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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Ambrose Bierce is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Ambrose Bierce then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Time Slowed Down
A Creole man is arrested as a Confederate spy and sentenced to hanging on the bridge over Owl Creek.The rope breaks, the man hits the water and dives.Surviving a shower of Yankee bullets he escapes downriver and into the safety of a thicket.He struggles to get home and the story gets increasingly surreal.He is greeted at the gate of his plantation house by his smiling, lovely wife--but--his wife died years earlier....

Rod Steiger adopted this excellent tale for a 'Twilight Zone' Showing.It worked very well.

Unbelievable
The only thing I can say is that I cannot believe I wasted 99 cents on this "book" which in my opinion is not a book but rather a short story.

great storytelling
This is an enjoyable collection of short stories. And they really are short. As I listened to them, I recalled reading a few of them in high school English class and you probably will too.
Bierce is a master storyteller with a great command of the English language and its various literary devices. This is especially exemplified in The Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge which is his most famous short story (and the one you probably read or will read in high school). While a few stories fall short of the aforementioned, it is an overall good collection and a fast delightful read (or listen as in my case).

While not an English scholar to be sure, I must speculate that Bierce was a trailblazer in his story content (horror and bordering science fiction in Moxon's Master) and his surprise, 'twisted' endings (that now most movies incorporate ad nauseaum).

A wonderful short from 1870's
The first classical suspense, twlight zone story first written over 100 years ago. A quick page turner, excellent. The book could be found at local friends of library book sales. Be careful of buying it online. The normal sale price is $1, and online sells it for between $5 and $7.

Fascinating! Vivid Details and Surprising Story
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" seems to me like the type of story that a lot of people would read only grudgingly as a school assignment. That's too bad, because this definitely seems like one for the ages to me.

Curiously enough, I was led to this story by the TV show --- "Lost," one of the characters on there was reading it. Once I started reading, I was immediately drawn in by this author's storytelling power and ability to create powerful images using words. Some of the language he uses is rather high-toned and may go over the heads of some readers, but I think even if you can't completely understand it, there's quite enough that is understandable for general audiences to still work very well. (And hey --- why not crack that dictionary if you're not certain about some terms?)

The plot goes back to the Civil War and it's about a man who is caught and put to death by hanging at a bridge. As you read it, you can absolutely picture this scene in your head and understand what the main chaacter is feeling. This story has a surprising twist ending as well.


Now that I've read this, I think I may just seek out more by Ambrose Bierce. I like vivid storytelling and this certain fits the bill. ... Read more

Product Description
American journalist and satirist Ambrose Bierce is probably best known for his short stories about the American Civil War. The author's craft for story-telling is exemplified by his famous "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge", which is the story of Peyton Farquhar, a Confederate sympathizer condemned to die by hanging upon the Owl Creek Bridge. That great short story along with 96 others forms this exhaustive edition of "The Complete Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Ambrose In Short
I got interested in AB when seeing the part of movie trilogy 'From Dusk till Dawn'. Thanks to those people bringing that to my sight. Enjoying the book.

No Library is complete without this book!
Truly an impressive collection of this wonderful author.

Readers will quickly see why Ambrose Bierce was one of Ernest Hemingway and Kurt Vonnegut's favorite authors.

Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is regarded by many as the most important short story in American Literature.

I believe Ambrose Bierce took the foundations left by Edgar Allan Poe and Bram Stoker and continued to build upon them. There are some great stories here that can be read aloud to a group or enjoyed silently by the fireplace. Bierce was a veteran of the American Civil War so his experiece shows in many of his stories like "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", "Killed at Resaca", and "Chickamauga".

The subject of Bierce's own death is a mystery. He went missing in 1914, possibly to join up with Pancho Villa and was never heard from again.

Anyone looking for some classic reading material that only a handful of true American Literature fans know about, you've come to the right place in Ambrose Bierce's writings.

Andrew's Review
The story, An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge, had vivid descriptions of the scenery.It gave me an idea of what people might think about before they die.

I would not recommend it, because overall, to me, it was boring.It was hard to understand the first time I read the short story.However, the second time it was more clear to me what was happening.It was confusing the way the author went from dream to reality.

Great collection of short stories, the title is incorrect
Ambrose Bierce was a fine writer and this is a good sampling of his short stories.It is not, however, a complete collection of his short stories.I particularly missed "One Summer Night" and there are a number of other stories that could have been been included.Still, this collection is well worth reading.

I suppose this must be death
Ambrose Bierce's most famous story is An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and many of his stories follow that same kind of pattern: an event is related with some surprising or revelatory twist at the end. The stories of the Civil War are especially interesting as they are not at all typical writings about war. Bierce does not see the battle so much as one of North against South rather he sees the war as the child sees the war in his story Chickamauga, his attitude is one combining fascination at the spectacle and utter disgust. Life is an unresolved jumble of confused forces and mixed emotions for everyone in Bierce's haunting tales that read like dreams but dreams informed by much contact with reality as Bierce was wounded twice(once in the head)in the war he describes. The descriptions of Civil War battles are told with great precision(and alone make this volume worth having) though there is always an additional element to make them more than war reportage, Bierce turns his accounts into stories because he sees through all the cannon smoke to the small detail which encapsulates the essential thing about an event. In one of my favorites, Killed at Resaca, a courageous captain gallops across a field to deliver a crucial message only to find the field is impassable because of a deep gully, instead of turning around however he merely waits for the enemy to shoot him. Going through his personal things a fellow soldier, the narrator of the story, finds a letter which explains this resolve. The letter reads:"...I could bear to hear of my soldier- lover's death, but not of his cowardice." Later, when the narrator has a chance to return the letter to its author he is asked by her how her soldier-lover died. "He was bitten by a snake,"is the narrators reply. Bierce's pen was dipped in wormwood and acid said H.L. Mencken. His stories of soldiers and civilians are told with a bitter and venomous clarity. His humor was always of the sort aquainted with the gallows. He said at age 71,"I am so old I am ashamed to be alive." And so he rode off to Mexico. It's hard to imagine Stephen Crane existing without the example of Ambrose Bierce just as it is hard to imagine Bierce without Poe. What a strange tradition of independents we have. ... Read more

