Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts: A Book of Stories
Enriched edition. Intricate plots and captivating narratives from a master storytellerBy Arthur Quiller-Couch
Length7h
About this audiobook
In "Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts: A Book of Stories," Arthur Quiller-Couch weaves a tapestry of supernatural tales rich with British folklore and the psychological undercurrents of human emotion. The collection showcases Quiller-Couch's lyrical prose and his deft blending of realism with the inexplicable, inviting readers into a world where the ordinary intertwines with the extraordinary. Each story evokes a sense of nostalgia, exploring themes of memory, loss, and the echoes of the past, all set against the backdrop of the English countryside's haunting beauty. Arthur Quiller-Couch, a prominent figure in early 20th-century literature and critic, was deeply influenced by his love for the English literary tradition and folklore. His experiences growing up in Cornwall, steeped in local legends and a rich oral storytelling culture, significantly shaped his narrative style. Quiller-Couch's academic background, particularly at Cambridge, coupled with his affiliation with the early modern literary movement, equipped him with a profound understanding of the nuances of literature, enabling him to craft narratives that resonate with timeless relevance. This collection is a must-read for those intrigued by the ghostly and the psychologically complex. Readers will find themselves enthralled by Quiller-Couch's ability to evoke deep emotion through surreal encounters. "Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts" serves as a rich source of both entertainment and reflection, offering insights into the human condition cloaked in the mystique of spectral storytelling.
In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience:
- A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions.
- A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation.
- A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists.
- A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths.
- Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts.
- Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★ 3.4 (31)
Includes Goodreads
GenreHorror, General Fiction
Length7 hrs
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateNov 29, 2019
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
9THE SINGULAR ADVENTURE OF A SMALL FREE-TRADER
2Introduction
10PRISONERS OF WAR
3Historical Context
11THE LADY OF THE RED ADMIRALS
4Synopsis (Selection)
12ELISHA
5Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts: A Book of Stories
13Analysis
Show all chaptersShow less
6PREFACE
14Reflection
7A PAIR OF HANDS
15Memorable Quotes
8FROZEN MARGIT
On the Art of Writing (Annotated)Arthur Quiller-Couch6h 52m3.9 (116)$2 · $0.00
Shakespeare's Christmas and Other Stories (Annotated)Arthur Quiller-Couch8h 23m3.4 (16)$2 · $0.00
Corporal Sam and Other StoriesArthur Quiller-Couch6h 25m$2 · $0.00
Adventures in CriticismArthur Quiller-Couch7h 43m$1 · $0.00
Nicky-Nan, ReservistArthur Quiller-Couch7h 22m$2 · $0.00
The Laird's Luck and Other Fireside TalesArthur Quiller-Couch6h 25m$1 · $0.00
Hetty WesleyArthur Quiller-Couch9h 23m4.1 (10)$1 · $0.00
The Adventures of Harry RevelArthur Quiller-Couch7h 28m$2 · $0.00
Major VigoureuxArthur Quiller-Couch8h 56m$2 · $0.00
On the Art of WritingArthur Quiller-Couch7h 47m$2 · $0.00
On The Art of ReadingArthur Quiller-Couch6h 37m3.9 (189)$2 · $0.00
Dead Man's RockArthur Quiller-Couch9h 42m3.4 (18)$2 · $0.00
Sir John ConstantineArthur Quiller-Couch11h 36m$2 · $0.00
The Mayor of TroyArthur Quiller-Couch7h 12m3.5 (49)$2 · $0.00
The Astonishing History of Troy TownArthur Quiller-Couch5h 43m3.3 (39)$2 · $0.00
Shining FerryArthur Quiller-Couch7h 13m3.6 (56)$1 · $0.00
On the Art of WritingArthur Quiller-Couch7h 51m4.0 (387)$1 · $0.00
Green Bays. Verses and ParodiesArthur Quiller-Couch50m$1 · $0.00
Corporal Sam and Other StoriesArthur Quiller-Couch6h 25m$2 · $0.00
Glacier's EdgeR. A. Salvatore13h 44m4.5 (3.4K)$33 · $0.00
Good OmensNeil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett12h 33m4.4 (1.1M)$33 · $0.00
