Зібрання творів

by Ambrose Bierce, Амброуз Бірс, Олег Король (Traslator)

Амброуз Ґвіннетт Бірс (1842–1913) – американський класик, який вважається прекурсором «чорної літератури» ХХ сторіччя. Відомий передовсім як майстерний автор короткої прозової форми, Бірс високо цінувався сучасниками і здобув шану наступників, певною мірою вплинувши на подальший розвиток англомовної химерної і готичної літератури. Амброуз Бірс з притаманною йому гостротою і жорсткістю багато пише про свій досвід участі у Громадянській війні, в якій він воював на боці Півночі, що ліг в основу однієї з його найвідоміших збірок «Оповіді про солдатів і цивільних». Не менш відомою збіркою Бірса є «Чи може таке трапитися?», де він творить літературний канон «страшного» і «надприродного».

Життя Бірса важко назвати щасливим: розлучення з дружиною та її смерть, загибель старшого сина на дуелі, смерть молодшого від хвороби, обтяженої алкоголізмом – вочевидь, усе це й надало того особливого трагічного і містичного забарвлення творам Бірса. А загадкове зникнення письменника і його ймовірна смерть у 1913 – на початку 1914 року і досі слугують темою для різних інтерпретацій, які знайшли відображення у творчості таких відомих письменників, як Г. Ф. Лавкрафт «Щось на порозі», Р. Гайнлайн «Втрачений спадок», Роберт Блох «Люблю блондинок» та ін. Місце поховання Амброуза Бірса і досі лишається невідомим.

Вашій увазі пропонуються твори, що свого часу виходили у трьох найвідоміших збірках Амброуза Бірса, американського класика і творця темної готичної літератури – «Оповіді про солдатів і цивільних», «У вирі життя», «Чи може таке трапитися?»

Інший класик літератури химерного і надприродного, Г. Ф. Лавкрафт, високо цінував творчий доробок Бірса, який певною мірою вплинув і на нього самого. ГФЛ, зокрема, зазначав:

"Ближче до справжньої величі перебував ексцентричний і похмурий журналіст Амброуз Бірс, який теж брав участь у Громадянській війні, але вцілів і написав декілька безсмертних оповідань, а потім зник 1913 року в загадковому тумані, немов створеному його власною зловісною фантазією. Бірс був відомим сатириком і памфлетистом, однак своєю літературною славою він завдячує похмурим і жорстоким оповіданням, переважна частина яких пов’язана з Громадянською війною і які складають найяскравішу та найдостовірнішу картину, що будь-коли існувала в літературі. Правду кажучи, всі оповідання Бірса належать до літератури жаху, і якщо багато з них торкаються лише фізичного чи психологічного жаху Природи, то найвизначніші ведуть мову про надприродне зло і вносять значний вклад в американський фонд літератури про надприродне."

Переважна більшість цих оповідань українською мовою публікується вперше.

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Fiction, Classics, Literature, Fantasy, Gothic

392 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

died perhaps 1914

Caustic wit and a strong sense of horror mark works, including In the Midst of Life (1891-1892) and The Devil's Dictionary (1906), of American writer Ambrose Gwinett Bierce.

People today best know this editorialist, journalist, and fabulist for his short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and his lexicon.

The informative sardonic view of human nature alongside his vehemence as a critic with his motto, "nothing matters," earned him the nickname "Bitter Bierce."

People knew Bierce despite his reputation as a searing critic, however, to encourage younger poet George Sterling and fiction author W.C. Morrow.

Bierce employed a distinctive style especially in his stories. This style often embraces an abrupt beginning, dark imagery, vague references to time, limited descriptions, the theme of war, and impossible events.

Bierce disappeared in December 1913 at the age of 71 years. People think that he traveled to Mexico to gain a firsthand perspective on ongoing revolution of that country.

Theories abound on a mystery, ultimate fate of Bierce. He in one of his final letters stated: "Good-bye. If you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags, please know that I think it is a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. To be a Gringo in Mexico--ah, that is euthanasia!"

Reviews

[Andrew]

Hey! You like Kafka, right? Cormac McCarthy? Borges? Then why the FUCK aren't you reading Ambrose Bierce?

This is our own homegrown, 19th Century Gothic/absurd/nihilistic wonder, by turns moody, witty, unearthly, gritty, surreal, and blackly humorous in a way that makes Flannery O'Connor seem like Dora the Explorer. He covers so much territory in so many genres and was so far ahead of his time to really be fully appreciated by us Yanks, and then, when life sucked too bad, had the cojones to actually disappear. Do not sleep on this, friends.

[Данило Судин · Rating 3 out of 5]

В це зібрання потрапили дві збірки оповідань: "Оповіді про солдатів і цивільних" та "Чи може так трапитися?". До речі, в анотації хибно вказано, що в цьому томі є оповідання з трьох збірок оповідань, де до названих вище двох додалася збірка "У вирі життя". Втім, це помилка: "У вирі життя" - це інша назва збірки "Оповіді про солдатів і цивільних". За життя Бірс видавав цю збірку під двома назвами. Мабуть, аби вона ліпше продавалася...
І ще один цікавий факт: за життя Бірс тасував оповідання зі збірок "Оповіді про солдатів і цивільних" та "Чи може так трапитися?": частина оповідань "кочувала" з одного томика до іншого.
А все тому, що за життя Бірс не був відомим як автор оповідань. Успіху на цій ниві він не зазнав, а був успішним журналістом.

І цей же Бірс вплинув на ГФЛ (Говарда Філіпса Лавкрафта). Якщо ви читали Повне зібрання прозових творів. Том 1, то одразу помітите, які з оповідань Бірса ГФЛ наслідував.

