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A estrada enluarada e outras histórias
This stimulating and provocative collection of 12 of Bierce's finest ghost and horror stories abounds with crimes of passion, restless specters seeking revenge, haunted houses, forewarnings of doom, and sound minds deranged by contact with the spirit world.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1909
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352 people want to read
About the author
Ambrose Bierce
2,425 books1,299 followersdied 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!"
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!"
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
September 14, 2022
This book is a collection of stories by Ambrose Bierce. My favorite story in it is Moonlit Road. It discusses the story of a woman who is murdered.
The way the author looks at the murder from three perspectives (son of the murdered woman, murderer, and murdered woman) will give the readers an exciting reading experience. This is one of those books that truly reflect Bierce's wit and wisdom.
“Love had conquered Law! Mad with exultation I shouted —I must have shouted, "He sees, he sees: he will understand!"
The way the author looks at the murder from three perspectives (son of the murdered woman, murderer, and murdered woman) will give the readers an exciting reading experience. This is one of those books that truly reflect Bierce's wit and wisdom.
October 13, 2019
The woman of a rich estate owner is murdered. In three chapters we hear about the story from the perspective of the son, his father (who gets lost) and the murdered woman (a ghost now). Why may the story be named that way? And who goes by the name of Grattan? A cleverly composed sinister ghost story like only Bierce could come up with. I absolutely enjoyed the atmosphere and structure of the story. Absolutely recommended!
January 28, 2016
***** The Eyes of the Panther
"See these eyes so green / I can stare for a thousand years
Colder than the moon... you wouldn't believe what I've been through."
A young woman refuses to marry her suitor, although she professes to love him. Her reason? She believes she is insane, she claims. Of course, there has to be more to her story than that... and this is that story, which starts one dark night in a poor woodsman's cottage on the wild frontier.
**** The Moonlit Road
Heavily ironic, 'The Moonlit Road' is an excellent example of Bierce's "mordant wit." Three different perspectives on a brutal death unpeel layers of truth - and reveal a none-too-flattering outlook on humanity.
*** The Boarded Window
Is this one supposed to be a tie-in to 'Eyes of the Panther,' or is it just similar in theme? I'm not sure. I felt that it was a less-successful variation of the story, as there's no explanation or seeming meaning behind why the 'creepy' events occur.
An old hunter-trapper, out on the frontier, has lived alone in his modest cabin for years. His one window has remained boarded shut for as long as anyone can remember. This is the story of why he boarded that window for good.
*** The Man and the Snake
Staying over at a friend's house, a man picks up some bedtime reading - which happens to be an outdated scientific book mentioning the purported mesmeric abilities of snakes. It just so happens that the house belongs to a herpetologist, so the visitor is not that surprised when he finds a snake in his room. But although he skeptically scoffed at the phenomena attributed to serpents, perhaps the power of suggestion is not something he's immune to. Or perhaps, some true supernatural power is as work...
*** The Secret of Macarger's Gulch
A hunter caught far from home at sundown decides to camp out in an abandoned and dilapidated house. However, he doesn't pass a restful night - he's plagued by vague fears and strange dreams. Only much later does he learn the bloody history of Macarger's Gulch and discovers how close to the truth his dreams came.
*** The Middle Toe of the Right Foot
What? You don't think a reputedly haunted house is the ideal location for a duel to the death?
A group of obnoxious and arrogant young men accept a stranger's challenge - but the contest doesn't end up quite how any of the parties expected. It does end in death, however.
And the event is, of course, linked to the brutal murders that took place in the house years before.
It's a good ghost story, but I thought it would've been better with a bit more explication - some of the elements just didn't make a huge amount of sense to me.
**** A Psychological Shipwreck
While on board a ship, a man takes ill and has all manner of hallucinations - hallucinations which turn out to be eerily true - of another ship. Really well-crafted, and quite spooky.
**** A Holy Terror
There are a couple of bloody brilliant things about this story. First, it's just terribly funny. Bierce just keep edging in these horribly astute little witty observations. It's great. Second, it's a historically wonderful depiction of the gold rush era (and its fallout.)
It's also a horror story, and that part of it isn't quite as strong. It relies too heavily (and twice) on "The experience was just so awful that they dropped dead." If you're going to pull that one, it has to be a truly, truly awful experience... and I didn't think the ones here managed it. I'll forgive that though, because reading this was just wholly a pleasure.
**** John Bartine's Watch
A psychologist notices that his friend seems to have a peculiar obsession with his watch, and decided to do a little ad hoc experiment. But all doesn't end well... The watch was inherited from a great-grandfather who was never seen again, after being arrested by 'that damned traitor, Washington, and his ragamuffin rebels!' - and some evil taint clings to it.
