The Artwork at the end is Brilliant, and Yes, ~Bollox to 'Em!! We love your Bletherings!!❤

What you say about narrated more archaic language stories being more accessible is absolutely true. There is something about hearing it spoken that allows meaning to be more easily gleaned. (I've always said the same about Shakespeare, the language was much harder to understand when reading at school, whereas see it performed and it suddenly all makes sense). I've tried a couple of times over the last 40 years to read Dracula and never made it out of Transylvania. (All the 'extract form ... diary' bit annoyed me too) But I finally got to 'read' the whole story when I listened to your narration. Incidentally, it's very odd but I've always struggled with talking books. I'm a 'frequent flyer' at the library and a pretty fast reader. and whenever I've had to get the taking book CD version out of something because they don't have a print copy in the local area I've always found it frustratingly slow. It's like when I read a book the story goes into my head 'at 45rpm' whereas listening to it is 'at 33rpm'. I find it difficult to read books out loud because my eyes read too fast for my mouth to say the words. Yet I have never found that at all with listening to any of your narrations. The pacing seems just right. I suspect it's because these are older books with much more elaborate language than used nowadays? So maybe my brain slows down to match the pace to take it all in better. Whatever the reason, I find your narration easy and a pleasure to listen to. (And I like the 'bletherings', it's always interesting to hear someone else's take on what they thought was going on in a story). .

Lovely Thumbnail Tony. Utterly striking. I love the symmetry. ❤️ A trwisted path of the toungue this one, so adeptly, and eloquently navigated. Must save the rest for later 😥, but I haven't picked up sticks for 2 weeks. Practice practice! Needs must. New cymbals must be worn in. 🥁

I don't even know the story, but yay!! It's a new reading by Tony!! I have been listening to you all day today, trying to hide my mind from The States political atmosphere. 🙄 I can't get over how talented you are. Also, I love listening to you talk afterwards; I find it all interesting. You're like an old friend. There's a story behind that sentence. I guess it's too personal to tell, but I had a best friend from Wales with a very "posh" voice that I loved. I believe she came by it naturally, kind of like I don't sound so deep South. I just don't sound very Southern without trying not to sound like I'm from North Carolina. Anyway, I love to listen to your different dialects and accents, all the many you can do, but your everyday voice is really very nice too. Whether you do different voices or not, doesn't matter to me! I'm here for it, no matter what. I wish you the best on this very grey, rainy, English like afternoon. It's perfect for a story read by you!

@debbicox2776

4 ай бұрын

I'm from Nebraska. And your right I have to take my mind elsewhere. Since I'm a Born again Christen. Would think I would go to God's word which I do. I like back in the 1800's ghost stories. I liked how they wrote.

@debbicox2776

4 ай бұрын

But I don't care for Dracula stories.

@susanmercurio1060

4 ай бұрын

I feel the same way about Tony as you do. And I used to have a deep South accent but I lost it when I moved to California in 1968.

@susanmercurio1060

4 ай бұрын

P.S. I know, the American political scene is gruesome.

@myladythekingsmother

4 ай бұрын

This was fabulous!! Thank you for digging up older stories❤

You knocked that one out of the park. I like the old fashioned phrasing.

Oh, my, this one was marvelous! I have no erudite comments, but I became obsessed with the idea that the beautiful woman in the artwork was about to open bloody eyes. Usually I just listen, but I stared transfixed at my screen for long moments today. It's hilarious to me that you can read this chilling tale and blithely stroll out to walk your dogs. Lovely! God bless you.

Excellent. I enjoy the stories of course, but I really also like the additional information about the authors, historic context and so on that you offer with them. Thanks for what you do.

Thank you, Tony. I have never heard this tale.

I get a lot of my housework done listening to Tony. Your a pleasure to listen to.

Gripping, vivid narration, Tony, Love the "Blatterings" also this time around. Masterful, as always Thank you.