І я мушу зізнатися: горор в Бірса ніякий. Так, в раннього ГФЛ він теж кумедний, а деколи нудний (і про це я писав у своєму відгуку на перший том зібрання творів ГФЛ). Але ГФЛ, врешті-решт, виходить на свій неповторний стиль. А от Бірс... Бірсові це не вдається.
Його горор не страшний, деколи без зв'язного сюжету, деколи з надмірними твістами. Про ці твісти я дізнався із критики, а тому був готовим. Але попереджу, про всяк випадок, тих, хто буде просто читати Бірса - з "чистого листа". Бірс любить закрутити сюжет так, щоб читач "прифігів". А тому оповідання починається з "середини" - ми одразу у вирі історії. І далі через флешбеки нам її розплутують. А часто Бірс пише про одних персонажів, а далі докидає нових, які ніяк з попередньою частиною оповідання не пов'язані. Наче це інше оповідання. І лише в третій частині оповідання ці дві лінії сходяться. І тут треба бути уважним, бо Бірс не дає розгадку напряму, а треба уважно стежити за іменами та стосунками цих "імен". І тоді пазл складається. Але він - і це дуже сумно! - не вартує такої уваги. А деколи гонитва за твістами робить оповідання або переускладненим, або із занадто радикальним, відірваним фіналом.

І, що найгірше, в збірці 52 оповідання. З них читабельних 12, цікавих 9, а вражаючих 5. Ось такий підсумок... Чому ж тоді не така розгромна оцінка?
Якраз за ці 5 оповідань. Перелічу їх Вершник у небі, Син богів, Один із пропалих безвісти, Убитий під Ресакою, Бій у Култеровій западині. Прикметно, що всі вони - про Громадянську війну у США.
Зроблю короткий відступ - про три напрямки творчості Бірса.
Перший - оповідання про війну. Це частина перша збірки "Оповіді про солдатів і цивільних", а саме: "Солдати". Тут Бірс описує свій власний ветеранський досвід. І це дійсно сильна проза. Саме через це Бірса порівнюють з Stephen Crane, зокрема, з "Червоним знаком звитяги". Адже обоє описують досвід війни з перспективи рядового солдата. І війна у них огидна та брудна справа. Так, є героїзм, але є і ганебні командири.

До цього переліку я б додав ще декілька оповідань про війну - "Випадок на мості через Совиний струмок" та "Джупітер Доук, бригадний генерал". Перше - прото-Гемінґвей. Тут дуже насичений опис, який критики вважають попередником "потоку свідомості", мені все ж асоціюється з Гемінґвеєм саме в описі того, що оточує дійових осіб. Друге - сатира на війну, а точніше на воєнну бюрократію.

Друга група оповідань - психологічні трилери. Тут також є два цікаві твори - Сумнозвісний заповіт Ґілсона та Людина і змія. В них Бірс показує, які дивовижі може з людиною творити її розумі / мозок / свідомість.

І третя група оповідань - горор. І тут дійсно нічим пишатися. Хоча можна згадати три оповідання - "Забите вікно", "Вівчар Гайта" та "Середній палець правої ноги". Але їх підводить або погоня за твістом ("Палець"), або прямолінійне моралізування ("Вівчар"). До речі, ці оповідання цілком лавкрафтіанські, але навіть ранній ГФЛ ці ж теми / сюжети пише більш стильно і захоплююче.

Підсумовуючи, Бірс не є тим автором, який вражає сучасних читачів та читачок. Для мене він більше постать з історії горору. Цікава, варта прочитання, але не сама по собі, а як "тато" ГФЛ та його стилю.
Втім, я тішуся, що Бірса переклали українською. Це той випадок, коли для розуміння культурного канону такі автори потрібні, хоча вони вже й застарілі.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este livro termina com um breve resumo da vida de Ambrose Bierce, que é tão estranha e perturbadora como a maioria dos contos que escreveu.
Nasceu no Ohio, em 1842, e foi um dos treze filhos de um casal pobre mas culto. Estudou engenharia topográfica e alistou-se no exército onde foi gravemente ferido. Posteriormente, trabalhou nas Finanças e num jornal. Casou e teve dois filhos; os filhos morreram, a mulher morreu. Um dia, atravessou a fronteira mexicana e desapareceu para sempre.

Este volume contém os 92 contos escritos por Bierce. Variam essencialmente entre histórias de militares e de batalhas, e histórias sobrenaturais.
Não gostei de todos, principalmente dos de guerra, mas há alguns que são um prodígio pela naturalidade, humor, sarcasmo e alguma crueldade com que Bierce narra episódios que deviam assustar, ou chocar, mas que acabam a fazer-nos rir.
Fantasmas que pairam na terra para fazerem justiça; assassinos cruéis e simultaneamente ingénuos, marinheiros obcecados com livros até os barcos afundarem; famílias loucas com profissões estranhas; soldados (muitos) corajosos e com um sentido de honra inabalável; e muito mais...

[Eleanore · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a marvelous surprise to discover the wit and pen that sketched-out such wonderful and scathing commentary through the Devil's Dictionary has an equal if not greater ability for vivid, poignant, and in many cases quite thrilling short tales. The same dry voice carves eloquently from such humble subject-matter as miners, farmers, and soldiers a variety (one might even say a perversity) of angles on the human condition - with a sharp clarity that is in no way lessened by its lightness, its humor, and its skepticism. With hundreds of these small gems (ghost stories, war stories, and tall-tales) collected in this edition, however, it is difficult to digest much less appreciate in a single sitting, but no better candidate for an evening reflection in small bites!

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you only read one Bierce story a day, you’ll be busy for a year. I don’t recommend sitting down with this collection and trying to plow straight through. You need some time to mentally unpack each one and let the impact come through. There are so many works of masterful craftsmanship, that it’s difficult to consider them all.

THE SUITABLE SURROUNDINGS is a thesis statement on the enjoyment of horror fiction. This is required reading for every consumer of the genre. AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE is one of the finest short stories ever crafted. It’s tight and compact and shows the strength of the short form. THE DAMNED THING had a direct influence on the creation of THE DUNWICH HORROR, and we’re the better for having both works to enjoy side by side.

CHICKAMAUGA is an amazing story. The layers of the fantasy contrasted with the reality of war was deftly presented in a compact space. I was also not ready for that much explicit gore in a story published in 1889. This is probably the best zombie story I've read this year. I have a new benchmark to consider at least those stories against.

My favorites works of Bierce have to be OIL OF DOG and THE CITY OF THE GONE AWAY. The humor in these is a shade of black so dark that Goths swoon with envy. They’re filled with awful people doing awful things to other awful people conducted in dryly gleeful maliciousness.

[Riannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

As soon as I read this quote by Bierce in the introduction, I knew this collection would be worth reading: "I know how to write a story...for magazine readers for whom literature is too good, but I will not do so as long as stealing is more honorable and more interesting." I smiled while reading this, silently agreeing with Bierce that there are a plethora of readers "for whom literature is too good," and respecting the fact that he refused to compromise his literary principles to make money.

Some of the stories in the collection were mediocre while others were excellent, but on the whole it was well worth reading. Some of them defy categorization, others are ghost stories, but my favorites are the most satirical, for this is where Bierce's best talents lie; as one can see from the phrase quoted above Bierce was very well able to employ a rapier wit against those around him. One short story I especially enjoyed was "The Applicant," but they are all well-written and many are amusing and thought-provoking as well.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many wonderful, unexpected things to be found in these pages. Probably American literature's most gruesome sense of humor. The civil war stories read like horror stories. The horror stories read like dark comedy, and the tall tales read like the wicked, prolonged jokes told by drunken old men.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is divided into three sections: The World of Horror, The World of War, and The World of Tall Tales. Each section should be reviewed on its own. The World of Horror is an enjoyable collection of ghost stories. They are not terribly frightening, but they good, worth three stars.
The World of War is, obviously, a collection of stories on war, the Civil War to be specific. This section would be given five stars. Taken as a whole, they are a masterpiece of the genre, but also they are not simply war stories. They are literature of a high order, the reason Ambrose Bierce was a writer. In my opinion, they are likely the standard against which Civil War fiction must be measured.
The World of Tall Tales was virtually unreadable. I cannot say I truly enjoyed any of the stories. One gets the impression they were written only for the money Bierce was paid for them. One has difficulty believing these stories were written by the same author who wrote the stories of The World of War. These would get one star.

[Loskotka · Rating 5 out of 5]

ОВВА! Це і є моє враження протягом читання цієї книги. Амброуз Бірс насправді майстер готичних історій та геніальний оповідач трагічного та містичного. Найбільше я вражена його вмінням занурити читача в оповідання всього за кілька сторінок, змусити глибоко співчувати герою, якого 'знаєш' лише п'ять хвилин. Але ця лаконічність зовсім не межує із поверховістю, а іронія автора завжди дуже тонка та мудро прихована. Лише одне трохи не сподобалося - коли читаєш ці оповідання по кілька/багато в один прийом, то дещо втомлюе постійна пристрасть Бірса до несподіваних закінчень; це є його стиль. Але все ж таки не пам'ятаю іншої такої збірки короткої прози, якій би хотілося поставити навіть більше ніж 5 зірок!

[Jon Recluse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ambrose Bierce was a true American original. Civil War hero. Journalist. A true master of the English language who lived by the maxim "Less is more" in his writing. (He defined a novel as "a short story, padded"). Gifted with a razor sharp mind and a wit commonly referred to as "pure venom", Bierce's stories are unique in the amount of power he packed into so few words. In this collection, you will find his excellent ghost and horror stories, his often horrific tales based upon his experiences in the Civil War, and his hysterically funny, politically incorrect "fables".

Highest recommendation.

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Civil War stories? Wonderful. The horror stories? Fantastic! The Tall Tales? Meh. Two out of three ain't bad.

I would get the book for the first two and if you like silly stories that make no sense and aren't even funny in their absurdity, then you'll like that last group of stories as well.

Because the Civil War and Horror stories are so well written and enjoyable, I would still recommend getting this book if you're an Ambrose Bierce fan, as I am.

[Brent · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only thing that could make this collection a more perfect union would be to put the 'tall tales' section at the beginning or middle because, there's a touch of anticlimax reading them after the ghost and war stories sections. Oh they're great, they just don't wrench you and break your heart like the other two sections do.

[Evgen Novakovskyi]

чи боїшся ти сутінкової зони? ось я вже давно ні, але сентимент до коротеньких, дещо наївних жахастиків з обовʼязковими твістами й досі нікуди не зник. мабуть, десь у паралельному світі тринадцятирічний я знайшов свою нову улюблену книжку, а поточна версія вловила відгомін сигналу з іншої реальності та відчула щось непоясненно-дивне, але чомусь дуже-дуже тепле. ставлю два срібних долари, що Амброуз Бірс зацінив би таку інтерпретацію.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was nearly a decade in finishing. I began reading some of his tales--and subsequently purchased this volume--in high school. Separated into three massive sections, horror, war stories, and "tall-tales", the volume is really three collections and gives the strange impression of three minds to one writer; though one can see clearly how one person could have written all three types of stories, the horror tales are so similar to each other that it's hard imagining the writer ever writing anything else--similarly the war stories and the tall-tales are so characteristic unto themselves that it seems the writer can only imagine the world in this way. That's one of the quite disorienting things about Ambrose Bierce--is he a broken record, or a genius, a traumatized civil war veteran, or an emotional schizophrenic? The horror stories shows a man consumed by the presence of death--and both seems to mock--or pity--the irrationality of humans to be so susceptible to supernatural suggestion. The war stories are more strikingly powerful in their depiction of empirical senselessness of human life lost, and achieve greatness in conception, craft, and completion. The tall-tales show an irreverence and satire seldom matched by a long line of America satirists, and are shocking in their off-handed brutality and morbidity--you will end up wanting to walk into the next room and recite a paragraph you've just read. As a newspaper man, his style is sharp and succinct, and his sentences turn on a word. Consider this opening paragraph to a story: A Bottomless Grave. "My name is John Brenwalter. My father, a drunkard, had a patent for an invention for making coffee-berries out of clay; but he was an honest man and would not himself engage in the manufacture. He was, therefore, only moderately wealthy, his royalties from his really valuable invention bringing him hardly enough to pay his expenses of litigation with rogues guilty of infringement. So I lacked many advantages enjoyed by the children of unscrupulous and dishonorable parents, and had it not been for a noble and devoted mother, who neglected all my brothers and sisters and personally supervised my education, should have grown up in ignorance and been compelled to teach school. To be the favorite child of a good woman is better than gold." Then, at times, he achieves sublimity worthy of Murakami, such as in the sentence: "No sooner had he set foot amongst us than he was assailed with a tempest of questions which, had they been visible, would have resembled a flight of pigeons." Ironically, I felt most enamored by Bierce in the last several stories in the collection, all taking place upon various sailing vessels, with reoccurring characters, including a Captain Abersouth, who reads amounts of second-rate literature in the midst of various disasters, and who often seems to die at the end, and a narrator who always seems to miraculously survive. When finally the Captain scolds the narrator as being a "coward", since the narrator always leaves him to die and escapes at the end of each story, the narrator narrates, "It was true. Being usually the hero of my own stories, I commonly do manage to live through one, in order to figure to advantage in the next. It is from artistic necessity: no reader would take much interest in a hero who was dead before the beginning of the tale. I endeavored to explain this to Captain Abersouth. He shook his head." In this wonderful passage, Bierce both shows contempt for modern form and episodic adventure stories, as well perhaps of even the idea of a "hero," and the literary implications that that implies. The story ends with Captain Abersouth perplexed by the point that the narrator then delivers as to whether or not he should consider his own situation, dying repeatedly at the end of their stories only to be found perfectly unharmed in the next one. "I suggested as delicately as possible that it was time to act. He rose to his feet and fixing upon me a look of reproach which I shall remember as long as I can, cast himself into the deep. As to me--I escaped." These last lines ring with meaning to me, not only because it is the last story he has seemed to write of these two characters (thus escaping an endless, pointless narrative, ie a book), but also the tale of Bierce himself, who left off for Mexico one day and was never seen or heard from again. In his work, after all, the men he focuses on rarely escape death, as it was, most likely in the war. Why then give the world immortal literary heros? There are none.