*** Beyond the Wall
Upon visiting an old friend, the narrator finds him much, and distressingly changed. Sick and alone, in an eerie house that seems haunted, he tells a cautionary tale...
The moral here may be, 'carpe diem,' but Bierce also gets in a bit about the foolishness of the 'upper class' giving themselves airs.
*** A Watcher by the Dead
This is another Bierce story where the simple reality of 'dead bodies' is presumed to be a lot more fear-inducing than it is. Here, a group of doctors make a bet that basically, anyone who's not a doctor or a soldier, who spends the night alone with a corpse will be unable to take it, and will go insane. So, the guy who takes the bet sets himself up to stand vigil... and well, the 'prank' goes horribly wrong.
I dunno, the story seems to ignore the long-standing and respectful (and non-horrific) tradition of standing vigil over the dead...
**** Moxon's Master
It's an early sci-fi robot story! Adding an extra star just for that. A machinist has seemed unduly preoccupied with the philosophy of life, of late. He's been bringing up topics such as whether machines might be sentient to his friends. Little do they know these questions are not just academic - they have something to do with the invention he's kept concealed in his workroom.
It all ends in grand Frankenstein/paranoid fashion.
Many thanks to Dover and NetGalley for the opportunity to read. As always, my opinions are solely my own...
"See these eyes so green / I can stare for a thousand years
Colder than the moon... you wouldn't believe what I've been through."
A young woman refuses to marry her suitor, although she professes to love him. Her reason? She believes she is insane, she claims. Of course, there has to be more to her story than that... and this is that story, which starts one dark night in a poor woodsman's cottage on the wild frontier.
**** The Moonlit Road
Heavily ironic, 'The Moonlit Road' is an excellent example of Bierce's "mordant wit." Three different perspectives on a brutal death unpeel layers of truth - and reveal a none-too-flattering outlook on humanity.
*** The Boarded Window
Is this one supposed to be a tie-in to 'Eyes of the Panther,' or is it just similar in theme? I'm not sure. I felt that it was a less-successful variation of the story, as there's no explanation or seeming meaning behind why the 'creepy' events occur.
An old hunter-trapper, out on the frontier, has lived alone in his modest cabin for years. His one window has remained boarded shut for as long as anyone can remember. This is the story of why he boarded that window for good.
*** The Man and the Snake
Staying over at a friend's house, a man picks up some bedtime reading - which happens to be an outdated scientific book mentioning the purported mesmeric abilities of snakes. It just so happens that the house belongs to a herpetologist, so the visitor is not that surprised when he finds a snake in his room. But although he skeptically scoffed at the phenomena attributed to serpents, perhaps the power of suggestion is not something he's immune to. Or perhaps, some true supernatural power is as work...
*** The Secret of Macarger's Gulch
A hunter caught far from home at sundown decides to camp out in an abandoned and dilapidated house. However, he doesn't pass a restful night - he's plagued by vague fears and strange dreams. Only much later does he learn the bloody history of Macarger's Gulch and discovers how close to the truth his dreams came.
*** The Middle Toe of the Right Foot
What? You don't think a reputedly haunted house is the ideal location for a duel to the death?
A group of obnoxious and arrogant young men accept a stranger's challenge - but the contest doesn't end up quite how any of the parties expected. It does end in death, however.
And the event is, of course, linked to the brutal murders that took place in the house years before.
It's a good ghost story, but I thought it would've been better with a bit more explication - some of the elements just didn't make a huge amount of sense to me.
**** A Psychological Shipwreck
While on board a ship, a man takes ill and has all manner of hallucinations - hallucinations which turn out to be eerily true - of another ship. Really well-crafted, and quite spooky.
**** A Holy Terror
There are a couple of bloody brilliant things about this story. First, it's just terribly funny. Bierce just keep edging in these horribly astute little witty observations. It's great. Second, it's a historically wonderful depiction of the gold rush era (and its fallout.)
It's also a horror story, and that part of it isn't quite as strong. It relies too heavily (and twice) on "The experience was just so awful that they dropped dead." If you're going to pull that one, it has to be a truly, truly awful experience... and I didn't think the ones here managed it. I'll forgive that though, because reading this was just wholly a pleasure.
**** John Bartine's Watch
A psychologist notices that his friend seems to have a peculiar obsession with his watch, and decided to do a little ad hoc experiment. But all doesn't end well... The watch was inherited from a great-grandfather who was never seen again, after being arrested by 'that damned traitor, Washington, and his ragamuffin rebels!' - and some evil taint clings to it.
*** Beyond the Wall
Upon visiting an old friend, the narrator finds him much, and distressingly changed. Sick and alone, in an eerie house that seems haunted, he tells a cautionary tale...
The moral here may be, 'carpe diem,' but Bierce also gets in a bit about the foolishness of the 'upper class' giving themselves airs.
