...
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Episode 3 - Into the Sun
In episode three of the Back of the Bookshelf podcast, we whisk you away to 19th century San Francisco in Robert Duncan Milne's apocalyptic science fiction story, Into the Sun. Milne is a true Back of the Bookshelf author, whose work appeared primarily in local newspapers and magazines, so would...
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Episode 2 - The Jewels
Episode two of the Back of the Bookshelf podcast, featuring a Guy de Maupassant story called The Jewels. As you might expect from the title, it's thematically similar to Maupassant's more famous The Necklace, but is arguably superior with its multifaceted approach. The characters and situations…
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Episode 1 - The Disintegration Machine
Inaugural episode of the Back of the Bookshelf podcast, featuring a story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle is best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, but here he writes about another memorable character, Professor Challenger, in a thrilling science fiction adventure. The story is narrated…
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About this show
**A monthly podcast of classic short stories narrated by author, C.J. Carter-Stephenson, with music by Kevin MacLeod and immersive sound effects.**Journey back to a time of horse-drawn carriages and fantastical inventions... the fiction of yesterday brought vividly to life by the technology of today.
Hosted by
C.J. Carter-Stephenson