Ten excellent stories by Wilkie Collins, Edith Wharton, Louisa May Alcott, Sabine Baring-Gould, Marcel Proust, and Katherine Mansfield. However, I have to say I enjoyed volume 2 more. Outstanding narration by Juliet Stevenson, Harriet Walter, and others.

I was intrigued by Perilous Play by Louisa May Alcott, where a group of socialites get together to enjoy hashish bonbons. Rose (one of the characters said to be based on Alcott) tries the hashish because "I hoped it would make me soft and lovable, like other women. I'm tired of being a lonely statue." It ends with her love interest declaring, "Heaven bless hashish if its dreams end like this!" Her accurate description of the effects suggests Alcott a familiarity with the drug. Alcott scholar Madeline Stern states that at the time it was freely available at six cents a stick. ( )

Another book I was looking forward to but the playaway doesn't work no matter how many batteries I put in. This is the 3rd playaway that wouldn't play.