*** A Watcher by the Dead
This is another Bierce story where the simple reality of 'dead bodies' is presumed to be a lot more fear-inducing than it is. Here, a group of doctors make a bet that basically, anyone who's not a doctor or a soldier, who spends the night alone with a corpse will be unable to take it, and will go insane. So, the guy who takes the bet sets himself up to stand vigil... and well, the 'prank' goes horribly wrong.
I dunno, the story seems to ignore the long-standing and respectful (and non-horrific) tradition of standing vigil over the dead...
**** Moxon's Master
It's an early sci-fi robot story! Adding an extra star just for that. A machinist has seemed unduly preoccupied with the philosophy of life, of late. He's been bringing up topics such as whether machines might be sentient to his friends. Little do they know these questions are not just academic - they have something to do with the invention he's kept concealed in his workroom.
It all ends in grand Frankenstein/paranoid fashion.
Many thanks to Dover and NetGalley for the opportunity to read. As always, my opinions are solely my own...
October 12, 2015
Description: Famed for the mordant wit and satire of his essays and newspaper columns, Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) also possessed a fascination with the macabre. His masterful tales of the supernatural bespeak an imagination generations ahead of its time, exhibiting impressionistic conceits of reality in which space and time expand and contract according to individual perception.
This stimulating and provocative collection of twelve of Bierce's finest ghost and horror stories abounds in crimes of passion, restless specters seeking revenge, haunted houses, forewarnings of doom, and sound minds deranged by contact with the spirit world.
The Eyes of the Panther
The Moonlit Road
The Boarded Window
The Man and the Snake
The Secret of Macarger's Gulch
The Middle Toe of the Right Foot
A Psychological Shipwreck
A Holy Terror
John Bartine's Watch
Beyond the Wall
A Watcher by the Dead
Moxon's Master
This is without doubt the Main Man's favourite collection: intsy-wincy stories to be read to and by each other in the sauna.
A month of Halloween 2015 reads:#1: 3* Nobody True by James Herbert: fraudio
#2: 4* The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard: fraudio
#3: 1* Brain Child by John Saul: fraudio
#4: 3* Domain (Rats #3) by James Herbert: fraudio
#5: 3* The Mourning Vessels by Peter Luther: paperback
#6: 2* The Doom of the Great City: ebook short-story
#7: 5* Long After Midnight by Ray Bradbury: fraudio
#8: 5* The Dead Zone by Stephen King: fraudio
#9: CR The Chalice: hardback
#11: 4* Tales of Men and Ghosts: gutenberg
#12: 2* Shattered by Dean Koontz: fraudio
#13: 5* The Dunwich Horror: e-book: gutenberg
#14: 4* Death At Intervals: paperback
#15: 3* Alone: gutenberg
#16: 3* The Shunned House: gutenberg
#17: 4* The Thing on the Doorstep
#18: 2* Shadows by Saul: fraudio
#19: CR Precious Cargo: paperback
#20: 2* The Magicians of the Golden Dawn: ebook
#21: 2* The Book of Black Magic
#22: 4* Beyond the Wall of Sleep
#23: 3* The Haunting of Hill House
#24: 2* Inferno
#25: 4* Monkey's Paw
#26: 4* The Pit and the Pendulum
#27: 3* William Wilson
#28: CR The Moonlit Road and Other Stories
#29: 3* The Black Cat
#30: 4* The Cask of Amontillado
#31: 4* The Tell-Tale Heart
#32: 3* The Devil Rides Out
#33: 3* The Omen (I, II, and III)
February 26, 2016
3.5
This is a lovely collection of twelve stories with fear as the most prevalent, although not only, theme. I enjoyed most of these stories a lot. Then you have mocking of 'upper' classes, superficial friendships, revenge and so on.
ARC provided by Dover Publications via NetGalley
This is a lovely collection of twelve stories with fear as the most prevalent, although not only, theme. I enjoyed most of these stories a lot. Then you have mocking of 'upper' classes, superficial friendships, revenge and so on.
