The Diamond Lens with Other Stories


Read by Ben Tucker

(4 stars; 4 reviews)

Irish-born author Fitz-James O'Brien is a underrated genius of weird fiction, serving as the missing link between Edgar Allan Poe and later purveyors of the form like Algernon Blackwood, Ambrose Bierce and Arthur Machen. This collection contains several of O'Brien's most well-known weird tales including "The Diamond Lens" (a seance, a murder and a world beneath a microscope!) and "What Was It?" (an invisible murderous creature that predates Wells' The Invisible Man and Ambrose Bierce's "The Damned Thing"), both stories taking a scientific approach to the fantastical and supernatural. Also included are stories like the bizarre killer puppets of "The Wondersmith", the spacial legerdemain of "The Lost Room", a mystery from beyond the grave with "A Pot of Tulips", an exotic and fantastical tale of the Orient with "The Dragon Fang" and several others that illustrate the sheer talent and imagination of a near forgotten master of the weird. (Summary by Ben Tucker) (9 hr 41 min)

Chapters

Sketch of O'Brien by William Winter 23:48 Read by Ben Tucker
The Diamond Lens 55:23 Read by Ben Tucker
The Wondersmith 1:13:49 Read by Ben Tucker
Tommatoo 55:50 Read by Ben Tucker
Mother of Pearl 40:52 Read by Ben Tucker
The Bohemian 48:42 Read by Ben Tucker
The Lost Room 40:13 Read by Ben Tucker
The Pot of Tulips 38:13 Read by Ben Tucker
The Golden Ingot 32:06 Read by Ben Tucker
My Wife's Tempter 26:43 Read by Ben Tucker
What Was It? 29:21 Read by Ben Tucker
Duke Humphrey's Dinner 28:48 Read by Ben Tucker
Milly Dove 45:19 Read by Ben Tucker
The Dragon Fang 42:10 Read by Ben Tucker