Audio only
Length7h 4m
About this audiobook
'A fascinating retelling of the ancient story cycle of the Baitâl Pachchisi ... Penick is an unusual and extraordinary scholar.' -- Namita Gokhale, from the Introduction
'These ancient fables skim the surface of characters and places, blurring into one another as they accumulate a repetition of lustful monarchs, forlorn princesses, handsome Brahmins, ambitious merchants and all-powerful deities who appear when summoned by the ultimate sacrifices.' -- Kanishk Tharoor, The Washington Post
Young King Vikramaditya is tasked with transporting a Vetala (corpse-spirit) that hangs from a tree in an abandoned cemetery. Vikramaditya cuts down the corpse, throws it over his shoulder and starts the return journey. On the way, the Vetala tells him twenty-five stories, each ending in a question that Vikramaditya must answer, or else endure unimaginable pain. But when the king answers the question, the Vetala is transported back to the tree and the task begins all over again.
This imaginative retelling by Douglas J. Penick not only narrates the stories that the Vetala tells the king but also gives the Vetala's origin story, as well as a satisfying conclusion to the overarching storyline. It takes us to the core of the stories, bringing out their humour, horror and vitality in vivid and colourful detail. These are tales of passion, valour and love, as well as deceit, cunning and cruelty.
With an introduction by Namita Gokhale that explains the ancient Indian antecedents to these stories that date back to sometime around the first century BCE, Vikram and Vetala: A Transformative Retelling is a treat for fans of gothic and horror fiction.
Audiobook details
GenreFairy Tales and Folklore, Children's Literature, General Fiction
Length7 hrs 4 mins
Narrated bySunit Tandon
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateMay 16, 2026
LanguageEnglish
No Woman Left BehindJulie Moffett8h 49m$25 · $0.00
The Undead PoolKim Harrison16h 13m$33 · $0.00
The Complete Works of George MacDonald (Illustrated Edition)George MacDonald587h 3m$1 · $0.00
The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers GrimmBrothers Grimm33h 30m$47 · $0.00
Joy in the MorningP. G. Wodehouse6h 57m$17
TILL WE HAVE FACES (Cupid & Psyche – The Story Behind the Myth)C. S. Lewis9h 51m$1 · $0.00
Grimm's Fairy TalesThe Brothers Grimm28h 44m$30
Grimms' Fairy TalesJacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm9h 46m$2 · $0.00
Solomon vs. LordPaul Levine12h 3m$23
Further Tales of the CityArmistead Maupin8h 10m$26 · $0.00
Norse MythologyNeil Gaiman6h 30m$24 · $0.00
A Christmas CarolCharles Dickens3h 9m$3 · $0.00
Bambi: A Life In The WoodsFelix Salten4h 43m$2.30
The Wonder ClockHoward Pyle, Katharine Pyle8h 16m$1 · $0.00
The Palace of IllusionsChitra Banerjee Divakaruni12h 21m$23
The Family InheritanceTricia Stringer12h 14m$29 · $0.00
The Good Wife of BathKaren Brooks19h 48m$40 · $0.00
The Wonder Clock, Or, Twenty Four Marvellous TalesHoward Pyle7h 26m$2.30
Mary JaneJessica Anya Blau9h 45m$29 · $0.00
The Funny Thing About Norman ForemanJulietta Henderson9h 11m$29 · $0.00
The Elementia Chronicles #3: Herobrine's MessageSean Fay Wolfe19h 18m$40 · $0.00
Trapped in a Video Game: The Complete SeriesDustin Brady13h 27m$23
Big Nate Blasts OffLincoln Peirce2h 4m$16 · $0.00
Because My Destiny AwaitsCorwin McGinnis2h 40m$15
The Andrew Lang Fairy Books: Complete CollectionAndrew Lang133h 39m$2 · $0.00
A Wolf Called FireRosanne Parry4h 7m$7 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman3h 2m1 (1)$18 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal7h 25m$24 · $0.00
Warriors #6: The Darkest HourErin Hunter8h 8m$26 · $0.00
L. M. Montgomery – Premium Collection: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry & MemoirsLucy Maud Montgomery155h 49m$2 · $0.00
Eyes That Kiss in the CornersJoanna Ho5m$4 · $0.00
Maddi's FridgeLois Brandt, Vin Vogel11m$5 · $0.00
The First Cat in Space and the Wrath of the PaperclipMac Barnett1h 29m$16 · $0.00
Tales of Beatrix PotterBeatrix Potter3h 12m$12 · $0.00
Little Lord Fauntleroy (Annotated)Frances Hodgson Burnett7h 56m$2 · $0.00
My Weird School Special: We're Red, Weird, and Blue! What Can We Do?Dan Gutman1h 4m$13 · $0.00
Deep ZoneTim Green6h 12m$20
REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM & NEW CHRONICLES OF REBECCA (Children's Book Classics) (Annotated)Kate Douglas Wiggin15h 32m$2 · $0.00
The Pilgrim’s ProgressRousseaux Brasseur3h 22m$17
The Labors of Hercules BealGary D. Schmidt8h 17m$8 · $0.00
Ethic IIAshley Antoinette9h 1m$20
RiversnowTess Thompson8h 11m$20