Product Description
modern horror stories by American master. "The Eyes of the Panther," "The Damned Thing," 21 more. "These pieces are not dated, nor are they lacking any of the narrative elements necessary to attract and hold the attention of anyone interested in the horror genre."—SF Booklog.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

I Don't Know!!! (Kindle)
I bought the kindle version linked from this page and it was a different book!

One Does Not Always Eat What Is On The Table
While looking for ghost story collections, I was pleasantly surprised to find this book. I knew Ambrose Bierce penned _The Devil's Dictionary_ but hadn't seen or heard of an anthology of his supernatural tales. The editor, E. F. Bleiler, collects 24 of his best in this book, and also provides an excellent overview of Bierce's history and writing in the introduction. He includes well-known, often collected stories like "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", "The Damned Thing", and "An Inhabitant of Carcosa."; this last story is quoted by Robert W. Chambers at the beginning of his short story "The King in Yellow." Bierce's supernatural themes also influenced the writings of H. P. Lovecraft.

Drawing on his own experiences as a Civil War veteran and a San Franciscan journalist, Bierce uses the backdrop of the Civil War, the South and California as the setting in many of his tales. His highly intelligent, highly critical and biting personality comes through in the bizarre menagerie of characters populating his narratives, in the descriptions of their actions and in the world they inhabit. The story "A Watcher by the Dead" contains shady physicians who bet their associate that he can't spend a night locked in a room with a corpse. The main character in "The Death of Halpin Fraser" has an unnervingly intimate relationship with his mother which haunts his dreams. The craggytavern keeper of "The Haunted Valley" condemns his Chinese laborer for his method of chopping down trees, while Mr. Beeson in "The Night-Doings at `Deadman's'" keeps the pigtail from his dead Chinese hand firmly nailed to his log cabin wall to prevent him from taking it back to the grave. The general store-keeper in "A Jug of Sirup" stays behind his counter throughout his life and after his death.

Bierce creates many unusual situations that make for very unsettling stories: two men duel with knives in the pitch dark of a haunted house with a most unexpected result in "The Middle Toe of the Right Foot"; a man witnesses a confrontation between an inventor and his metal machine in "Moxon's Master"; a mysterious stranger reveals the fate of four cowboys surrounded by murderous Indians in "The Stranger". In one of the best stories in the collection "The Moonlit Road", reminiscent of Kurosawa's Rashomon, we hear a ghost story from three separate participant's perspectives, including that of the ghost. Bierce's writings reflect his remarkably striking and acerbic talent with words.

In fact, it's Bierce's unique writing style which, for me, lessened the appeal of his stories. As demonstrated so skillfully in _The Devil's Dictionary_, Bierce employs highly original, ironic perspectives in his descriptions of people, places and events, which at his best make his stories exceptionally witty and memorable. It often, unfortunately, comes across as an intrusive, garrulous display of intellect, taking the reader out of the story.
I found myself wading through tedious sections, too often at the stories' beginning, in hopes of finally reaching the spark of dreadfulness. "The Ways of Ghosts", "Some Haunted Houses" and "'Mysterious Disappearances'", each comprised of several frightful shorts, made my list of favorites because the ultra-quick length only allowed for Bierce's unique disturbing ideas without his cocky wordiness.

_The Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce_ is a great anthology of supernatural tales from a noteworthy author/journalist. I'm glad I've read it; I'm also glad I've finished reading it. Make sure you have a comfy couch to relax in during the long hours you'll spend reading this book.

bierce is a great writer
Hello, Bierce ranks with Poe and Lovecraft as one of the greatest American writers of horror stories, I love his writing and find his styleto be creative but he leaves a lot to th imagination, I love this collection because it tells you a lot about the author and he is a very interesting man andinspiring horror writers can learn a lot just from the introduction to this book if you like horror storys you should read ambrose bierce,I am a lot like him i wonder if I am him reincarnated :) take care all enjoy the book

Review of Bierce's Ghost & Horror Stories
This was an excellent book.I ordered it because we had to do readings for an English class, but I got so engrossed in the stories required that I ended up reading the entire book cover to cover.Highly recommended!!

An American original...
Ambrose Bierce is an American original. His tales of ghosts and horror are like no other, and one story in particular, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," is considered to be, in some circles, a classic.

