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Loading... Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce (original 1964; edition 1964)by Ambrose Bierce
Work InformationGhost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce by Ambrose Bierce (1964)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. S. T. Joshi’s Ambrose Bierce: The Devil’s Dictionary, Tales, & Memoirs is a better all-around sampler of Bierce’s many facets, but this collection is cheaper, uses Bierce’s Collected Stories as the source for the stories – important since Bierce liked to revise his work each printing, and has all of Bierce’s most famous and significant weird stories and science fiction. I would argue it’s only missing Bierce’s science fiction satires “For the Ahkoond” and “Ashes of the Beacon”. Joshi’s work includes all of Bierce’s Can Such Things Be?, primarily a collection of horror and supernatural works. It does have two things Joshi’s book lacks. First is a Bierce essay on the importance of dreams in his life, “Visions of the Night”. The second is Bleiler’s lengthy introduction. Putting aside that some have found its summary of Bierce’s life as scurrilous, I think its summary and critique of the volume’s stories is valuable. While I appreciate Bierce's knack for "dropping the bomb on the reader," some of these stories became a little to predictable. Don't get me wrong; for the most part, I enjoyed this book. However, if you're a fan of his Civil War shorts, you probably won't like this. He becomes extremely wordy at times, and some of the stories don't even have a plot. Not to be negative, the stories are enjoyable overall. Look for his classic "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and some of his creepy ones: "The Damned Thing" and "The Middle Toe of the Right Foot." no reviews | add a review
23 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. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.4Literature English (North America) American fiction Later 19th Century 1861-1900LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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I figured I'd go to the story that was listed in the introduction as the second most reprinted of this batch, The Middle Toe of the Right Foot, and when it did nothing for me, I decided that Bierce's particular brand of horror was in and of its time, and it has not aged well.
I was not entertained, so I gave up. Bummer.