The Eyes of the Panther
A young woman refuses to marry a man even though she clams she loves him. Her reason? One does not always marry when insane opens the story and it seems she believes she is insane. Then she tells him a story from her family's past.The Moonlit Road
One of my favourites. It tells the story of jealousy and murder from three different POVs. The best part is that neither of the three is simply retelling the story. Each has its own mark.The Boarded Window
This story also takes place in a remote cabin in the woods as the first story. It explains why the only window is boarded shut.The Man and the Snake
There is a legend that some snakes can charm people holding them captive. Visiting his scientist friend who is an expert on snakes, Harker Brayton's mind will be put to test as far as this legend go. You are never given a complete explanation of what had .The Secret of Macarger’s Gulch
A man decides to rest in an abandoned house in the woods. His dreams are terrifying and very vivid. Later he finds out that his dreams were very close to the truth.The Middle Toe of the Right Foot
A duel in a haunted house reveals whether the place is haunted or not.A Psychological Shipwreck
Hallucinations on a ship turn out to be creepily close to what happened miles away.A Holy Terror
I loved this heart-breaking historical horror story. The time setting of gold rush is perfect.John Bartine’s Watch
John Bartine is obsessed with his watch, or eleven in the evening to be precise. He tells a story of the watch to his friend who decides to do an experiment without telling Bartine. He doesn't expect what happens next.Beyond the Wall
Everyone has a regret or two. A man visits his friend after years of travelling around the world. The friend is ill and lives alone. He tells his guest the story of his greatest regret.A Watcher by the Dead
This one is a story of a bet gone horribly wrong.Moxon’s Master
A horror science fiction story. 'ARE YOU serious? — do you really believe that a machine thinks?' It seems Moxon made one who does.ARC provided by Dover Publications via NetGalley
January 9, 2016
Heavily ironic, 'The Moonlit Road' is an excellent example of Bierce's "mordant wit." Three different perspectives on a brutal death unpeel layers of truth - and reveal a none-too-flattering outlook on humanity.
November 21, 2017
Both times I read this story it was rather good. The big treat about this creeper is that is has three different points of view.
August 29, 2022
I'm not sure how I managed to never hear of Ambrose Bierce, but I genuinely regret the omission in my earlier reading.
His stories are creepy, but they are also weirdly fun. He's nailed down a proper horror atmosphere, which is often the hardest thing, and he generally has a good grasp of the twist ending and how to manage it, which is remarkably difficult. He did have a few endings that felt a bit off (I find this weirdly common in horror of any kind), but most of the stories in this collection were enjoyable all the way to the end.
In terms of atmosphere, he reminds me quite a bit of Lovecraft or perhaps Poe, though his focus is farther west than theirs was, which adds a different feeling to the stories.
I will definitely be poking around for more of his writing now that I've discovered him. He's definitely worth reading for anyone who is interested in short horror stories.
This book was provided to me for free via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
His stories are creepy, but they are also weirdly fun. He's nailed down a proper horror atmosphere, which is often the hardest thing, and he generally has a good grasp of the twist ending and how to manage it, which is remarkably difficult. He did have a few endings that felt a bit off (I find this weirdly common in horror of any kind), but most of the stories in this collection were enjoyable all the way to the end.
In terms of atmosphere, he reminds me quite a bit of Lovecraft or perhaps Poe, though his focus is farther west than theirs was, which adds a different feeling to the stories.
I will definitely be poking around for more of his writing now that I've discovered him. He's definitely worth reading for anyone who is interested in short horror stories.
This book was provided to me for free via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
January 15, 2016
The Moonlit Road contains a number of excellent stories, including several considered Bierce’s best. I have to say, all of them were quite good, and I was impressed at how so many of them are still terrifying and suspenseful over a hundred years after Bierce wrote them. The title tale, for example, is a mind-bender that shows three perspectives of a man’s wife murdered by unknown assailants: three different characters, and each of their perspectives inform the reader a little more about the true cause of death. There’s also little thrillers like “The Man and the Snake,” in which a man finds a snake in his hotel room; hypnotized by its glowing eyes, he struggles in vain to leave the room, but is only capable of crawling closer to it. Hearing a scream, the hotel staff rush to the room and find the man dead… next to a stuffed snake, with shoe-buttons for eyes. That’s the kind of twist Bierce excels at—the horror is palpable, the revelation is even more shocking, and regardless of how crazy the stories’ ideas are… they work.
“The Secret of Macarger’s Gulch” was one of my favorites, an atmospheric little gem about a hunter who finds himself alone in the California wilds at dusk. Seeking refuge, he settles into the remains of an abandoned house for the night; as his fire burns low, his mind is filled with strange dreams… Awakened by wild thrashing in the house, he grips his shotgun tight and keeps his fire well lit for the rest of the night. Some years later, a chance meeting reveals the house’s dark past, a grim explanation of his night-time encounter. It’s a moody, morbid story, with an isolated atmosphere of suspense and unease, that also has a good deal of Bierce’s capable wit.
Another excellent chiller, “A Holy Terror,” sees a man reach the remains of an isolated gold-rush ghost-town, then mark off part of the cemetery as his mining claim. In a flashback, we learn that he’d went adventuring to amass his fortune for his loved one, a woman who has since renounced their love and moved on. It turns out that the cemetery has a cache of gold hidden under one coffin, and the man begins to unearth it… only to find the coffin was buried upside-down, when its contents fall through the rotting wood onto him. This is an excellent example of Bierce’s work: after the mounting sense of dread with the man struggling to exhume a grave, and the sharp terror of the coffin’s contents, the story has not one but two twists as well as an ironic revelation of the hidden cache’s contents.