Bierce's writings are also an acquired taste -- one gets the impression that he knew a bit about what he wrote: inner torment and a feeling of unsettlement. The preface to the book is very illuminating, giving us some insight into his personal life, which was then translated into these tales. Personally, I find them fascinating, but others may not. It's up to you to decide. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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"The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary" is a virtual onslaught of acerbic, confrontational wordplay, offering some 1,600 wickedly clever definitions to the vocabulary of everyday life. Little is sacred and few are safe, for Ambrose Bierce targets just about any pursuit, from matrimony to immortality, that allows our willful failings and excesses to shine forth. The "Unabridged Devil's Dictionary,"a satirical book first published in 1911, offers reinterpretations of terms in the English language which lampoon cant and political doublespeak. The Devil's Dictionary has inspired many imitations both in its day and more recently. Recent examples include The Computer Contradictionary. Ambrose Bierce was an iconoclastic literary genius and "The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary," a compilation of his satirical definitions, is a true American classic. Some may find Bierce sexist, nationalist and racist, but most readers will enjoy his malevolent skepticism and underlying rage against hypocrisy. Only two years after "The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary" was published in 1911, Ambrose Bierce disappeared after setting off for Mexico to join Pancho Villa's rebels against the corrupt dictatorial regime of Porfirio Diaz. His legacy is memorable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good Medicine
This is great reading if want to laugh with pleasure. Very few people have the ability to convey information to the extent that this author demonstrates. Great for the wait in the car as wife shops or any other downtime. ... Read more

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The Parenticide Club is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Ambrose Bierce is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Ambrose Bierce then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good, Sick Fun!
These fine examples of Bierce's twisted sense of humor may offend the politically correct among you. The rest of us who can still think freely can enjoy the pure venomous brilliance of a true American original at play. ... Read more

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The Devil's Dictionary is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Ambrose Bierce is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Ambrose Bierce then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (43)

Reworked the Formatting
I reformatted the Mundus version of this book the other day.I hope it looks better for everyone now.

Consider another version
This edition lacks in quality, IN SPADES. It's as though someone found a digital copy of Bierce's dictionary, selected all, pasted that into a Word document, drove to Kinkos, and printed out a few copies.There is no pagination, no entry breaks. The "introduction" runs into the first definition.

Don't be fooled--like I was--by the cover "art": it's merely a very low-res image of faux leather. I regret that I assumed the art work to be an attempt at a modern, clean look. It's not, it's just helvetica and a low res JPG.What a bummer. And for the price of a hardcover too.Jeez.

Devil's Dictionary, Mundus Kindle Edition
One of the first things I wanted to download onto my new Kindle was "The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce. I have several hardcover versions of it, but wanted a portable (and especially) searchable one. By day two of my new Kindle I was on the phone with tech support because that book continually froze the device. The tech support woman confirmed that they are having problems with this particular book.
Amazon Tech Support: 5 out of 5 stars
Mundus Publishing: not-so-much

The whole situation made me think about how Apple chooses to vet each product before it is made available for the iPhone. Maybe that's a policy that Amazon and Team Kindle need to adopt.

The Devil
This is a fairly amusing resource!Not spectacular, but about what I expected - interesting and useful on occasion.

A real GEM !!

Any reader,particularly of history by Ambrose Bierce,will greatly enjoy this book. Little wonder, Bierce (1842-1914),an American journalist,satirist -"it was said that a bad review from Bierce could break a writer's career;and writer of short stories who earned the nickname "Bitter Bierce" for his sardonic views and his vehemence as a critic".
While the thoughts and definitions in this dictionary were written many years ago;they remain sharp,revelent and cuttingly satiric today.What I find so surprising is that these ideas have not become dated.
While few,if any ,dictionaries lend themselves to reading or simply just spending time leafing through;this is certainly an exception.
Just to give an idea of what awaits in this tome;try these for size;

mausoleum- The final and funniest folly of the rich.

martyr- One who moves along the line of least reluctance to a
desired death.

blackguard-A man whose qualities,prepared for display like a box of
berries in a market-the fine ones on top-have been opened
on the wrong side.An inverted gentleman.

amnesty-The state's magnanimity to those offenders whom it would be
too expensive to punish.

grapeshot-An argumentwhich the future is preparing in answer to
thedemands of American Socialism.
And last but not least;

nonsense- The objections that are urged against this excellent
dictionary.

... Read more

Product Description
This book an EXACT reproduction of the original book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
An anthology of ghost stories across the ages

Michael Newton is the author of Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children (Faber & Faber, 2002; Picador USA, 2004) and Kind Hearts and Coronets in the BFI Film Classics series (2003). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Decent starter collection but there are better (see review)
"The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories" is an anthology of 19 oft-collected ghost stories--Michael Newton's selection of what he considers to be the cream of the crop from Elizabeth Gaskell's "The Old Nurse's Story" (1852) and Sheridan Le Fanu's "Green Tea" (1869) through Edith Wharton's "Afterward" (1910).

The stories in this book are already in print in several anthologies, most notably "The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories (Oxford Books of Prose & Verse)" (1986), the twenty-volume Fontana books of 'Great Ghost Stories,' and the classic "Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural (Modern Library)" (1944).I would rank any of these anthologies over this Penguin starter collection.

The editor, Michael Newton says in his 'Note on the Texts' that this collection "aims more at the person who will buy only one such book [of ghost stories] for private reading or for study, and for those who want one volume that brings together the very best examples of the genre."

