The Classic Tales Podcast · B.J. Harrison

The New Catacomb, by Arthur Conan Doyle

March 6, 2026·37 min·3 clips

Berger traps Kennedy in the catacomb's darkness, revealing he was Mary Saunderson's fiancé seeking revenge.

The New Catacomb is an 1898 short story by Arthur Conan Doyle, presented here as a solo dramatic reading. The story is set in Rome and follows two men who both work in archaeology but occupy entirely different social positions. Kennedy is English, independently wealthy, socially connected, and treats the archaeological world as a gentleman's pursuit. Berger is German, academically rigorous, perpetually short of funds, and largely invisible to the upper tier of the professional community Kennedy inhabits. The two are rivals for the same discoveries and the same recognition, though Kennedy has rarely needed to acknowledge Berger as a serious competitor. Berger approaches Kennedy with a proposition: he has discovered an undocumented catacomb, an extraordinary find that would reshape the field's understanding of early Christian Rome. He will share the discovery with Kennedy in exchange for a piece of information Kennedy possesses. Kennedy agrees readily and supplies what Berger has asked for — a piece of social gossip involving the seduction and abandonment of a woman that Kennedy had kept private as a kind of currency. He considers the trade an easy win. Berger leads Kennedy deep into the catacomb by lamplight, through a succession of narrowing passages, until they are far below the surface and completely reliant on the lamp for orientation. At that point, Berger extinguishes the light, and the story ends there — in darkness, with Kennedy disoriented underground and Berger gone. The listener later learns that Kennedy's body was found weeks afterward. The final disclosure is that the woman whose story Kennedy had traded away was Berger's fiancée. The betrayal Kennedy had treated as a trivial piece of gossip had destroyed another man's life. The performance by the Classic Tales narrator is measured and precise, allowing the horror to come from structure rather than atmosphere.

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