Thank you so much for your hard work!!❤ Much appreciated by both me and Jasper!! He's hoping that you will mention him again,😅,Lol! Bless the hairy little tyke, ~ he doesn't quite understand that you are talking about your own Jasper!! I'm not going to tell him, aa long as you don't!! Because when he heard you say "Jasper is a good boy" , he was absolutely delighted!! Okay, I shall listen now!!😊 Namasté 🙏🕊️🕊️🕊️ Andréa and Critters. ...XxX...

@ClassicGhost

4 ай бұрын

Jasper is a good boy xxx

@AndreaDingbatt

4 ай бұрын

​@@ClassicGhostAww, Thank you!! ☺️ He's patiently listening and waiting for your chat at the end, which we both enjoy!! ~That's where he heard you talking about your own Pups!! And now thinks he's Famous!!😅 We both hope that you get better soon!! You know the usual things will help, ~plenty of fluids,, rest,, and possibly paracetamol//Ibuprofen//aspirin,, Honey and Lemon juice, ~even a little medicated Hot Toddy!! Keep up your strength with chicken soup! Vitamin C and fresh air!! And,~ Yes,Jasper is a Very Good Boy!!🙂❤ Namasté 🙏🕊️🕊️🕊️ Andréa and Jasper. ..XxX...

What a delightfully dark story! I'd never heard of it, thank you for bringing to us! Also I love your after story chat don't ever stop! :-)

This is another ⭐🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 Narration!! Your choice of story is fantastic!!🌟🌟🌟🌟⭐💫!! Thank you very much again!( I'm trying to keep this Short for you!!) 😎👍👍 ❤ Andréa and Jasper. ..XxX...

excellent!

How wonderful, i love vampire stories, thank you Tony 💙 hope you're well 🙏

@AndreaDingbatt

4 ай бұрын

❤ Fully Agree 💯 with both sentiments!!❤😊 Namasté 🙏🕊️ Andréa and Jasper. ...XxX...

@ClassicGhost

4 ай бұрын

I have a rotten cold but in my soul I am well

@lyndabrennan4560

4 ай бұрын

@@ClassicGhost may I suggest, honey and lemon, and a hot water bottle sweetie, get better soon 😰💙

Thank-you for posting and encouraging us all to read widely.

Wonderful! Love your after-story rambles almost best of all. You give me new avenues to explore and I appreciate that.

This story is FANTASTIC!!!!!

Oh, wow. Thank you Tony! I only ever read in German. What a treasure to hear you narrate this old story. Edit: stay in your lane? Not always. An evasive maneuver, outside your lane will at times save your life. I say to plan in the moves outside of that lane.

Great story. Thanks for sharing. I would like to add that the thing that bugged me most about the protagonist is towards the end, when he met the sorcerer the second time, he went on and on about how his evil wife was out to get him, etc. etc. While he carried on about, "Woe is me," he didn't seem to care about his servants and their children, or even, to an extent, his own children. Selfish to the end was he. Also, you briefly mentioned The Fall of the House of Usher. As I recall, the house itself was moved, stone by stone from Europe. Poe was from that era not long after the Revolution and the rejection of all things British was still rampant. (I am a Brit-o-file - just putting that out there) Anyway, Poe seems to be telling us about a rotten element from across the pond, has seeped out onto the landscape, stagnated, and finally sunk into the mire. He was from Boston which was in the thick of revolutionary activities and I think Poe is suggesting the Fall of the House of Usher was as it should be. Sunk in the muck. I could have dreamed this thought up and could be wrong. Have a nice day!

@ClassicGhost

4 ай бұрын

Very interesting information and view on House of Usher. I didn’t know that !

@evelanpatton

4 ай бұрын

Really interesting bit of webbing from [y]our history. Thank you. 😊

@garybernstein3527

4 ай бұрын

of course Poe is born long after the time of the American Revolution

Wow! I was potting up seedlings and the time flew by! I’d never read the story but the Opera is now a must. Thank you so much!

