Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
Private Inquiry agent Mr. Carlyle is in search of specialist advice for his latest case: someone who can identify a forgery. He is referred to an expert who can help, but is somewhat surprised to discover that the man is blind... The story starts at 00:01:27. NOTE for returning listeners: this is a re-mastered re-upload of a recording I originally made in 2021, edited to fix minor editing errors and to bring it in line with my newer video format. I aim to record new Max Carrados stories in the coming weeks and months.
Narrated/performed by Simon Stanhope, aka Bitesized Audio. If you enjoy this content and would like to help me keep creating, there are a few ways you can support me (and get access to bonus content):
* Monthly support on Patreon: patreon.com/bitesizedaudio
* Occasional/one-off support via Buy Me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/bitesizedaudio
* Donate via PayPal: paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=HMMUWZ7URN26A
* Visit my Bandcamp page to hear more of my performances of classic stories, and you can purchase and download high quality audio files to listen offline: bitesizedaudio.bandcamp.com
* Become a Bitesized Audio Classics member on YouTube, from $1 / £1 / €1 per month:
youtube.com/c/BitesizedAudioClassics/join
00:00:00 Teaser and Narrator's Introduction
00:01:27 The Coin of Dionysius
00:40:15 Credits, thanks and further listening
If you'd like to hear more stories featuring Max Carrados, I've previously recorded several of his adventures, available here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZyO_WkNEnFI
Or for a selection of other classic detective stories, including Sherlock Holmes, Loveday Brooke, Dr. Thorndyke, Father Brown, Martin Hewitt, the Old Man in the Corner, and more, do take a look at my "Victorian and Edwardian Detective Stories" podcast:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLi95qAoufCZJMv5kcx_Is-ntdo4W8Wi0r
About the author: Ernest Bramah (1868–1942) was born Ernest Bramah Smith, probably in or near Manchester, where he attended grammar school. An intensely private man, very little information is known about his personal life. His early career included a stint as assistant to Jerome K. Jerome; his first success as a writer came as a contributor of humorous sketches somewhat in the manner of Jerome, to newspapers and periodicals, and he later became editor of one of Jerome's magazines.
As an author Bramah is best remembered for creating two characters: Kai Lung, a Chinese storyteller who appeared in a number of humorous stories from 1900; and Max Carrados, the blind detective, created in 1913. He also wrote science fiction, and his 1907 novel 'What Might Have Been' (also known as 'The Secret of the League') is a dystopian story which was acknowledged by George Orwell as a major influence on his own 'Nineteen Eighty-four'. Orwell was also a great admirer of the Max Carrados stories, bracketing them with Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Freeman's Dr Thorndyke as "the only detective stories since Poe that are worth re-reading". The character of Carrados appeared in more than 25 short stories and novels between 1913 and 1934, and by the 1920s was more popular than Sherlock Holmes (whose later cases appeared alongside Carrados in The Strand Magazine). His blindness proves no obstacle to his detective skills; indeed his other senses are heightened and he regularly outwits criminals and fellow detectives alike.
Ernest Bramah Smith died in June 1942, aged 74, in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. He was survived by his wife Lucy Smith.
'The Coin of Dionysius' was the first Carrados story to be published, and serves as an introduction to the character as well as two others who were to appear in many of the subsequent stories: Carrados's manservant Parkinson (whom Carrados calls his "eyes"), and Mr. Carlyle, a private inquiry agent who was at school with Max and meets him again while investigating a case of theft. Carrados manages to solve Carlyle's case without leaving his room. In later stories Carlyle works alongside Carrados as a detective and sometimes brings new cases to him.
'The Coin of Dionysius' first appeared under the title 'The Master Coiner Unmasked' in The News of the World on 17 August 1913, and was subsequently published as the opening story in the first volume of Carrados stories (entitled simply 'Max Carrados') in 1914.