I think he succeeds, for the most part in his choice of stories.The only one I had never read before was Lafcadio Hearn's "Nightmare-Touch" which reads more like a dream diary than a short story.I'm not certain I would have included so many stories told in dialect, most especially Robert Louis Stevenson's "Thrawn Janet" (1887), but there are extensive notes at book's end, plus a "Glossary of Scots Words.""What Was It?" by Fitz-James O'Brien is not a ghost story, so strictly speaking, it probably should have been excluded from this collection.

Be sure to read Mr. Newton's "Introduction" to this anthology in which he analyzes the purpose of the ghost story, and gives us a brief history of the genre.

The stories in this collection:"The Old Nurse's Story" by Elizabeth Gaskell; "What Was It?" by Fitz-James O'Brien; "The Haunted and the Haunters: or, The House and the Brain" by Edward Bulwer Lytton; "The Cold Embrace" by Mary Elizabeth Braddon; "The North Mail" by Amelia B. Edwards; "No. 1 Branch Line: The Signal-man" by Charles Dickens; "Green Tea" by Sheridan Le Fanu; "The Ghost in the Cap'n Brown House" by Harriet Beecher Stowe; "Thrawn Janet" by Robert Louis Stevenson; "The Open Door" by Margaret Oliphant; "At the End of the Passage" by Rudyard Kipling; "Nightmare-Touch" by Lafcadio Hearn; "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs; "The Wind in the Rose-Bush" by Mary Wilkins Freeman; "'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'" by M.R. James; "The Moonlit Road" by Ambrose Bierce; "The Jolly Corner" by Henry James; "The Readjustment" by Mary Austin; "Afterward" by Edith Wharton.

Starter Collection
This newest collection of great ghost stories sticks pretty closely to the title as advertised: an actual ghost is present within most the stories which refuse to haunt other avenues of the supernatural. The editor's intention is admirable and clearly stated early on: "I felt it best not to shy away from some obvious choices. In my view, some very good anthologies of ghost stories are weakened by a desire to pick surprising, neglected or substandard stories by the best writers in the genre, or second rank stories by largely forgotten writers. As a result, the editors produce anthologies for people who collect such anthologies and who already own the classic tales. While this book aims to provide something for such readers, it aims more at the person who will buy only one such book for private reading or study, and for those who want one volume that brings together the very best examples of the genre". He also mentions authors he couldn't get for copyright reasons: Blackwood, Machen,de la Mare, Hitchens, Onions.

He addresses what I perceived to be a fault with the new Library of America anthology by Peter Straub: too many second tier stories by famous authors. And while his own anthology corrects this fault to a degree, it lapses into other errors. Some of the most famous stories are not always the author's best or there are other works that ought be equally famous and are much less anthologized (though hardly unknown): I would take MR James "Casting the Runes" before yet another inclusion of the overly availableand disappointing "Oh, Whistle". As "The Monkey's Paw" is probably the best ghost story ever written both in its economy of story and proper eeriness, I have no problem with its ghostly presence. But Fitz-James O'Brien's "What Was It?" is not very frightening and Henry James' "The Jolly Corner" is well written and famous but a ghost story in name only. So if I would complain it would be of overall taste, a hard thing to defend or even define.

Newton writes a very admirable introduction to the whole topic of ghost stories and gives readers many directions for further reading. But if I were to choose a single anthology that does what Newton aimed to do, I would chooseGreat Tales of Terror and the Supernatural (Modern Library) or the Dark Descent anthologies. Both are unsurpassed in picking the best written, scariest stories and are still in print. But yet another anthology that seriously aims for quality and frequently achieves it should not be shunned either, like an old dark house in a deserted part of town. ... Read more

Product Description
Ambrose Bierce didn't just write about the Civil War, he lived through it--on the battlefields and over the graves--and in doing so gave birth to a literary chronicle of men at war previously unseen in the American literary canon. The fact that some of these stories verged on the supernatural, others on factual reporting, and others on the fine line between humor and morbidity in no way detracts from their resonance to both the history of the war between the states and the imaginative historical literature in the tradition of Washington Irving.

Shadows of Blue & Gray collects all of Bierce's Civil War stories (twenty-seven in total) with six of his memoir pieces on his own experiences on the front lines.

This collection includes such classics as "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," "A Horseman in the Sky," "Parker Addison, Philosopher", and "A Bivouac of the Dead"; as well as lesser known stories and sketches such as "The Mockingbird" and "Two Military Executions" and memoirs of his experiences at Shiloh, Chickamauga, and Franklin.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Excellent service
The paperback book I ordered arrived very quickly and in excellent condition.I was very pleased with transaction.

short stories
A very good way to get a look at the civil war through short stories. Should be mandatory reading in every high school in the nation.

Chilling to the bone!
Ambrose Bierce participated in many of the great Civil War battles. While I realise this book is written as fiction I would submit to the reader that it is fact. Ambrose has this gifted way of speach that brings to life the horrors he witness. You will shiver with goose bumps! You won't sleep with the lights out after reading his stories. No way!
I could not put this chilling book down. It was as if it was possess! Ambrose disappeared in 1914 a old man who walked into Mexico. Maybe he is still walking and telling these stories. I would like to think so.