Don’t mess with Mother Nature - or - be careful what you wish for. Truly enjoyed this.

We just had a beautiful sunset in California after so much good rain, and now a new lengthy Classic Ghost Story, releasing in time for my pre-sleep cat rituals. What's that? My cat rituals? If you must know, after i get in bed, my kitty will make me get up 2 or 3 times to stand by her as she eats. She is an ex street kitty with anxiety. I swear I'm not pampering her. She is a fragile soul, damaged in her youth, and i can relate. We both have people anxiety. Thank you, Tony for all your hard work, and best wishes for 2024 to everyone reading this. ❤😻

@fionacorbett9536

4 ай бұрын

❤

@thurayya8905

4 ай бұрын

That's very good of you, letting her know that you won't let anyone attack her while she eats or take away her food.

I certainly enjoyed this story!

Cheers and thank you for another lovely recording!

Very engrossing and enjoyable for a Saturday morning. Thanks!

I needed this for today's moody weather. Appreciate it, bubba.

Fabulous. I haven't read this one before and I love listening to you reading these tales; it is my guilty pleasure. I never enjoyed audiobooks in the past, but now it is lovely to play as I am busy with stuff. I'm also interested in your 'blether' too.

@ClassicGhost

4 ай бұрын

Glad you like them!

Tony, loved the story! As I was listening you explain things at the end of the story, I was so impressed at how extensive your knowledge is on gothic authors and literature! Hearing you rattle off all those authors and saying that it started in the 1700s, which I had on idea it started that early, was really impressive! Your accents are so good, from German to Russian and French! I feel like I got such an interesting history lesson from you and I just love history and learning more about how this genre all started! You are so smart and interesting! Thank you for all that you do!

@ClassicGhost

4 ай бұрын

Thanks for encouraging me !

@sugarfalls1

4 ай бұрын

@@ClassicGhost You're a gem and I appreciate what you do on your channel so much!

Thank you for the new reading! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Excellent! A vampire story I’ve never heard of before. I must say though that I have never heard of many of the stories you read. Another brilliant Tony Walker narration

lol bollocks to them indeed! TY Tony

@AndreaDingbatt

4 ай бұрын

❤😎👍👍

I can't wait to watch this after work! Yes!! 🎉

Thanks Tony, Wonderful presentation and interesting talk. Compelling graphics, even at a glance. I would love to hear any collaboration you do with Jonathan Sharpe. 🎧

As usual I enjoyed the story and your discussion afterwards, though I disagree with your point that Walter was sorry for what he‘d done when he begged his second wife to come back. He wasn‘t sorry - he just wanted company. I don‘t think he had an unselfish bone in his body and when he was crushed to death, I felt a great sense of relief! But I really loved the story - thank you.

Thoroughly enjoyed this, thank you!

Great story and fascinating characters! I'd never heard the name Swanhilda before.

Excellent job! You really have a way with the German names. The art was outstanding, too!

Brilliant story excellently told. Thank you. Enjoyed the afterchatter.

This tale came before Dracula! 74 years before in fact. Certainly had some influence on Stoker. Made me remember a quote from a video game: "Sometimes, you got to let it go..." Edit: I made a mistake regarding the time space between the works. I wrote 76 years originally in my comment. Dracula came in '97 and Wake Not came in '23.

Boy, this one was over the top with ALL the things that distinguish your channel from others! You are always going the extra mile. I’m sorry to hear you are with a cold. I find it’s a bit natural to forget the extra hat & scarf when our puppy needs to quickly venture outside- so a plug for woolen hats, scarfs & sweaters! Also, extra Zinc & VitC seem to help me keep the ear/sinus infections from repeating. I’m trying to be less wordy or too familiar these days, but I still want to show support & help your algorithm. Thanks again for this BRILLIANT VAMPIRE HISTORY! Health & Wellness, PNW 🪭

Absolute magnificence.