Bierce uses the isolated American frontier as a backdrop to his tales of horror, a setting just a few generations removed from the world Bierce’s readers knew. “The Eyes of The Panther” has a vivid scene of a hungry mountain lion peering through a log cabin’s open window at a woman and her newborn; it’s not even related to the story’s true terror, of identity and sanity… and possibly, shape-shifters? “The Boarded Window” tells of an abandoned shack “only a few miles away from what is now the great city of Cincinnati,” where a frontiersman and his wife once scraped by. When the wife falls victim to fever, her husband tries to nurse her back to health, but to no avail. With her body lain in state on their table, the grief-stricken man loses his senses; he snaps back to reality to find some savage beast—another panther—coming through his open window. As usual, Bierce’s final twist is the horrifying part.
It helps that Bierce’s prose is so eloquent and captivating; it’s sparse and economical yet erudite, possessing a keen vocabulary and good sense of how to properly pace a short terror tale. Bierce’s horror stories are quiet and detached, but he tells them with a companionable storyteller’s voice. His stories embrace their dark imagery, full of isolated places in the American frontier wilderness—moonlit forests filled with savage panthers, abandoned houses in the rocky California chaparral. The literary devices he uses are chosen to throw the reader off balance and keep them on edge; the stories have abrupt beginnings, and often end with a line just as abrupt; he makes vague references to time, setting his stories in a near but unspecified past; his descriptions are limited, vague but chosen with enough distinction to imprint an idea on your mind.
In my mind, these tales have firmly entrenched Bierce’s status as a master of the weird tale. His influence on H.P. Lovecraft and Robert W. Chambers is documented, though he never gained the same reputation as Lovecraft or Poe—impacted in no small part by his misanthropic personality, while his strange disappearance left his legacy wide open. Bierce’s tales of the macabre are excellent, some of the best of their kind… I’ve read several similar volumes, and found this one of the better at building suspense and generating surprise. And readers who find older prose styles chafing should find Bierce’s tales a bit more modern and accessible. Anyone attracted to the horror genre ought to read some of them.
Full review, and other book reviews, on my blog.
“The Secret of Macarger’s Gulch” was one of my favorites, an atmospheric little gem about a hunter who finds himself alone in the California wilds at dusk. Seeking refuge, he settles into the remains of an abandoned house for the night; as his fire burns low, his mind is filled with strange dreams… Awakened by wild thrashing in the house, he grips his shotgun tight and keeps his fire well lit for the rest of the night. Some years later, a chance meeting reveals the house’s dark past, a grim explanation of his night-time encounter. It’s a moody, morbid story, with an isolated atmosphere of suspense and unease, that also has a good deal of Bierce’s capable wit.
Another excellent chiller, “A Holy Terror,” sees a man reach the remains of an isolated gold-rush ghost-town, then mark off part of the cemetery as his mining claim. In a flashback, we learn that he’d went adventuring to amass his fortune for his loved one, a woman who has since renounced their love and moved on. It turns out that the cemetery has a cache of gold hidden under one coffin, and the man begins to unearth it… only to find the coffin was buried upside-down, when its contents fall through the rotting wood onto him. This is an excellent example of Bierce’s work: after the mounting sense of dread with the man struggling to exhume a grave, and the sharp terror of the coffin’s contents, the story has not one but two twists as well as an ironic revelation of the hidden cache’s contents.
Bierce uses the isolated American frontier as a backdrop to his tales of horror, a setting just a few generations removed from the world Bierce’s readers knew. “The Eyes of The Panther” has a vivid scene of a hungry mountain lion peering through a log cabin’s open window at a woman and her newborn; it’s not even related to the story’s true terror, of identity and sanity… and possibly, shape-shifters? “The Boarded Window” tells of an abandoned shack “only a few miles away from what is now the great city of Cincinnati,” where a frontiersman and his wife once scraped by. When the wife falls victim to fever, her husband tries to nurse her back to health, but to no avail. With her body lain in state on their table, the grief-stricken man loses his senses; he snaps back to reality to find some savage beast—another panther—coming through his open window. As usual, Bierce’s final twist is the horrifying part.
It helps that Bierce’s prose is so eloquent and captivating; it’s sparse and economical yet erudite, possessing a keen vocabulary and good sense of how to properly pace a short terror tale. Bierce’s horror stories are quiet and detached, but he tells them with a companionable storyteller’s voice. His stories embrace their dark imagery, full of isolated places in the American frontier wilderness—moonlit forests filled with savage panthers, abandoned houses in the rocky California chaparral. The literary devices he uses are chosen to throw the reader off balance and keep them on edge; the stories have abrupt beginnings, and often end with a line just as abrupt; he makes vague references to time, setting his stories in a near but unspecified past; his descriptions are limited, vague but chosen with enough distinction to imprint an idea on your mind.