LEST WE FORGET, OR BE SWAYED BY THE HISTORY BOOKS�
It's easy to look back and view wars as things of glory - the history books tend to lead us in that direction by viewing the action from lofty heights, speaking in terms of armies and strategies and generals.The reality - as those who have `been there' know too well (and no, I'm not claiming to be a veteran) - is that the old adage is all too true:war is definitely hell, and we should never, ever forget that fact.

Ambrose Bierce is known today mainly through his fiction - many fine examples of which appear in this collection - and through THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY.He `might or might not' be the subject and/or inspiration for Carlos Fuentes' novel THE OLD GRINGO, also made into a film.His stories have a decidedly `creepy' feel to them - he was no Edgar Allan Poe, perhaps, but he was a talented writer nonetheless...and as not only the short stories, but also the non-fiction pieces collected here demonstrate, he was a careful and articulate observer.We are truly blessed that he chose to recount what he had seen, both in the form of short stories and memoirs.His disappearance in 1914 in Mexico has added to his mystique over the ensuing years.

The most famous of the short stories contained in this volume is undoubtedly `An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge'.I remember reading it in high school (NO, I won't say how long ago that was...) - and it was filmed to great effect by director Roberto Enrico in 1962, and was subsequently aired in the US as an episode in the last season of THE TWILGHT ZONE on CBS.It won an Oscar in 1964 as Best Foreign Short Film.The story is a masterpiece of suspense - it's a great literary epitaph for Bierce.

Bierce served in the Civil War - he enlisted at its outset and saw quite a bit of action.He rose through the ranks to lieutenant and served on the staff of various high-ranking officers.It is his observations and experiences - and his empathy with the troops, the enlisted men, the common man - that lend such a value to his writings.Too much `Hollywood-izing' has been forced upon the truth - about the Civil War and almost everything the film industry touches.It's a treasure to have the pieces here to vividly remind us of what the experience was really like.

There is humor here as well - Bierce's wit was an acerbic sword, and he unsheathed it on the high and low alike, without sparing himself in the process.His characterizations of the generals under whom he served, as well as the enlisted soldiers, the post-war opportunists, and the intellectual crowd with whom he mingled both in the US and abroad, are rich indeed.

The language is understandably a bit archaic in places - but I found myself getting used to it pretty quickly.As a result, the book took me a bit longer to read than the contemporary fiction I normally favor - but it was definitely worth the time.I can recommend this collection to aficionados of fiction and history buffs alike - a great read. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (7)

A fine, revealing dictionary of insights perfect for any general or literary collection!
Ambrose Bierce's Write it Right: The Celebrated Cynic's Language Peeves Deciphered, Appraised, and Annotated for 21st-Century Readers is a fun 'must' for any general or language collection: it offers fun observations about applications of nouns, verbs and more, and is a fine, revealing dictionary of insights perfect for any general or literary collection!

A second opinion worth a read
After having read this over a few months I believe I have formulated a just opinion. It is very unfortunate that Bierce's original "A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults" is not longer than it is. Surely it's among the wittiest books on grammar available today. It is a delectable little book, somewhat amateurish compared to scholarly and esoteric "Dictionary of Modern English Usage" by Fowler but also a very short read. After having skimmed its contents, there feels like nothing to be savoured afterward. Most of Bierce's objections are justifiable and carries on to the 21st century. Some are profound, some are trivial. Others are tired and ancient (the split-infinitive). Some errors that were apparently common in his time are not heard of any more. He never misses a chance to show off his knowledge of Latin. Sometimes we are informed more than what the objection is as to why.

Under almost every entry language expert Jan Freeman has something to say, sometimes because it warrants commentary, but more often seemingly just to say Bierce is wrong. This is because very clearly Bierce is a prescriptive grammarian, and Freeman a descriptive one. To Bierce language has an immutable ruleset; anything that does not adhere to those rules is wrong even if it has been used for hundreds of years. Freeman's take is that if a solecism has been used for that long, it's not a solecism. This clash of opinions is basically the whole book. In her commentary, Freeman cites dozens of historical works to support her claim (again mostly that Bierce is wrong) but nothing more than the method of citing precedent. Sometimes we agree with Freeman, sometimes with Bierce. One of them is the entry for sideburns, which Bierce says is an erroneous transposition of the name Burnsides - a false etymology. It seems as well to me to bicker over the origin of the word Indians used to refer to American aboriginees. I don't think it is worthwhile to fight over who's right and who's wrong, which essentially reflects the opinions of the grammarian. But I don't think it is to say Freeman must be right because she is an expert on the language and Bierce is mostly a self-taught man. Both present convincing arguments. But I got the feeling that Freeman was contradicting Bierce to avenge the common man whom Bierce had lampooned in his book "The Devil's Dictionary" and to a lesser extent this one, not because Bierce was actually wrong, though sometimes it seems he was.

I had read Bierce's original first on Project Gutenberg but this edition with Freeman's annotations certainly enhanced my impression on Bierce whom I supposed infallible. It is in the preface where he professes to be far from impeccability but it is Freeman's voice that affirms this. But then I'm sorry to say her insight is not that much profound as I thought it would be. Sure according to some obscure author you've never heard of so-and-so has been used in a way contrary to Bierce's instruction since the 13th century. Anyone care? This book would be much too short to be worth publishing without Freeman's input but I think she could've done better.