[James Cullender · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can anyone say about Ambrose Bierce's writing? Along with Edgar Allan Poe, before him and H.P. Lovercraft, after him, he is one of the undisputed Masters of the Horror genre. Long before Genre mixing became popular, Bierce had already done it successfully. His War stories, Bierce was Civil War veteran himself, are as realistic as "All Quiet on the Western Front" and as anything that Hemingway wrote but have feel of a Horror story. Of course, really what can be more horrible in real life than War? His stories also never really seem dated, even if they are set in another time period than our own. In fact, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" was so good and palatable to modern audiences that Rod Serling used it, pretty "as written," word-for-word, as an episode of The Twilight Zone (original). In an era when, Flash Fiction is popular and attention spans for readers are often short, Bierce should be considered a true Pioneer in the field. Some of his stories are three or less typed pages in a Trade Paperback-sized book and they were published in the era where the Novel was king. These stories are fully realized too...or as full realized as any short story can be. In fact, all Bierce wrote were short stories and he basically disdained Novels as "bloated" short stories. Of course, Bierce's works aren't Character Driven and, if you're looking for heavy Characterization he probably won't do it for you as a reader but if you after a quick chilling read he's terrific. Unlike Poe or especially Lovercraft, his language isn't so 19th century that you need a dictionary to look up the words and the phrases he uses don't seem awkward to the modern "ear." Unfortunately, having experienced a lot of deaths personally, and thus consequently thought a lot about the subject and what "the Afterlife" must be like, in my estimation Bierce's masterpiece "The Moonlit Road" is the closest fictional, written depiction we have of what it must be like to be a ghost. Bierce had a sad, somewhat depressing life in which he experienced lots of death and violence all the way up to his own mysterious and still unsolved disappearance-which could have been right out of one of his stories-but he used these tragic experiences to write some of the greatest, dark stories ever written.

[Brenton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ambrose Bierce is considered one of the finest satirists in the English language, and also a perfecter of the modern short story. Of most interest to me was his status as one of the more important precursors to today's horror literature. He was an early practitioner of the short-form tale of terror, and as I understand it did much to till the soil (alongside the likes of M.R. James) for the bloom of horror and weird fiction in the early 20th century. True enough, one will find psychological terror, ghost stories, haunted houses, and even a Frankensteinian science fiction tragedy within.

Of note, however, is that Bierce's tales never exist for the simple sake of their genre vestments; all of Bierce's fiction pointedly tears at the foibles of man. His horror stories are not meant merely to frighten but to reveal the weaknesses in man's intellect, the hypocrisies within his self-ward gaze, the ease with which man gives in to superstition. Bierce's war tales illustrate the false nobility of our conflicts and the impartial hunger of death opposite our quaint bravery and conceited pride. And his tall tales wear ridicule on their sleeves. This is why Bierce's reputation lingers on even as many of his influences are forgotten.

His storytelling is not without flaw; in particular, his horror tales suffered from a formulaic set up. Almost invariably they begin at an abandoned abode somewhere on a road between two old American towns. This can be overlooked, however, in light of the deftness of his wit and the layered depth of his meaning. Several of these stories remain, today, crowning achievements in American short story writing, with "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" still appearing in anthologies and others, like "An Inhabitant of Carcosa", even now finding new life as reference material for the likes of HBO's True Detective. Pick this up and sit at the feet of a master.

[Stephanie]

I was crushing on Ambrose Bierce from a distance before, but then I read The Old Gringo. Now I want to join the ranks of the obsessed.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Contains the stories:

THE WORLD OF HORROR
Haïta the Shepherd - 4/5 - not really a horror story, but a fable about a fleeting feeling
The Secret of Macarger's Gulch -
The Eyes of the Panther -
The Stranger -
An Inhabitant of Carcosa - 4/5 - a creepy story that was inspirational to Robert W. Chambers's The King in Yellow
The Applicant -
The Death of Halpin Frayser -
A Watcher by the Dead -
The Man and the Snake -
John Mortonson's Funeral -
Moxon's Master -
The Damned Thing -
The Realm of the Unreal -
A Fruitless Assignment -
A Vine on a House -
The Haunted Valley -
One of Twins -
Present at a Hanging -
A Wireless Message -
The Moonlit Road -
An Arrest -
A Jug of Sirup -
The Isle of Pines -
At Old Man Eckert's -
The Spook House -
The Middle Toe of the Right Foot -
The Thing at Nolan -
The Difficulty of Crossing a Field -
An Unfinished Race -
Charles Ashmore's Trail -
Staley Fleming's Hallucination -
The Night-Doings at "Deadman's" -
A Baby Tramp -
A Psychological Shipwreck -
A Cold Greeting -
Beyond the Wall -
John Bartine's Watch -
The Man Out of the Nose -
An Adventure at Brownville -
The Suitable Surroundings -
The Boarded Window -
A Lady from Redhorse -
The Famous Gilson Bequest -
A Holy Terror -
A Diagnosis of Death -