In my mind, these tales have firmly entrenched Bierce’s status as a master of the weird tale. His influence on H.P. Lovecraft and Robert W. Chambers is documented, though he never gained the same reputation as Lovecraft or Poe—impacted in no small part by his misanthropic personality, while his strange disappearance left his legacy wide open. Bierce’s tales of the macabre are excellent, some of the best of their kind… I’ve read several similar volumes, and found this one of the better at building suspense and generating surprise. And readers who find older prose styles chafing should find Bierce’s tales a bit more modern and accessible. Anyone attracted to the horror genre ought to read some of them.
Full review, and other book reviews, on my blog.
April 10, 2016
Ambrose Bierce remains--in my opinion--one of the early masters of the "quiet, atmospheric" ghost tales. So many of his stories have stood the test of time and are STILL able to bring genuine chills to the reader, no matter how many times certain selections are read.
This collection brings together twelve of his ghostly tales, ranging from the well known ("The Boarded Window") to lesser known ("Moxon's Master"). The majority of these tales play on man's innate fear of things that come naturally: the dark; a decaying, abandoned structure; an unexplained sound breaking the silence of the night . . . As Bierce states in his tale, "The Moonlit Road", "Fear has no brains; it is an idiot". There are those things we universally "fear" without any sort of reason to accompany them. These are the things that Bierce so masterfully uses to manipulate our emotions and bring about that dread of the unknown.
Personal favorites of mine in this collection include "The Middle Toe of the Right Foot", "The Moonlit Road", and "Moxon's Master".
Highly recommended to fans of atmospheric horror.
*I received an e-copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*
This collection brings together twelve of his ghostly tales, ranging from the well known ("The Boarded Window") to lesser known ("Moxon's Master"). The majority of these tales play on man's innate fear of things that come naturally: the dark; a decaying, abandoned structure; an unexplained sound breaking the silence of the night . . . As Bierce states in his tale, "The Moonlit Road", "Fear has no brains; it is an idiot". There are those things we universally "fear" without any sort of reason to accompany them. These are the things that Bierce so masterfully uses to manipulate our emotions and bring about that dread of the unknown.
Personal favorites of mine in this collection include "The Middle Toe of the Right Foot", "The Moonlit Road", and "Moxon's Master".
Highly recommended to fans of atmospheric horror.
*I received an e-copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*
June 21, 2022
Dismayed to have enjoyed so few of this small collection, but one or two were very good.
January 5, 2016
As usual, I am disappointed by this newest book's lack of scary. I find that I have gotten to the point where most horror novels aren't truly horror anymore; rather, I spend the entire length reading at night in the dark to try and get the proper creepiness factor in place. There were a few times here where I got a creeping chill, but then there was never any pay off. The author was gifted at build up, setting the suspense and characters. But then he's just drop off suddenly, a couple sentences as my only indication the store was over. I wanted more and I would have been so much happier if the stories just told a tiny bit more.
I think this is my usual issue with short stories though. I always want more than I am given.
Thanks, NetGalley!
I think this is my usual issue with short stories though. I always want more than I am given.
Thanks, NetGalley!
January 21, 2025
3.75 ⭐️
Beautifully written. "Jealous and exacting devotion" the words that premise what to come.
A perspective of events through the eyes of the three protagonists. The foreboding of the wife of what to come, her grisly death by her husband. The mystery of the lone figure climbing the stairs heard by the wife or running away in the forest seems by the husband.
Who is this individual? A phantom of the man's jealous imagination? Or death comes knocking on the wife's door?
Beautifully written. "Jealous and exacting devotion" the words that premise what to come.
A perspective of events through the eyes of the three protagonists. The foreboding of the wife of what to come, her grisly death by her husband. The mystery of the lone figure climbing the stairs heard by the wife or running away in the forest seems by the husband.
Who is this individual? A phantom of the man's jealous imagination? Or death comes knocking on the wife's door?
February 7, 2016
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) was a Victorian author of the weird and macabre specialing in ghost stories. Though during his life he was more renowned as a satirist, journalist, and editorialist. Thankfully, we've remembered him for his eerie tales. I've come across his stories in anthologies several times but this is the first author specific collection I've read. I had come across three of these stories before, but they make good re-reading. Bierce is comparable to Poe but easier to read. The stories in this collection have been selected from the 1909-1912 editions of "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce" and show a mix of his ghost and, as the title calls them, "horror" stories (but I wouldn't necessarily give them that classification, but more general simply "weird tales"). I liked the weird, macabre tales the best and I'd recommend him to your reading list for those interested in Victorian ghost stories or tales of the weird.
