The Lightning-Rod Man

Released: April 23, 2025
Length: 18 mins
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Publisher: Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing

Follow Herman Melville View on Audible amazon apple

"The Lightning-Rod Man" by Herman Melville is a compact, tension-filled story set during a storm, where a man at his fireplace encounters a stranger offering protection from lightning through copper rods. Using a single room and two voices, the tale explores themes of reason versus fear and independence versus submission, all wrapped in sharp wit and irony. Its subtle commentary on anxiety, safety, and persuasion gives it a surprisingly modern resonance, blending allegory, satire, and subtle horror.

general literary fiction short stories

RecentAudiobook tracks Herman Melville and over 137,000 other authors for new releases.

Follow the authors you love and hear about every new audiobook the day it lands.

Get started Browse authors

Anthology of Classic Short Stories 1 (Characters)

Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant, Herman Melville, Prosper Merimee, Mary E. Mann, Herman Meville

World's Greatest Short Stories

Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Washington Irving, Mark Twain, Charlotte Brontë, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Guy de Maupassant, Oscar Wilde, Daniel Defoe, Nikolai Gogol, Mary Shelley, Herman Melville, Benjamin Franklin, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Edgar Allen Poe, Nicolai Gogol, Herman Meville

Three Short Stories and Ten Poems

Ernest Hemingway

The Torrents of Spring

Ernest Hemingway

Christian Ethics Collection. Signature Classics

Leo Tolstoy, C. S. Lewis

A Vintage Christmas

Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, L.M. Montgomery, L. M. Montgomery

Timely Tales in Thirty Minutes

H. G. Wells, Frank Herbert, H.G. Wells, Herbert George Wells

The Greatest Female Writers Classics Collection

Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Gaskell, Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson, Agatha Christie, Mary Shelley, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Dorothy L. Sayers, Willa Cather, Mary Wilkins Freeman

Cover of The 20th Century Modern Classics Collection: 1900-1950 - 11 Stories From Arthur Conan Doyle, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Orwell, Franz Kafka, Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton, & More

The 20th Century Modern Classics Collection: 1900-1950 - 11 Stories From Arthur Conan Doyle, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Orwell, Franz Kafka, Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton, & More

Arthur Conan Doyle, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, Edith Wharton, Jack London, Franz Kafka, W. B. Yeats, George Orwell, Josephine Tey, D H Lawrence, F Scott Fitzgerald, W B Yeats

Cover of The Ultimate Modern Classics Collection: Volume 2 - 19 Novels and Stories from George Orwell, Thomas Mann, Josephine Tey, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, & Many More

The Ultimate Modern Classics Collection: Volume 2 - 19 Novels and Stories from George Orwell, Thomas Mann, Josephine Tey, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, & Many More

James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Mann, Somerset Maughm, O. Henry, Willa Cather, Katherine Mansfield, George Orwell, Josephine Tey, James Weldon Johnson, M R James, E.F. Benson, F Scott Fitzgerald, Richard Hughes, William Somerset Maugham

Great Classic Science Fiction

Frank Herbert, Fritz Leiber, H.G. Wells, Lester del Rey, Herbert George Wells

Ghost Stories: Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection

Washington Irving, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, Stephen Fry, M.R. James, Edgar Allen Poe, Robert L Stevenson