@ClassicGhost

3 ай бұрын

ty ty

Wow! Reminded me of the Innominato by W. Sullivan, really enjoyed this

Wake not the dead indeed. Not my usual style of story. But I really enjoyed it. There was a true sense of tension in the narrative. I knew something would go wrong. I expected her to be raised but still decayed. I was wrong this was so much better.

Thank you Tony for your explanation of the story.I enjoy your blather after .lol.Hope all's going ok with you and your family.

Truly horrifying! Excellent Tony. 👏👏

@ClassicGhost

3 ай бұрын

Thanks for listening

This story is awesome. Yes, what a moral. You’re last comment at the end of the “ramble” really made me LOL 😂. I’d be disappointed, if you didn’t do it 😊

Tony no disrespect to all your previous stories but, this is the 1st story that truly felt like it was scary! On a different note isn't it interesting how time can change society's views on a subject? If this story was made today instead of horror it would be a romance. Instead of fearing the dead audiences would search them out.

A couple of your remarks at the end was slightly misleading in regard to the Shelley and Byron group near Lake Geneva in Switzerland, who had a kind of contest to see who could write the best horror story. At the time Mary called herself Mary Shelley but she could not in fact legally be the wife of Percy Shelly while he was still married to another woman, Harriet Shelley, who killed herself in late 1816 sometime after Mary had begun writing Frankenstein. Mary and Percy were married almost immediately after that, more than a year before the publication of Frankenstein. The notes that Lord Byron made for his story, which was a vampire story, well in fact eventually published but he did not get very far with his outline. John Polidori began a different horror story which he eventually finished and published, and only sometime later wrote his famous novella The Vampyre. There was considerable confusion when this was published, because the magazine in which it was published indicated it had been written by Lord Byron, which was inaccurate-- except that some sources state that Byron's brief notes for a vampire story was the basis for Polidori's novella. If you read Lord Byron's notes and Polidori's story however it is difficult to see any resemblance. someone else adopted the vampires a stage play it was a tremendous success. someone else turn the novella into a novel and it was a tremendous success. I think there may have been several different versions. I expect with a lack of copyright protection in those days, it is difficult to tell if Polidrori benefited from the successes financially In some paperback anthologies I read, I believe the 1960s wake me at the dead was published not only attributed to the wrong author's name but in one case I believe mentioned that it had a different title God grant that she lies still which is also the title of a much later unrelated Story by Cynthia Asquith about a witch who comes back from the dead. I have not been able to find the paper back Anthology with the other title to verify my memory. A couple of your remarks at the end was slightly misleading in regard to the Shelley and Byron group near Lake Geneva in Switzerland, who had a kind of contest to see who could write the best horror story. At the time Mary called herself Mary Shelley but she could not in fact legally be the wife of Percy Shelly while he was still married to another woman, Harriet Shelley, who killed herself in late 1816 sometime after Mary had begun writing Frankenstein. Mary and Percy were married almost immediately after that, more than a year before the publication of Frankenstein. The notes that Lord Byron made for his story, which was a vampire story, well in fact eventually published but he did not get very far with his outline. John Polidori began a different horror story which he eventually finished and published, and only sometime later wrote his famous novella The Vampyre. There was considerable confusion when this was published, because the magazine in which it was published indicated it had been written by Lord Byron, which was inaccurate-- except that some sources state that Byron's brief notes for a vampire story was the basis for Polidori's novella. If you read Lord Byron's notes and Polidori's story however it is difficult to see any resemblance. someone else adopted the vampires a stage play it was a tremendous success. someone else turn the novella into a novel and it was a tremendous success. I think there may have been several different versions. I expect with a lack of copyright protection in those days, it is difficult to tell if Polidrori benefited from the successes financially In some paperback anthologies I read, I believe the 1960s wake me at the dead was published not only attributed to the wrong author's name but in one case I believe mentioned that it had a different title God grant that she lies still which is also the title of a much later unrelated Story by Cynthia Asquith about a witch who comes back from the dead. I have not been able to find the paper back Anthology with the other title to verify my memory.