1) The Eyes of the Panther - A young woman refuses to marry a man repeatedly and he demands to know why so she tells him she is insane and proceeds to tell him a story. It's a good story but it made me think too much of the original movie "Cat People", perhaps they got the idea from this story. (3/5)
2) The Moonlit Road - I hadn't recognized just by the title but it came to me quickly that I've read this one before. A son is called home from college urgently to discover his mother has been brutally murdered. Shortly afterward his father, while out on a walk with him, takes off and disappears forever. Told in three points of view first from the son, then the father and finally the mother, through the aid of a medium. None of them knows the whole truth, only the reader is able put most of it together, but afterthought still leaves a few questions. A creepy story. (4/5)
3) The Boarded Window - This is a creepy shocker that you have no idea where it is going. It starts off easy going enough and you wonder where it is going by the halfway point; it is quite short. Then it starts getting interesting with the tension mounting and pow! it gets you with the ending. (5/5)
4) The Man and the Snake - Another creepy little story with the shocker ending. This time, it leaves you puzzled wondering if what occurred was real or all in the mind. (5/5)
5) The Secret of Macarger's Gulch - A well-told ghost story! A man stops at an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. He can't get to sleep because of a feeling of danger, perhaps a bear or a ghost? He does fall asleep, dreams, then wakes up and that is when the adventure begins. Leaves an uneasy feeling. (5/5)
6) The Middle Toe of the Right Foot - Oh I liked this, not very frightening but a bit grizzly to start. A house remains abandoned because of its claim to be haunted but not least likely because the former owner one night slashed the throats of his wife and two children and then absconded into the night. Some time later the house becomes the designated sight of two gentlemen who have called each other out to a duel: a knife fight in a darkened room. (4/5)
7) A Psychological Shipwreck - A man has a vision of an encounter with a young woman on a sinking ship, then rouses to find that he himself has been fine and dandy on another ship all this time. Then ensues an interesting story. A bit "whoo-whoo" for the times but didn't do much for me. (3/5)
8) A Holy Terror - This is just plain creepy. I'm not sure if it is a ghost story or not but a man does meet up with a skeleton and his death while grave digging and that is only a part of the story! A man goes to a ghost town that was once a thriving California Gold Rush town. Now deserted he plots off a stake and decidedly sets out looking for something specific and then we are told his curious history and what follows. This is the longest story in the collection so far. (4/5)
9) John Bartine's Watch: A Story by a Physician - A fairly short story of a man who is troubled by the watch of an ancestor who was taken away as a traitor to the rebel George Washington and never heard from again. Atmospheric, but predictable ending. (3/5)
10) Beyond the Wall - A man visits an old friend he hasn't seen in some time to find him in a dejected state, upon hearing a tapping on his tower wall the friend relates a tale of unremitted love, sorrow, death and ghosts. Again very atmospheric. (4/5)
11) A Watcher by the Dead - Three doctors play a game by betting that a man cannot spend the night in an abandoned house with a corpse in the dark due to some theory they have. Things turn out as we suspect but there is a surprising twist ending and then the author turns to humour to finish off the tale. I didn't like the funny part but the rest was good. (4/5)
12) Moxon's Master - This would have been a chilling tale at its own time. One that deals with whether machine's have intelligence. The first half was a bit boring for me as the philosophy and science is outdated by modern standards but I can imagine the thought it provoked at the time. Then it gets into the story of whether one man, a machinist, has created a thinking machine. It has a creepy ending. I really enjoyed this, though, because it explored an automaton chess player and a few years ago I read a graphic novel on *the* famous Victorian automaton chess player which was very good. (4/5)
January 10, 2016
Ambrose Bierce is one of those authors whose place in the canon of American Literature proper is too-often overlooked -- and I’m not certain why. This collection brings together some of Bierce’s short fiction, and it shows his relationship to better-known authors who came before (and who have come since). Bierce (1842-1914) falls between Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) and H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) in both chronology and writing style and subject. That’s not to construe Bierce as a bridge between early horror writers and later ones; his macabre fiction is foundational in the development of American horror fiction.
This collection of stories takes readers all over the American continent (and England) as it looked in Bierce’s day: from a haunted shanty in the Sierra Nevadas, in which we meet a pair of ghosts from Edinburgh, to a haunted shipwreck off the coast of mother England herself. Bierce takes readers into dark corners of a dark world in these stories, often presenting us with occurrences of which readers may never have thought; in one story, “John Bartine’s Watch”, we find a loyalist to King George who both deplores George Washington and is terrified of looking at his pocket watch. That story also shows a side of Washington and his rebels that present-day readers may not have considered, with lines such as “[My great-grandfather] was permitted to say farewell to his weeping family, and was then marched away into the darkness which swallowed him up forever” (Loc. 1130). Such was the fate of John Bartine’s ancestor, who supported King George, at the hands of colonists loyal to Washington.