THE WORLD OF WAR
One of the Missing -
A Baffled Ambuscade -
The Affair at Coulter's Notch -
A Son of the Gods -
One Kind of Officer -
A Tough Tussle -
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge -
Chickamauga -
The Coup de Grâce -
One Officer, One Man -
The Story of a Conscience -
Parker Adderson, Philosopher -
An Affair of Outposts -
Jupiter Doke, Brigadier-General -
A Horseman in the Sky -
The Mocking-Bird -
George Thurston -
Killed at Resaca -
Three and One Are One -
Two Military Executions -
The Major's Tale -
A Resumed Identity -
A Man with Two Lives -
The Other Lodgers -
A Bivouac of the Dead -

THE WORLD OF TALL TALES
An Imperfect Conflagration -
A Bottomless Grave -
The City of the Gone Away -
Curried Cow -
A Revolt of the Gods -
Oil of Dog -
The Widower Turmore -
The Baptism of Dobsho -
The Race at Left Bower -
The Failure of Hope & Wandel -
A Providential Intimation -
Mr. Swiddler's Flip-Flap -
The Little Story -
My Favorite Murder -
The Hypnotist -
Mr. Masthead, Journalist -
Why I am Not Editing "The Stinger" -
Corrupting the Press -
"The Bubble Reputation" -
A Shipwreckollection -
The Captain of the "Camel" -
The Man Overboard -
A Cargo of Cat -

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, Ambrose Bierce maintains the lead as the best darn short story author the US has produced (and we have produced a lot good 'uns). He is funny, he is insightful, he is terse. As a contemporary of Mark Twain, a Lieutenant in the Union Army during the Civil War, a columnist for Hearst, and an observer in Pancho Villa's army, he saw it all, and wasn't afraid to speak his mind. His somber stories are powerful even now, and his tall tales would work as well today as then. I've attached a link to one of his Civil War stories below for those that want a taste of his less humorous side.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge


For a quick taste of his humor:

BELLADONNA, n. In Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison. A striking example of the essential identity of the two tongues.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've actually only read a few of the stories in here, but I love Bierce's style and humor. Some of the stories are satires, others are twisted little gothic tales--but they all share his peculiar dark wit and sometimes bitter irony. He's great for when you're in a bad mood or just need to laugh at humanity. The stories are fairly short, so it's a good thing for casual reading or to take on a plane ride.

[Bruce Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uneven, as any omnibus will be, but Bierce's precision has the merit of brevity. When he's got hold of a rum idea, at least he doesn't torture it beyond its length. At his full powers--"Chickamauga," "The Moonlit Road," "The Affair at Coulter's Notch" and so many others--I'd probably cite him as my favorite short story writer, acerbic yet still heartfelt, dispassionate but fully invested, formally precise while aware of the horrors that threaten all reason.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read and loved "The Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge" and "The Damned Thing" when I was a kid. A few that I actually liked better reading this book of short stories were, "The Secret of Macarger's Gulch" for it's initial scare and humorous ending, and "The Watcher of the Dead" which also had a fun ending. Bierce's writing is straight-forward and descriptive, and one of the few from the turn of the century to have dealt with the supernatural. A fun read for me.

[Katie Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a fan of the Twilight Zone, as I am, you will love these stories. They really have the same feel.

[James Neve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bierce is fabulous. Love his Devil's Dictionary, too.

[Donald Armfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Within in the compiled collection there is so much to like. Ambrose Bierce haunts, drops bombs, hangs men over bridges and leaves not a single detail to waste.

[Joshua Buhs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally finished! I've been dipping into this book for over a year. Mostly because I felt like I _should_ know my Bierce: he's foundational to so many later American writers, even though he is mostly ignored today, with the exception of "An Incident at Owl Creek Bridge," which has become a school-house classic.

And I cannot say that he is unjustly ignored. As always, this is probably a reflection of my own Philistine tendencies. What I see, though, is that so much of Bierce has been picked up by later writers--from Harry Wilson to HP Lovecraft to Stephen King--that reading him is not so much a revelation anymore as much as a work of historical recovery. One could argue, though. that to the extent Mark Twain is treated as the Great American author, Bierce was clearly his rival; but while Twain's bitter streak didn't really come out until late in his life, Bierce's was always there: he was the father of the great tradition of dark American literature.

The book is divided into three, the world of horror-the longest section--the world of war, and the world of tall tales. The categories, though, seem more arbitrary then such divisions usually do. A number of the war tales, for example--including The Incident at Owl Creek Bridge--rely on surprise, horrific, or weird endings much in the same way as the stories of horror. And the very first tale in the World of Horror, Haita the Shepherd, could just as easily have gone into the World of Tall Tales, as it is more fable than anything else.

There are points worth noting. Bierce could be exceptionally precise--sometimes too precise, in that late nineteenth-century way, with paragraphs that keep on going. I am not a huge fan of short stories (and maybe that's one reason I don't like movies too much, which are really short stories), but it is very true that the weird story--the horror story--seems particularly well adapted to a short form, despite Stephen King's doorstops. (Some of which are great, don't get me wrong.) Bierce introduces quotes from fake books, which I find interesting--something of a predecessor to Lovecraft's Necronomicon, then.

The stories just after "the damned thing" drag at points, but are the finest stories t that point in the book, engaging, the language--archaic though it is--working with the story. Bierce tries to root these in reality, away from the more dreamy extremes of the Gothic--although in these cases they almost come across as early examples of Scooby Doo, cramming an impossible-to-guess explanation of the seemingly occult at the end.

The World of Tall Tales are probably Bierce's least known stories, but they may be among his best: he seems the most relaxed in these. He's still working hard, still precise in his language, but lets his imagination run free from the leash in ways that aren't generally acceptable in literature these days, which is much more hemmed in by naturalism and realism. There's a kind of magical realism to these that give them a power not so much visible in the other stories simply because the tricks and techniques in those stories are now so ubiquitous.