Recording © Bitesized Audio 2021 (remastered & re-released 2026)
Private Inquiry agent Mr. Carlyle is in search of specialist advice for his latest case: someone who can identify a forgery. He is referred to an expert who can help, but is somewhat surprised to discover that the man is blind... The story starts at 00:01:27. NOTE for returning listeners: this is a re-mastered re-upload of a recording I originally made in 2021, edited to fix minor editing errors and to bring it in line with my newer video format. I aim to record new Max Carrados stories in the coming weeks and months.
Narrated/performed by Simon Stanhope, aka Bitesized Audio. If you enjoy this content and would like to help me keep creating, there are a few ways you can support me (and get access to bonus content):
* Monthly support on Patreon: patreon.com/bitesizedaudio
* Occasional/one-off support via Buy Me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/bitesizedaudio
* Donate via PayPal: paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=HMMUWZ7URN26A
* Visit my Bandcamp page to hear more of my performances of classic stories, and you can purchase and download high quality audio files to listen offline: bitesizedaudio.bandcamp.com
* Become a Bitesized Audio Classics member on YouTube, from $1 / £1 / €1 per month:
youtube.com/c/BitesizedAudioClassics/join
00:00:00 Teaser and Narrator's Introduction
00:01:27 The Coin of Dionysius
00:40:15 Credits, thanks and further listening
If you'd like to hear more stories featuring Max Carrados, I've previously recorded several of his adventures, available here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZyO_WkNEnFI
Or for a selection of other classic detective stories, including Sherlock Holmes, Loveday Brooke, Dr. Thorndyke, Father Brown, Martin Hewitt, the Old Man in the Corner, and more, do take a look at my "Victorian and Edwardian Detective Stories" podcast:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLi95qAoufCZJMv5kcx_Is-ntdo4W8Wi0r
About the author: Ernest Bramah (1868–1942) was born Ernest Bramah Smith, probably in or near Manchester, where he attended grammar school. An intensely private man, very little information is known about his personal life. His early career included a stint as assistant to Jerome K. Jerome; his first success as a writer came as a contributor of humorous sketches somewhat in the manner of Jerome, to newspapers and periodicals, and he later became editor of one of Jerome's magazines.
As an author Bramah is best remembered for creating two characters: Kai Lung, a Chinese storyteller who appeared in a number of humorous stories from 1900; and Max Carrados, the blind detective, created in 1913. He also wrote science fiction, and his 1907 novel 'What Might Have Been' (also known as 'The Secret of the League') is a dystopian story which was acknowledged by George Orwell as a major influence on his own 'Nineteen Eighty-four'. Orwell was also a great admirer of the Max Carrados stories, bracketing them with Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Freeman's Dr Thorndyke as "the only detective stories since Poe that are worth re-reading". The character of Carrados appeared in more than 25 short stories and novels between 1913 and 1934, and by the 1920s was more popular than Sherlock Holmes (whose later cases appeared alongside Carrados in The Strand Magazine). His blindness proves no obstacle to his detective skills; indeed his other senses are heightened and he regularly outwits criminals and fellow detectives alike.
Ernest Bramah Smith died in June 1942, aged 74, in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. He was survived by his wife Lucy Smith.
'The Coin of Dionysius' was the first Carrados story to be published, and serves as an introduction to the character as well as two others who were to appear in many of the subsequent stories: Carrados's manservant Parkinson (whom Carrados calls his "eyes"), and Mr. Carlyle, a private inquiry agent who was at school with Max and meets him again while investigating a case of theft. Carrados manages to solve Carlyle's case without leaving his room. In later stories Carlyle works alongside Carrados as a detective and sometimes brings new cases to him.
'The Coin of Dionysius' first appeared under the title 'The Master Coiner Unmasked' in The News of the World on 17 August 1913, and was subsequently published as the opening story in the first volume of Carrados stories (entitled simply 'Max Carrados') in 1914.
Recording © Bitesized Audio 2021 (remastered & re-released 2026)