Supreme ClienteleAshley & JaQuavis8h 58m$20
Body Refinement in a Beast Tamer’s World, Book 1Seth Ring14h 7m$27
EmberJeffrey Wilson, Brian Andrews13h 58m$23
The Complete Works of Jane Austen (Unabridged)Jane Austen88h 8m5 (1)$1 · $0.00
Desperate MeasuresBrenda Jackson8h 59m5 (1)$28 · $0.00
Searching For ThanksgivingS.E. Smith4h 24m$20
Naughty 4Brenda Hampton7h 30m$17
The Dance with Me TrilogyShelley Shepard Gray21h 44m$35
Anne Shirley (Complete 14 Book Collection)Lucy Maud Montgomery125h 28m$2 · $0.00
The DopemanJaQuavis Coleman5h 25m$20
Sherlock Holmes: The Ultimate CollectionArthur Conan Doyle59h 49m$5 · $0.00
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.4 (11)$29 · $0.00
Grand Opening 2Carl Weber9h 16m$20
Sons of Valor II: Violence of ActionBrian Andrews, Jeffrey Wilson12h 34m$23
Malevolent MagicMildred Abbott7h 13m$17
Bikes, Toys, and Hot BoyzGenesis Woods, Shantaé13h 9m$23
War LordBernard Cornwell13h 21m$33 · $0.00
Ghetto BastardK’wan7h 37m$20
You may also like
1000 Mythological Characters Briefly DescribedEdward Sylvester Ellis4h 20m$2 · $0.00
The Lesser Key of SolomonAleister Crowley, S.L. MacGregor Mathers2h 10m$2 · $0.00
A History of SatanismJoseph McCabe2h 1m$15
The Evolution of the Idea of God, An Inquiry Into the Origins of ReligionsGrant Allen16h 28m$2.30
The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 1&2)James George Frazer22h 50m$2 · $0.00
The Mythology of the DevilMoncure D. Conway30h 2m$2 · $0.00
Beware The Silence: 560+ Horror Classics, Macabre Tales & Supernatural MysteriesWilhelm Hauff, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Adelbert von Chamisso, Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allan Poe, William Hope Hodgson, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, John Buchan, Louis Tracy, Bram Stoker, Anatole France, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Jack London, Henry James, Théophile Gautier, Arthur Conan Doyle, Richard Le Gallienne, Jane Austen, Ralph Adams Cram, Thomas De Quincey, John Meade Falkner, Guy de Maupassant, Thomas Hardy, William Archer, Daniel Defoe, John Kendrick Bangs, Cleveland Moffett, Brander Matthews, Marie Belloc Lowndes, Horace Walpole, Rudyard Kipling, Lafcadio Hearn, Hugh Walpole, Ambrose Bierce, Frederick Marryat, Ellis Parker Butler, Washington Irving, Leonid Andreyev, David Lindsay, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Grant Allen, Arthur Machen, Wilkie Collins, William Makepeace Thackeray, Thomas Peckett Prest, James Malcolm Rymer, Fergus Hume, Edward Bellamy, Walter Hubbell, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Leopold Kompert, Richard Marsh, Florence Marryat, Catherine Crowe, John William Polidori, Vincent O'Sullivan, H. G. Wells, Robert W. Chambers, W. W. Jacobs, M. P. Shiel, E. F. Benson, Jerome K. Jerome, M. R. James, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Stanley G. Weinbaum, George W. M. Reynolds, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Edith Nesbit, Sabine Baring-Gould, William Thomas Beckford, Francis Marion Crawford, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Mary Louisa Molesworth, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Nikolai Gogol, Mary Shelley, Elizabeth Gaskell, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Frank R. Stockton, A. T. Quiller-Couch, Ann Radcliffe, Louisa M. Alcott, Amelia B. Edwards, Leonard Kip, Matthew Gregory Lewis, Fitz-James O'Brien, Katherine Rickford, Bithia Mary Croker, Catherine L. Pirkis, Émile Erckmann, Alexandre Chatrian, Pedro De Alarçon, H. H. Munro (Saki), Pliny the Younger, Helena Blavatsky, Villiers de l'Isle Adam, William F. Harvey, Fiona Macleod, William T. Stead, Gambier Bolton, Andrew Jackson Davis, Nizida, Walter F. Prince, Chester Bailey Fernando1001h 49m$1 · $0.00
Ludicrous Legends: Myths Meet MayhemJol Temple25m$7 · $0.00
Egyptian ArtG. Maspero6h 15m$2.30
Myths & Legends of Japan (Annotated)F. Hadland Davis12h 29m$2 · $0.00
Old Greek StoriesJames Baldwin4h 26m$2.30
Ancient Egyptian Literature (Annotated)Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge$2 · $0.00
Historical Description of Westminster Abbey, Its Monuments and CuriositiesAnonymous5h 48m$1 · $0.00
Solomon's Magic CirclesNorah Elmorn / Luiz Santos6h 12m$7 · $0.00
Demonology and Devil-loreMoncure Daniel Conway29h 18m$2.30
The Mysteries of All NationsJames Grant23h 46m$2.30
The Romance of the Milky Way, and Other Studies & StoriesLafcadio Hearn3h 50m$2.30
Myths and Legends of Ancient EgyptLewis Spence10h 45m$2.30
The History of the Devil and the Idea of EvilPaul Carus10h 38m$20
Tales from the Indian EpicsCharles Augustus Kincaid3h 44m$2 · $0.00