This book also includes an introduction, by a journalist and professor who helped compile Bierce's short stories, and it is fine: serviceable. All of the stories can also now be found online for free.

Haita The Shepherd: Almost Grimm's faity-tale like. allegorical tale about the impossibility of retaining happiness. (1891)
The Secret of Macarger's gulch: started out strong, focused on the geology. a bit stodgy and clumsy at times. not sure if the continuity holds up (or at least the constant on and off of the fire is annoying). after the first bit on a man's uncanny experience, jumos ahead to an interview in which it takes on new significance. not unlike king's end of gerald's game. personally, don't like the technique. made better here by a sly sense of humor. was this an early story? no (1891.)
The Eyes of the Panther: Maybe clever at tthe time, though obvious now. Evocative writing.
Nicely structured. Maternal impressions. 1897.
The Stranger--a ghost story. 1909
An inhabitant of Carcosa, nicely conceived story of a tale told from the perspective of the ghost. 1886
The applicant--A reversal of fortune. Pretty obvious but fine. 1892
The Death of Halpin Frayser--suggestions of incest, dreams, not overly explained. 1891
A Watcher by the Dead--A man says he won't be scared by a haunted house--the man who was to watch him scared him to death, and escaped using his identity. 1889.
The man and the snake--a worldly man, gone for a long time, stays at the house of an eccentric scientist; he reads of the old superstition that snakes hypnotize their pray. Turns out the scientist has a room full of snakes; the man thinks he sees one--and eventually dies of fright. The snake is revealed to be a stuffed one. So he died of fright he caused himself: supersitions still have power. Good description of fear. 1890.
John Mortonson's Funeral--Paratext suggests tis was unfinished by the author and published after he was dead. Abotu a funeral. Everyone upset--and then the cat that was trapped in the coffin with him starts to eat his face. The coffin is see-through. Gross out of the time? 1906.
Moxon's Master--Two men debate the reality of machine thought; one of them has created on smart enough to play chess-but also loses, gets mad, and kills him. Machines do more than think. 1899.
The damned thing. bvious presage to colour out of space. structure is, weirdness, then explanation. 1893.
the realm of the unreal--about hypnotism and hindu magic. same structure as above. 1890.
fruitless assignment--haunted house story. 1888
vine on a house--Fortean event, explained supernaturally: vine shuttered to reveal grave. Obvsly influenced by poe. 1905.
the haunted valley--anti-chinese violence hides unrequited love story. Really good. A bit meta. 1888.
one of twins--on uncanniness of twins, and how one appears to man who killed other, and scared him. great last line: to know of a man that he i dead should be enough." influenced o. henry? NO, this was his first short. 1871.
present at a hanging--weird hanging and murder. title is best part. 1888.
a wireless message: weird experience is uncanny knowledge of wive's distant demise. (Note: tech and mysticism connection. 1907.
Moonlit road--? 1907.
An Arrest--murderer arrested by man he killed. 1905.
jug of sirup--sharp, anti-christian humor. sirup sold by dead man. 1893
the isle of pines--pirate ghost. skips emotion for effect. 1888
old man eckhart--two mysterious disappearances 1901
spook house--lots of paratext; like cask of amontillado: died in locked room. 1889
middle toe: very layered. at root, haunted house, man sent there by ghost of woman he killed. elaborate set up. 1890
thing at nolan--ghost--presence frees man guilty of killing him. 1891
crossing a field--anothe rmysterious disappearance 1888
unfinished race--as above. could as easily be tall tale 1888
Charles ashmore--and again 1888
SF hallucination--dead man's dog haunts, kills murderer. 1906
Night at Deadman's--death claims murderer pf Chinese man. Gothic. 1874
baby tramp--abandoned kid myseriously finds way back to parents grave, dies. 184: shower of frogs, red snow. scientists ignorant. good sinewy structure. 1891
psychological shipwreck--premonition of death. 1879
cold greeting: unadorned, meta--w/o literary effect. ghost story. 1888
beyond the wall--premonition of death. p 194. 1907
john bartine's watch: doctors prank to reveal man crazy kills man. 1893.
man of the nose--fatal love affair. little supernatural. 1887.
"An Adventure at Brownville" weird mysterious murders. two women killed b a svengali, it seems. 1892.
"The Suitable Surroundings" clever. a bit meta. story telling and ghoss comspire to kill man. 1889.
"the boarded window" lady and panther again. this time, dead woman taes a bite out of panther. meditation on grief. 1891.
"lady from redhorn" epistolary. very different fromusual style. he had a knack for more naturalistic language. woman falls in love with man--who was a boy she knew growing up, now unrecognizable. 1891.
"Gilson's Bequest," 1878. Sharp start. Then meanders a bit--although the language is precise. Gilson seems to be a crook. he dies, and his will specifies the recipient defend his name in court for five years, and then may claim a rich bounty. The man does, and comes to appreciate gilson was innocent. and then sees gilson's ghost and dies.
"Holy Terror" 1882. bitter. tourists come across a ghost town, and its history is told--of greed and ambition and stupidity. one tourist ends up dead.
"A Diagnosius of Death" 1901. man sees dead doctor who was a remarkable diagnostician, and the ghost says he'll die: which he does.
"one of the missing" (1888) sharp writing. bit of cosmic sense: that the universe was not aligned for certain outcomes. surprise ending--already dead.
"a baffled ambuscade" (1906) as above
"the affair at coulter's notch" (1889) very bitter about the horrors of war and the break up of family
"a son of the gods" (1888): a bit experimental. again,t he cosmic sense--that all this war is small and petty despite its horrors.
One kind of officer (1893) could just as well be catch-22 with its bitter ironies about the hierarchy of the military. man who thought he had his superior caught out bitches out his inferior, and so gets no help and ultimately executed.
"a tough tussle" (1888) could go as well with his horror stuff. left with a dead body a soldier goes crazy, fights it, and kills self (or is killed by ghost).
"an occurence at owl creek bridge" (1890) you know
"chicka mauga" (1889) no notes
"the coup de grace" (1889): ironies of war: brother against brother.
"one officer, one man" (1889): useless death in war.
"the story of aa conscience" (1890) man forced to kill someone who saved his life--then kills self
"parker adderson, philosopher" (1891) spy not so smarmy when faced with death.
"an affair of outposts" (1897) governor having affair with soldier's wife--sid affair having sent the soldier to battle.
"jupiter doke, brigadier general" (1885) told through letters. stupidity of bureaucracy. luck of those who win.
"a horseman in the sky" (1889): officer wise enough not to tell an incredible truth
"the mocking-bird" (1891) could be vonnegut's poo-too-weet: bird as witness to horrors of war.

[Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, so I picked this up because I remember reading "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" in high school and thinking I could read more of that. Plus this dude disappeared into Mexico during the Mexican Revolution, and I would see what that brain is like more (up next, I gotta find Old Gringo the novel and the movie to see how that story got taken up in popular culture, but it may have to wait until my library opens up again).

I have a problem with the editing. The introduction is great: just what I wanted for context--the guy's life and how it influenced his writing. Sometimes intros get all technical about the writing and how it's SO GREAT, and I don't usually like those, just because I don't really know that much about the technical side or the genres and categories of literary critics and so it all seems like an exercise in showing how much the intro-writer knows and has good taste about. But this intro was nice and historical. The forewords likewise put things into context and very gently drew attention to some of the gems in each section--ghost stories, war stories, tall tales. BUT the stories are grouped together badly. They're not chronological, because each section has a footnote for the "first" of its kind ever published, and they're not at the beginning of the section. So they're loosely grouped by theme WITHIN type. Like all the ghost stories in which people die of fright are grouped together, and then all the stories in which people mysteriously disappear. It makes the individual stories less interesting--it exposes Bierce's common tropes and, for me, cheapens them. It points to how often he returned to the same themes and treated them in the same ways. Surely, the writing is not the fault of the editor, but combining them thematically like that lessened each story's effect on me. Bierce would not approve. In one story, he has a writer complain to an uncharitable reader that, in order to get in the mood for a ghost story, you have to give the writer a chance to tell their story: at least read it at night, alone, in a spooky house if you can find one.

So, the stories. I felt like Bierce and O. Henry could have had some good times together. But where Henry is a bit funnier and seems to like people more, Bierce is bitter and cynical. Both would tell you a good story, but O. Henry would try to end it with a guffaw and a slap on your back and Bierce would wink at you and take a shot of something and turn his back on you. Both would try to put one over on you if they could--they love their twists.

The ghost stories were...meh. Again, most of them are about how there is nothing to fear but fear itself, and people lie when they say they're not afraid. So they die of fright because they can't admit they're afraid. There are also some ghosts who stay around to get revenge or to seek justice or who long for life again. Fine.

The war stories were eerie and sad. "Chickamauga" is just about the most perfect awful story. A little boy "leads" a band of battle survivors as they limp and crawl away from battle. It's like zombies but not (yet) dead. It's vivid and strange. Revisiting "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" was not as satisfying as I'd hoped. I remembered the vividness of the protagonist's experience of life: I thought there was a rainbow or something? It didn't FEEL as remarkable as when I read it as a young person. And the gender stuff more jumped out at me: his wife as a symbol of innocence and home and all that. In high school, my teacher didn't draw attention to the gendered experience of war, which is totally there either to be demonstrated or critiqued. The editor mentions that Bierce's war stories are really anti-war stories, and this is true. They point to the lack of glory in war, the difference between what we romanticize and the reality of fighting and dying. They point to the harshness of military discipline and required loyalty and the way the insistence on hierarchy and protocol sometimes displaces sound decision-making.

The tall tales were where I got my money's worth. THIS is the dude I signed up for: silly, angry, mean, clever. His nonfiction sounds like it would probably be more like this, with his desire to take the stuffing out of the elite and the hypocritical. So the tall tales mostly have gleefully evil narrators who state their evilness like regular people would state their goodness. "A Bottomless Grave" has a few similarities to the movie Parasite, that I wonder if anyone has noticed or commented on. It has a family of grifters and a hidden space and food stealing. I'm not saying that Bong Joon-ho took inspiration from this--his story is much more layered and developed for a broader social criticism. But the similarities struck me and I just wondered about the connections.

I don't think I would be this guy's friend, but I enjoyed this collection well enough.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the title suggests, this single volume contains the entire fiction output of one of America’s most interesting writers. Ambrose Bierce was an extremely colorful individual, who is probably best known today for his cynical work, “The Devil’s Dictionary,” a satirical lexicon which irreverently attacked the mores and foibles of the time. He lived during the late 19th and early 20th century, having served in the Civil War and relocated in San Francisco at a time when it could still be considered “the Wild West.” He worked for the equally colorful William Randolph Hearst during the time when he was building up his newspaper empire from that city. Bierce even managed to fascinate in death – at an advanced age he wandered off into the desert, ostensibly to join Pancho Villa’s revolutionaries in Mexico, never to be heard from again.
Bierce is probably better appreciated as a witty writer of “non-fiction,” than as an author of fiction, not least because he eschewed and despised the novel as a literary form. Nevertheless, his short stories are often wonderful, and one can detect his influence on later writers despite his relative lack of recognition. This volume divides his stories, not too arbitrarily, into three categories: “horror,” “war,” and “tall tales.” For me, his horror stories are most interesting, not least because of the obvious influence they had on the writer HP Lovecraft, who literally borrowed one of Bierce’s lines (about small boys and broken windows) for one of his stories, and who also used imagery and the fictional god Hastur from the story “Haifa the Shepherd” as well. Many of Bierce’s horror stories are very effective in their brevity – they tell nothing that does not contribute to the final chill. I am not certain whether the stories in this section were arranged chronologically, but I did find that the later stories tended to be tripped up by Bierce’s own wit, to the point where the chills were undermined by cynical snickers. I might have moved some of these to the “tall tales” section, myself. The “war” stories are further examples of “horror,” but in this case not supernatural horror, but rather the very real horror that Bierce himself had experienced as a soldier. Most of them are explicitly about the Civil War, and generally told from the Union perspective (the side Bierce fought for). They are not, however, vindications of one particular side, but rather explorations of the trauma of a nation set against itself – and, by extension, an argument that all war is civil war, in the sense that humanity is set against itself. Finally, the “tall tales” are the most extreme examples of Bierce’s wit at work, utilizing a format that was common in the saloons of the old west, in which an improbable story was exaggerated progressively in each passing moment, with the understanding that it was a test of the newcomer’s gullibility and humor. I found these mostly to be too over-the-top for my tastes, but it cannot be denied that Bierce was a master of the style.
The sections are accompanied by rather laudatory introductory text that provides some context and background information, and a long introduction at the head of the volume describes Bierce’s life and work in detail. Most of the book is just Bierce, speaking for himself, however, and that is all to the good.