Dark of NightJonathan Maberry, Rachael Lavin4h 59m4.4 (3.8K)$20 · $0.00
The Renegade HunterLynsay Sands10h 7m4.4 (17.3K)$29 · $0.00
Lost GodsBrom14h 50m4.4 (18.5K)$33 · $0.00
The AccusedJana DeLeon6h 32m4.4 (3.9K)$12 · $0.00
Corpus HermeticumHermes Trismegistus3h 43m4.4 (8.6K)$7 · $0.00
LambChristopher Moore15h 22m4.3 (211.3K)$33 · $0.00
CARMILLA (Gothic Classic) (Annotated)Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu4h 2m4.4 (1K)$1.99 · $0.00
The ExorcistWilliam Peter Blatty12h 52m4.3 (285.9K)$8 · $0.00
Lost ValleyWalt Browning7h 47m4.3 (5.4K)$20 · $0.00
Twice TemptedJeaniene Frost8h 17m4.3 (54.8K)$26 · $0.00
1984George Orwell12h 18m4.3 (6M)$25 · $0.00
The Best Tales of Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe5h 19m4.4 (2.2K)$1 · $0.00
Hollywood DeadRichard Kadrey9h 22m4.3 (5.5K)$29 · $0.00
Frankenstein (The Uncensored 1818 Edition) (Annotated)Mary Shelley9h 25m4.3 (1.7M)$3 · $0.00
The Collected Ghost StoriesM. R. James18h 30m4.3 (12.1K)$2 · $0.00
Jane Eyre (Annotated)Charlotte Brontë22h 44m4.2 (2.4M)$2 · $0.00
The Chance of a Lifetime (Musaicum Romance Classics)Grace Livingston Hill8h 27m4.3 (862)$1 · $0.00
Heat 2Michael Mann, Meg Gardiner18h 39m4.3 (20.9K)$40 · $0.00
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver21h 3m4.5 (949.4K)$46 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$29 · $0.00
Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m4.6 (2.6K)$18 · $0.00
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)Ernest Hemingway4h 27m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
White HotIlona Andrews13h 18m4.5 (136.9K)$5 · $0.00
The Ghost by the Billabong (The Matilda Saga, #5)Jackie French14h 58m4.6 (773)$33 · $0.00
Cast in BloodMichelle Sagara16h 35m4.6 (607)$33 · $0.00
The Captain Blood Trilogy (Annotated)Rafael Sabatini29h 20m4.6 (1K)$3 · $0.00
Ship of the Line (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith11h 13m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The George Orwell CollectionGeorge Orwell24h 46m4.5 (14.4K)$12 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 38m4.5 (9.2K)$2 · $0.00
Driving ForceElle James4h 58m4.6 (407)$20 · $0.00
When God Calls the HeartBrian Bird, Michelle Cox3h 24m4.6 (439)$10 · $0.00
Five Little IndiansMichelle Good10h 34m4.5 (64.5K)$29 · $0.00
Lolth's WarriorR. A. Salvatore13h 20m4.6 (2.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Things We Cannot SayKelly Rimmer13h 48m4.5 (359.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du BoisHonoree Fanonne Jeffers29h 49m4.5 (58K)$8 · $0.00
Going PostalTerry Pratchett11h 23m4.5 (189.9K)$29 · $0.00
You may also like
Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street & Other StoriesVirginia Woolf2h 6m3.8 (1.3K)$15
Collected Short StoriesVirginia Woolf5h 47m4.1 (7.3K)$2.30
LeviathanThomas Hobbes22h3.9 (111.3K)$1 · $0.00
Faces in the CrowdValeria Luiselli5h 3m3.7 (9.1K)$14 · $0.00
A Hounted House, and other Short Stories (Annotated)Virginia Woolf4h 35m3.9 (5.8K)$2 · $0.00
Poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William WordsworthSamuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth22h 10m4.1 (16.7K)$1 · $0.00
Evidence of the AfterlifeJeffrey Long, Paul Perry5h 22m4.2 (7.4K)$24 · $0.00
The Law of Psychic Phenomena (Annotated)Thomson Jay Hudson13h 59m4.2 (1.7K)$2.99 · $0.00
The Complete Poetry of Emily BrontëEmily Brontë7h 11m4.3 (4.2K)$1 · $0.00
HauntingsVernon Lee5h 40m4.0 (1.3K)$2 · $0.00
The Ghost SequencesA. C. Wise12h 17m4.1 (853)$23
Sea ChangeJ.M. Snyder19m3.7 (1.3K)$1 · $0.00
Religio Medici (Annotated)Thomas Browne5h 16m4.0 (4.9K)$2 · $0.00
HereafterTara Hudson9h 44m3.8 (17.9K)$29 · $0.00
Spoon River AnthologyEdgar Lee Masters3h 20m4.1 (40.2K)$2.30
Human Immortality: Two Supposed Objections to the DoctrineWilliam James2h 47m4.3 (47)$1 · $0.00
The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence (Annotated)Robert Burns, Allan Cunningham12h 14m4.3 (184)$1.99 · $0.00
Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death (Annotated)F. W. H. Myers17h 58m4.1 (245)$1.99 · $0.00
The Necessity of AtheismPercy Bysshe Shelley48m3.9 (636)$0.60 · $0.00
The Complete Prose Works: Literary Essays, Lectures and Letters (Unabridged Illustrated Edition)Samuel Taylor Coleridge127h 59m4.4 (11)$1 · $0.00