The artwork combined with the horrible story to make a delicious story which left me shuddering.

YOU ARE A FANTASTIC NARRATOR❤

@ClassicGhost

4 ай бұрын

Thank you! 😊

I deeply enjoy your comments about the story it's history and your own views. when you start to ramble a little I seem to enjoy that a lot too which is contrary to expectations . I was a little disappointed to see you did not have comments after your reading of Dracula or Turn of the Screw. I felt regular Dracula well when I first read it in 1959. A few years later I started trying to return to the school and had a great deal of trouble with it although I'd read other Henry James and liked them. a month or so ago I finally finished reading turn of the screw straight through and well I enjoyed it I find many things in it puzzlings I believe I am supposed to

@ClassicGhost

4 ай бұрын

I think those two were too long and i was tuckered out

Great story with very interesting, descriptive language. “Don’t know what you got til it’s gone” seems to be this husband’s problem. Poor Schwannhilde was competing with a ghost who was enshrined in her husband’s mind, so she could never compare, as she was a mere mortal woman instead of a mind worm.

That one kept me enraptured from start to end!!!

Good evening friends. Hope all are well.

Obsession, is a cruel master.

Enjoyed this one very much.

@ClassicGhost

24 күн бұрын

+@Josephinejefferies I’m very pleased that you did

Just kicking up a dust of words.

Walt, Buddy. Ya gotta read the fine print. Even the used corspe dealer was trying to talk you out of it.

I really have no idea about who the brunette on the dark steed is. I first thought of the Morrighan because of the raven, but I have never heard of her associated with snakes. I think the dark woman is some personification of vengence. You're right about there being nothing Christian in this, except in an Old Testament-y way. There is no saving from his sins through repentance. He is just killed without warning. It sounds to me as though Raupach needed an ending, so he slapped on one that is suitably evil. There is no flow or cyclical balance at all.

I was surprised that it became pretty easy to get past the language after listening for a bit.

I think you enjoyed reading this one :) Your narration is masterly!

Always a classic! Love the image as well, anyone know where to find the artist?

@ClassicGhost

4 ай бұрын

it looks like jugendstil

The Black Vampyre a legend of Santo Domingo was published in America in 1817 . This means that the constantly republished statement that The Vampyre by John Polidori in 1919 is the first prose vampire story published in English is incorrect.

To be absolutely fair to the protagonist, Brunhilda was an ice queen b*tch while alive, but the whole schtick of blood drinking and murder was something she did after coming back from the dead. There was no way of knowing beforehand that she had developed a new hobby. General warnings don't really cover it.

Odd it's only on Gutenberg Australia and not the main site because it qualifies as public domain in the US as well.

@ClassicGhost

4 ай бұрын

That's where I found it. I stopped looking when I did so it might be on the main site

16 and a half minutes in and I'm suddenly getting 'Monkey's Paw' vibes...

@lisap.1826

4 ай бұрын

I thought of the 🐒 Paw as well 😊

note headed later. a different source tells me that the Black vampyre was published in 1819 not at the earlier date I was first told . that would be the same year that palladori story was first published The Black Vampyre a legend of Santo Domingo was published in America in 1817 . This means that the constantly republished statement that The Vampyre by John Polidori in 1919 is the first prose vampire story published in English is incorrect. NOTE added shortly later. Another source gives the date of publication is the date of publication of the black vampire as 1919 what you making the same year as Polidori's story. apparently the black vampire the black vampires is a story didn't involve humor although I have not read the story myself but only a description. of it

you should sell your work. i would like to purchase your podcast.

@ClassicGhost

3 ай бұрын

+@Fan-uj2pi You don’t have to. You can have it for free here. But if you sign up as a patreon you get access to my library and you can download all the stories ad free