The Uninhabited House
About this audiobook
“If ever a residence, ‘suitable in every respect for a family of position,’ haunted a lawyer’s offices, the ‘Uninhabited House,’ about which I have a story to tell, haunted those of Messrs. Craven and Son, No. 200, Buckingham Street, Strand.”
River Hall, the uninhabited house in question, is a place of ghosts and secrets, and it simply cannot keep a tenant. Inherited by the too-young Miss Helena Elmsdale after her father’s death, it falls to her aunt, Miss Susannah Blake, to attend to the house. In order to see that it remains rented out, Miss Blake brings the property to Messrs. Craven and Son for management. The lawyers do their best, but there is something sinister at River Hall, and the tenants cannot seem to leave fast enough, threatening to leave Miss Blake and her orphaned niece in dire financial straits. Miss Blake demands that something be done to rectify the situation, and one of the younger lawyers at the firm decides to stay in the house himself to uncover the mystery of the uninhabited house.
A forgotten classic, The Uninhabited House is an examination of the role of women in finances, class mobility, and the very Victorian anxieties over greed and stolen inheritances, all wrapped up in a chilling ghost story for the ages.
About the author
Charlotte Riddell (1832–1906), who wrote as Mrs. J. H. Riddell, was one of the most popular and influential writers of the Victorian period. Her first novel, The Moors and the Fens, appeared in 1858. She issued it under the pseudonym of F. G. Trafford, which she abandoned for her own name in 1864. Between 1858 and 1902, she published thirty novels and tales. She was a prominent writer of ghost stories.
Stefan Rudnicki is an award winning audiobook narrator, director and producer. He was born in Poland and now resides in Studio City, California. He has narrated more than three hundred audiobooks and has participated in over a thousand as a writer, producer, or director. He is a recipient of multiple Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as a Grammy Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and a Ray Bradbury Award. He received AudioFile’s award for 2008 Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Along with a cast of other narrators, Rudnicki has read a number of Orson Scott Card's best-selling science fiction novels. He worked extensively with many other science fiction authors, including David Weber and Ben Bova. In reviewing the twentieth anniversary edition audiobook of Card’s Ender's Game, Publishers Weekly stated, "Rudnicki, with his lulling, sonorous voice, does a fine job articulating Ender's inner struggle between the kind, peaceful boy he wants to be and the savage, violent actions he is frequently forced to take." Rudnicki is also a stage actor and director.