Picky, yes, but is he right?
As someone who enjoys reading books on language usage and word origins, I found this book quite interesting, a quick read. Ambrose Bierce's "Write It Right" was originally published in 1909 as a reference for proper (correct) language usage. Approximately 300 entries were arranged alphabetically. Today, many of the forms Bierce insisted were incorrect are, in fact, in common usage.

Many of his entries are especially interesting, I think, simply because of his attempts to 'split hairs.' For example, "I am afraid it will rain" is incorrect, according to Bierce. You should instead say "I fear it will rain." Another entry goes into the difference between "generally" and "usually." He also thought the word "pants" (when used instead of "trousers") was vulgar. And he disapproved of using the words "forecasted" and "fix" among others.

For this new edition of Bierce's book, Jan Freeman has annotated each entry to give more context to the original explanations of the language usage, showing quite often that Bierce was not the expert he claimed to be. For instance, Bierce complained in some of his entries of how America was corrupting the language, when the usage could be found in Samuel Johnson's Dictionary (published 1700s), or even earlier. And he blamed "the weather bureau" for "forecasted," when in fact, it had been used since the 16th century.

I thought Bierce's "Devil's Dictionary" was wonderful satire, but here he comes off as picky and condescending. (According to another Bierce rule of language, I just misused the word "but" in the sentence above.) Familiarity with Bierce's name is what caught my attention, but Freeman's annotation is what kept me interested in reading. "Write It Right" was first published 100 years ago, and a lot (or maybe not so much, after all) has changed since then.

bierce fan
This is a great book for people who share Bierce's fanaticism for precision in writing.Casual fans of the writing art may find this too picky to matter.

Annotations to a Cranky Original
Decades ago, in a dusty used book store, I came across a real find.It was a little book by a writer I admired, Ambrose Bierce, who will forever be known as the author of the brilliant _The Devil's Dictionary_.It was a little book I didn't know existed.Bierce had written it 1909, _Write It Right_, his guide to avoiding the slang, vulgarities, and unhappy idioms he was horrified to see creeping into the English language (or even claiming long-term residence).He obviously loved English and could wield it with vigor.His book of guidance in language use was sharp and cranky and fun to read.It was more idiosyncratic and less universal than Strunk and White's _Elements of Style_.It was dated, but of course even White had to update Strunk.It was a bunch of decrees from a man who might be a cynic but who wasn't cynical enough to think language use could never be improved.Now Bierce is back, in an edition with commentary and notes._Ambrose Bierce's Write It Right: The Celebrated Cynic's Language Peeves Deciphered, Appraised, and Annotated for 21st-Century Readers_ (Walker) has all of Bierce's short, pithy commandments, but is mostly commentary on each one by Jan Freeman.Freeman writes a weekly language column; she is one of the language mavens readers call upon to guide them through the complexities of speaking and writing properly.She doesn't have the biting wit of Bierce, but she has a good sense of humor, and an obvious affection for Bierce's indignation.This does not, however, keep her from pointing out when Bierce's advice is outdated; of course, Bierce could do nothing about inevitable changes in the language.She also does not refrain from pointing out when Bierce is dead wrong, which is distressingly often, though it must be said that Freeman has research tools, like the _Oxford English Dictionary_ to which she frequently refers, that Bierce would not have had at hand.

It is, in fact, seldom that Freeman can wholeheartedly accept a Bierce pronouncement.When he says, "Authoress.A needless word - as needless as `poetess,'" Freeman can answer "Indeed."But she often has to make corrections.Bierce wanted writing to have clarity.Unfortunately, he often wanted it at the expense of acceptance of the breadth of meaning a word could take.Wheeler points out this tendency toward literalism over and over again.Bierce writes of the mistake "Dilapidated for Ruined.Said of a building or other structure.But the word is from the Latin lapis, a stone, and cannot properly be used of any but a stone structure."Wheeler shows that not even the Romans had used the term literally, and (using the historic research tools she frequently cites) that "dilapidate" was used in the sense of "fritter away funds" even in the 15th century.She says, "Bierce enjoyed the role of etymological fundamentalist, but he was virtually alone in suggesting that wood and brick buildings could not be `dilapidated.'"Many of Bierce's other cautions are obsolete or irrelevant.American English has often found useful the changes Bierce decried.The use of "reliable" for "trustworthy" he said was "not yet admitted to the vocabulary of the fastidious," but it is certainly there now.He wanted people to continue to say "trousers," not "pants," of which he writes, "Abbreviated from pantaloons, which are no longer worn.Vulgar exceedingly."He wanted people to say "Joe was graduated from college," not "Joe graduated from college," a form that was creeping into use in Bierce's time and has become standard, even though Freeman points out that "... the Biercean orthodoxy was stoutly defended into the 1980s.And then, of course, along came `Joe graduated college' to scandalize traditionalists.The goalposts have moved, but the contest goes on."

