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  • The Phantom Coach

  • A Connoisseur's Collection of the Best Victorian Ghost Stories
  • By: Michael Sims
  • Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
  • Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
  • 3.7 out of 5 stars (21 ratings)

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The Phantom Coach

By: Michael Sims
Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
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Summary

A spine-tingling new collection of the best Victorian ghost stories—as suspenseful and entertaining as anything written today.

Ghost stories date back centuries, but those written in the Victorian era have a unique atmosphere and dark beauty. Michael Sims, whose previous Victorian collections Dracula’s Guest (vampires) and The Dead Witness (detectives) have been widely praised, has gathered twelve of the best stories about humanity’s oldest supernatural obsession. The Phantom Coach includes tales by a surprising and often legendary cast, including Charles Dickens, Margaret Oliphant, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, and Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as lost gems by forgotten masters such as Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and W. F. Harvey. Amelia B. Edwards’s chilling story gives the collection its title, while Ambrose Bierce ("The Moonlit Road"), Elizabeth Gaskell ("The Old Nurse’s Story"), and W. W. Jacobs ("The Monkey’s Paw") will turn you white as a sheet. With a skillful introduction to the genre and notes on each story by Sims, The Phantom Coach is a spectacular collection of ghostly Victorian thrills.

©2014 Michael Sims (P)2014 Audible Inc.
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What listeners say about The Phantom Coach

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great bedtime listening. would highly recommend

Great bedtime listening. would highly recommend it gives you a very cosy feeling my favourite is chapter 3.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent audiobook

Some slightly drawn out essay like intros, nonetheless informative. The stories were well selected and narrated and as a connoisseur of Victorian literature this was brilliant

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

BE WARNED intro before every story!

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I Love Victorian Ghost stories, so jumped at this and here are some of the best. This collection is actually quite unique, not the usual bunch and I found some as yet unheard gems amongst them.
And the introduction by Sims is quite good too....

Any additional comments?

HOWEVER, although I really liked the introduction by Sims, giving historical context and information about each author etc. I DID NOT then appreciate yet another introduction before each story.

After hearing the initial intro. I then just want to listen to all the stories back to back. It was really annoying to then have another whole load of blurb before starting the next story. It really broke the rhythm for me and was very distracting.

Otherwise would have been 5 stars across the board. And I feel Audible should have made this clear in their description so readers / listeners are warned about this before purchasing.

Narrater did an excellent job, thumbs up there.

I will reluctantly be returning this item - to hunt down the stories elsewhere, uninterrupted.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Really good stories, Terrible narration!

I really thought I'd enjoy this book, the list of classic supernatural stories are right up my street. But the guy reading the stories is terrible.
I struggled to get past the first couple of stories. I tried the next one, then the next one then I just gave up. His tone is pleasent enough, but he reads in lines and not in sentences and after you notice this it bugs the hell out of you.
Really gutted as this is an excellent collection.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Weak narration and some irrelevant stories

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

This collection starts with a lengthy extract from a non-Victorian story, and when it finally finishes the main stories are let down by passionless, almost monotone narration. There is no attempt by the narrator to add drama to the stories. I kept fast forwarding in the hope that it would get better, but it didn't.

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2 people found this helpful