[Сашко Завара · Rating 5 out of 5]

Амброуз Бірс — майстер «чорної літератури».

Його короткою прозою надихалися і надихаються поціновувачі похмурого читва, а серед тих, на кого вплинув доробок Бірса, і хто залишив свій власний спадок в історії готичної літератури, затесалися Чемберз й Лавкрафт. Тож, звертаючись до художніх замальовок цього письменника, ви неодноразово звернете увагу на знайомі місця, імена і, цілком можливо, певні сюжетні ідеї.

Запропонована «Видавництвом Жупанського» у рамках серії «Майстри світової/готичної прози» збірка складається з двох частин. Перша — це «Оповіді про солдатів і цивільних». Вона занурює читача у воєнну реальність Америки часів громадянської війни. Друга — «Чи може таке трапитися?», складається переважно з фантазій і візій автора, який, на думку дослідників його творчості, мав певні екстрасенсорні здібності. Таким чином можна зауважити, що містика й подуви вітру з потойбіччя супроводжували Бірса мало не все його доросле життя.

Не приховуватиму: збірка передусім буде до смаку саме любителям темних, готичних історій. І якщо ви любите і відповідно шукаєте готику у стилі авторки популярних «Сутінків», мушу вас одразу ж розчарувати: тут її немає. Натомість пан Бірс пропонує перейти на справжній, загадковий для людини бік реальності, долучитися до містики, яка, мов вірний попутник, супроводжує кожного з нас, хай би де ми були.

Це одна з дуже небагатьох збірок оповідань, які, на мою скромну думку, неможливо читати запоєм. Попри майстерність у письмі і цікаві сюжети, тут обов’язково треба зазначити: кожне оповідання автора — це окремий світ зі своєю окремою історією, хай навіть всі вони вкриті ореолом війни, як, наприклад, у першій частині книжки. Кожному епізодові притаманний свій специфічний, ні з чим незрівнянний настрій, що переважно змішується з трагедією. Читаючи Бірса, можна смакувати кожною сторінкою тексту, кожною сценою, а потім ще довго ходити під враженням від прочитаного.

Скажу чесно: я читав по одному ��� два оповідання на кілька днів. Крім того не раджу читати твори зі збірки зранку або на ніч. Це, звісно, якщо ви хочете мати гарний, продуктивний день або міцний, хороший сон, адже історія про глухонімого хлопчика, який заснув у лісі і не чув, як знищили його ферму або оповідка про вартового, який знайшов на посту мерця, такому точно не сприятиме. І саме в цьому полягає один із величезних плюсів Бірсової прози. Такими абсолютно життєвими ситуаціями, а точніше — описами, письменник відверто чіпляє за живе. Він ніби засовує руку у голову читача, перебирає його свідомість, перетворюючи її на химерний конструктор, після чого від збірки залишається дивний, неоднозначний, однак збіса цікавий післясмак. А також думки про те, що навряд чи хтось колись напише бодай щось подібне, і вже точно не перевершить у цьому Амброуза Бірса.

Щодо загального наповнення збірки, як і зазначав, вона складається з двох частин. Після прочитання можна вийти на доволі цікаву філософічну бесіду: «Що у цьому світі страшніше — реальність навколо чи горор, тобто майстерна, але все ж таки вигадка»? Під вигадкою маються на увазі містичні оповідання пана Бірса, не прив’язані до реалій громадянської війни, у творах про яку він по суті нічого не вигадував, а просто писав їх з натури, додаючи до загальної картини окремих персонажів і сюжети. Я впевнений, читачам, тобто прихильникам і першої, і другої частини збірки, обов’язково буде про що поговорити.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had always wanted to read more Ambrose Bierce, since tackling "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge", back in grammar school. I never followed up on that until late last year, when I purchased this anthology from a local indie bookshop. Robert Anton Wilson and a few others piqued my interest in Bierce again, so I thought I'd give the short stories a go.

This edition collects all of his short stories, published in various newspapers and magazines, up until the time of his mysterious disappearance in Mexico. It's divided up into three 'sections': horror/supernatural, war and "tall tales". While I appreciate the organisational nature of doing so, I have to say that it did take some of the surprise out of some of the stories and highlighted the themes that Bierce used in them. The horror stories suffered the worst from the collating. When I nearly finished the section, I almost 'knew' that the story would involve either a long-abandoned house, or an apparition spotted just around the time that one of the characters in the story had passed away. The war stories were a bit more varied, even though they all take place during the American Civil War (in which Bierce fought).

"Tall tales" show Bierce's contempt for religion and human behavioural foibles, as well as his decimating humour. The (linked) trilogy of stories about a sea captain and his passengers had me laughing aloud at times.

The famed "Occurrence..." is part of the war stories section, concerning a Confederate spy who is facing being hanged above a river (or the eponymous creek). He 'escapes' when the rope breaks and manages to swim downstream, avoiding bullets shot from sentries' rifles. He notices that all of his senses are heightened, being able to see every vein in every leaf on every tree, etc. He makes it back to his home and just as he's about to embrace his wife....well, I'll let you read it. A very well-written and trippy story - it fascinated me when I first read it. There was an educational film produced, based on the story - which our class watched. It left out some of the detail, but really delivered, in terms of the strange nature of the narrative.

I'd recommend this book, if you're looking for some exceptional American writing of the late 19th century - Bierce seemed exceptional. The satire crackles and the bewilderment and horror of war is perfectly portrayed. I rated it four stars not for content, but because of the sectioning of the stories - more variety in the themes would've helped keep the momentum.