This is an important point.None of us uses English perfectly, but some of us fret over usage more than others, and some of us fret over the usage of others more than our own.Freeman invites us to ask, looking at what are now Bierce's irrelevancies and superannuated bits of advice, whether we ought to be so vexed at the next misplaced apostrophe we see."Would a little more historical knowledge help us keep our cool in the face of language change?"I don't think so; it is fun to spot others using the language in ways we don't think proper, and certainly Bierce had fun railing against usage mistakes, even when his barbs were misdirected.This edition is less a book of language advice than a partial portrait of a man who loved good language use.It is interesting, for instance, to read that Bierce, a proud Union veteran, wanted to make sure we did not use "jackies" for "sailors": "Vulgar, and especially offensive to seaman."It is fun to read him fulminating against commercial encroachments which he especially hated, like "casket" for "coffin": "A needless euphemism affected by undertakers."And sometimes, he is simply, practically right.He says not to use "partially" for "partly", as it is "A dictionary word, to swell the book."Wheeler corrects that "partially" was not dictionary padding since it had been in use since 1475, and that the words are interchangeable.They may be, but if they are interchangeable, there is nothing wrong with preferring the shorter one just as Bierce did. ... Read more

Product Description
The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce is a satirical mock dictionary with cynical views for words instead of direct definitions. Some sample word definitions include; HISTORIAN, n. A broad-gauge gossip. --- INFIDEL, n. "In New York, one who does not believe in the Christian religion; in Constantinople, one who does..." ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Fiction / Ghost; Fiction / Literary; Fiction / Short Stories; ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Boring
I would not pay for this book. The stories are very, very short and I ended up skipping over majority of them. They aren't scary what so ever, maybe a little creepy, but nothing that is going to keep me up at night like other books I've read.

Tap into the mind of one of the greatest ghost story writers of all times
This short collection is guaranteed to make you feel eerie in those cold, dark nights when you stayed home alone to read. But then again how else to savor these stories? Here is a pointer. Get your hands on a copy of this book sometime around mid-day Friday. Blow off your friends for the night and go straight home. Wait until the daylight is just a memory and then sit with this book on your favorite old chair, preferably near a window, and delve into it with only the nightstand light on. Take time reading each page, relish each word, don't pay attention to the creepy scratching on you window, or the squeaking in the other rooms, it's all just in your mind.Whether you'll remember about the serial murders in the book, or the ghostly apparitions- it won't matter. What'll matter is how you experience reading about them...give it a try, be brave...

-by Simon Cleveland
... Read more

Product Description
Bierce's classic work of satirical wit and Steadman's pointed pen redefine the way we see even the seemingly simplest of terms.

Acquaintance, n.: A person whom we know well enough to borrow from but not well enough to lend to.
Bride, n.: A woman with a great future behind her.
Consult, v: To seek another's approval of a course already decided on.

Ambrose Bierce's "dictionary" of epigrams, essays, verses, and vignettes targets the religious, the romantic, the political, and the economic, in equal measure. The book you need to define both friends and enemies, The Devil's Dictionary is also the perfect gift, showcasing Bierce's razor-sharp wit and Ralph Steadman's incisive pen to their best advantage.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Bitter Bierce at his very best...
Also known as "The Cynic's Workbook" this collection is classic and belongs in any library. Ambrose Bierce, like Mark Twain and few other of his contempories, had a biting wit that always left a mark.
Here is just a taste of his humor.

Philosophy: A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.

Eulogy. Praise of a person who has either the advantages of wealth and power, or the consideration to be dead.

The large font is a plus in this book.Good illustrations.

Good good stuff.

A most accurate Dictionary
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If you, from time-to-time, need a little whimsy in your day; a little humor to add a smile when else it would not shine, then open to any page and read at will. You will be rewarded with a chuckle and perhaps a laugh and perhaps a new perspective on the word you just learned.

If you think you have a potent vocabulary, read this book; because you will get the most from it. These definitions, while not literal, are in fact most accurate and as it seems, timeless.

It must have been a great privilege to know and converse with such a man as Ambrose Bierce.

review of the Devil's Dictionary
Sharp-wittewd and pointed "defitions" of common day words from the 1800's that still hold humor and truth.

Good Read
It was an excellent read and I could not put it down.Very tantalizing for anyone who prefers to be pulled into a story.

A great addition to your collection
Well worth having in your personal collection -- very entertaining. :) ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
A HORSEMAN IN THE SKY.
ONE sunny afternoon in the autumn of the year 1861, a soldier lay in a clump of laurel by the side of a road in Western Virginia. He lay at full length, upon his stomach, his feet resting upon the toes, his head upon the left forearm. His extended right hand loosely grasped his rifle. But for the somewhat methodical disposition of his limbs and a slight rhythmic movement of the cartridge box at the back of his belt, he might have been thought to be dead. He was asleep at his post of duty. But if detected he would be dead shortly afterward, that being the just and legal penalty of his crime.
The clump of laurel in which the criminal lay was in the angle of a road which, after ascending, southward, a steep acclivity to that point, turned sharply to the west, running along the summit for perhaps one hundred
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Table of Contents

A HORSEMAN IN THE SKY 9"; AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE 2t; CHICK AM AUG A 41; A SOX OF THE GODS 55; ONE OF THE MISSING 69; KILLED AT RESACA 9S; THE AFFAIR AT COULTER'S NOTCH 105; A TOUGH TUSSLEt 123; THE COUP DE GRACE 139; PARKER ADDKRSON, PHILOSOPHER 151; CIVILIANS-; A WATCHER BY THE DEAD 165; THE MAN AND THE SNAKE 187; A HOLY TERROR 200; THE SUITABLE SURROUNDINGS 227; AN INHABITANT OF CARCOSA 211; THE BOARDED WINDOW249; THE MIDDLE TOE OF THE RIGHT FOOT 259; HATTA THE SHEPHERD 277; AN HEIRESS FROM RED HORSE 289

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.

Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the difficult to read text. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Excellent Collection of Stories!
I always wanted to get around to reading Ambrose Bierce. Known as an iconoclast and an excellent satirist, Bierce is best known for his Devil's Dictionary. He's also known for the disappearing act he pulled in Mexico in 1913. I decided to give this short anthology a chance. If I liked his stories, I figured I'd buy some more of his writings. I will be reading more of his writings.

The recent movie _The Blair Witch Project_ has brought scary stories back into vogue. After reading this book, I realized you can make a direct connection from this film to Ambrose Bierce. The connection would pass through Stephen King and H.P.Lovecraft along the way. I've seen things in both of these writers that could have been lifted directly out of one of Bierce's stories. In Bierce's story, "The Damned Thing", with its talk about colors that can and can't be seen, I could have sworn I was reading Lovecraft. Bierce is a master at quick twists and shocking violence, and delivers scares fast and furious. I got chills with several of these short stories, which certainly makes for good horror reading.

The book gives the reader a sample of Bierce's short stories. Most of the stories are tied around American Civil War themes, which is no surprise as Bierce served in the Union army during that conflict. His experiences gave him the necessary frame of reference to write these dark stories. And when I say dark, I mean DARK! Some of these tales will make your jaw drop. The violence in them is extremely unsettling. Chickamauga and Oil of Dog are sickening, describing blown open heads and dead babies in graphic detail.

Did I mention Bierce's prose? Some of the best you'll read. His prose is so amazing that I found myself rereading some of his passages just so I could make sure I was getting the full meaning. It is that rich and textured. It's also extremely funny in places. In the introduction it is written that Bierce lived in England for several years and was embraced by the English, who are masters not only of the language, but also insults. I'm not surprised when I look at how he writes. He can pen an insult that would bring tears of joy to an Englishman's eyes.

Finally, Bierce's stories show incredible depth for the short story format. He ridicules false courage, irony, lawyers, and even unions in the story, "The Revolt of the Gods". I highly recommend that anyone not familiar with Ambrose Bierce give this book a read. It reads fast and you'll laugh and be shocked within the space of one page. Good stuff. ... Read more

Product Description
A virtual onslaught of acerbic, confrontational wordplay, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary offers some 1,600 wickedly clever definitions to the vocabulary of everyday life. Little is sacred and few are safe, for Ambrose Bierce targets just about any pursuit, from matrimony to immortality, that allows our willful failings and excesses to shine forth.

This is the most extensively annotated edition of a work by Bierce ever published, and the first edition of The Devil's Dictionary to provide detailed bibliographical information on every entry. It will be celebrated by wits and word lovers everywhere.

First time in paperback. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

A dictionary all should own.......
This dictionary is funny, biting, pointed, witty, clever........I could add more, but you get the message.I bought one for me, one for my sons and one as a gift for a friend.We all have laughed and nodded at the accuracy and relevance of the "definitions" which, amazingly, were written almost 100 years ago.
I recommend this book to anyone over the age of 12 who enjoys sarcasm, puns, The Onion and laughing at politicians.

About the Unabridged Hardback Version...
This review is about The University of Georgia's hardback version of 2000 (ISBN 0820321966.)

Black and off-black quarter cloth over hardback boards in dustjacket. Sewn binding. Red endpapers. 404 pp, about 1.5 pounds.

Introduction, List of Abbreviations, and List of Appearances of Definitions. Appendix of Supplementary Definitions that were never collected into the work itself. Over 60 pp of End Notes. 7 p. Bibliography.

Required reference book
What can we say about the clever Mr Bierce?His work is the epitome of satire.Keep this book for reference on your desk at work, at home, in the car, etc.

The Devil's Dictionary
The basic version, by Ambrose Bierce, is a classic. The annotated version expands on both the content and the usefulness of the volume.A copy should be on everyone's bookshelf.

Bitter Bierce at his very best...
Also known as "The Cynic's Workbook" this collection is classic and belongs in any library.Ambrose Bierce, like Mark Twain and few other of his contempories, had a biting wit that always left a mark.
Here is just a taste of his humor.

Philosophy: A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.

Eulogy. Praise of a person who has either the advantages of wealth and power, or the consideration to be dead.

Good good stuff.


... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
A contemporary presentation of a range of work by the great nineteenth-century satirist, journalist, and horror writerAmbrose Bierce (1842 1914) was an American satirist, critic, poet, short story writer, editor, and journalist. He eventually became the literary despot of the West Coast, so admired and feared that his review could make or break an aspiring author s career. Bierce s lucid, economic style and lack of maudlin sentiment have kept himpopular while many of his once famous contemporaries have become obscure.Known best for the pithy and acerbic Devil s Dictionary, which is excerpted in this anthology, Bierce is also regarded as one of the finest storytellers of the nineteenth century; his war and horror stories are especially compelling. Poetry and correspondence round out this selection from one of California s most curmudgeonly yet beloved authors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An essential reference
ESSENTIAL BIERCE: SELECTION OF THE WRITINGS OF AMBROSE BIERCE comes from an American critic, poet and editor who was admired for his role as a literary despot of the West Coast. His DEVIL'S DICTIONARY is excerpted here, but more important is the coverage showcasing his other notable achievements, making for an essential reference for any high school or college-level collection serious about literary studies.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch ... Read more