Such lines are characteristic of Bierce’s fiction, the style of which matches his famous wit and satire in his journalism. The settings of his stories also mirror his travels around the continent which, to me at least, is an insight into how the author may have been inspired by his surroundings. Lines such as the one above are characteristic of his wit, while others, such as this one from “The Secret of MacArger’s Gulch”, show Bierce’s influence to Poe. “It was as if two pictures, the scene from my dream, and my actual surroundings, had been blended, one overlying the other, until the former, gradually fading, disappeared, and I was broad awake in the deserted cabin” (Loc. 600). It puts me in mind of Poe’s famous couplet “All that we ever see or seem / is but a dream within a dream”. The two quotes I mentioned are certainly not alone in this collection, which is a wonderful (and affordable -- it’s a Dover Thrift Edition, which is famous among academics for low-cost reading copies of books) read.
The only word of warning I would offer to readers involves Bierce’s writing style. Some may call it dense, some may say he “tells” too much instead of “showing”, but Bierce is a product of his time, and his work reflects the style and conventions of fiction writing -- all writing, really -- of his time. Though his style may be daunting, it’s worth anyone’s time and effort to pursue his fiction.
This collection of stories takes readers all over the American continent (and England) as it looked in Bierce’s day: from a haunted shanty in the Sierra Nevadas, in which we meet a pair of ghosts from Edinburgh, to a haunted shipwreck off the coast of mother England herself. Bierce takes readers into dark corners of a dark world in these stories, often presenting us with occurrences of which readers may never have thought; in one story, “John Bartine’s Watch”, we find a loyalist to King George who both deplores George Washington and is terrified of looking at his pocket watch. That story also shows a side of Washington and his rebels that present-day readers may not have considered, with lines such as “[My great-grandfather] was permitted to say farewell to his weeping family, and was then marched away into the darkness which swallowed him up forever” (Loc. 1130). Such was the fate of John Bartine’s ancestor, who supported King George, at the hands of colonists loyal to Washington.
Such lines are characteristic of Bierce’s fiction, the style of which matches his famous wit and satire in his journalism. The settings of his stories also mirror his travels around the continent which, to me at least, is an insight into how the author may have been inspired by his surroundings. Lines such as the one above are characteristic of his wit, while others, such as this one from “The Secret of MacArger’s Gulch”, show Bierce’s influence to Poe. “It was as if two pictures, the scene from my dream, and my actual surroundings, had been blended, one overlying the other, until the former, gradually fading, disappeared, and I was broad awake in the deserted cabin” (Loc. 600). It puts me in mind of Poe’s famous couplet “All that we ever see or seem / is but a dream within a dream”. The two quotes I mentioned are certainly not alone in this collection, which is a wonderful (and affordable -- it’s a Dover Thrift Edition, which is famous among academics for low-cost reading copies of books) read.
The only word of warning I would offer to readers involves Bierce’s writing style. Some may call it dense, some may say he “tells” too much instead of “showing”, but Bierce is a product of his time, and his work reflects the style and conventions of fiction writing -- all writing, really -- of his time. Though his style may be daunting, it’s worth anyone’s time and effort to pursue his fiction.
February 28, 2016
From the piercing eyes of a snake to the ghost of lost love and everything in between these are definitely stories to tell in the dark. This anthology was written by Ambrose Bierce in the 1890s around the time Mark Twain was popular. This tome deals with many different themes: supernatural, psychological, and has something to appeal to the fears of everyone. Though the writing is antiquated, the subject is not lost to the reader, and will especially appeal to those lovers of Victorian literature. Bierce is known for having twist endings and these stories can definitely be considered to have twist endings. Unfortunately, we live in a society where most scary story tropes have been done so the stories come off slightly predictable. If you can take this for what it is, old scary stories then they are very enjoyable. There wasn't a tale I didn't like. The style reminded me of Poe and can be confidently added to one's collection of classic gothic horror.
I give this book a 5 out of 5 and recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Edgar Allen Poe and the like. I will be looking for more of Ambrose Pierce's publications.
I give this book a 5 out of 5 and recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Edgar Allen Poe and the like. I will be looking for more of Ambrose Pierce's publications.
January 21, 2016
I'll be honest here. Prior to reading this book, I was not in any way familiar with Ambrose Bierce. So I'm in fact really glad Dover Publications has compiled this nice little collection of some of his horror stories. I suppose that by modern standards, readers would rather see these stories as psychological and gothic horror stories rather than actual scary stories. I really enjoyed this collection regardless, as each story was nicely crafted and came with a unique twist at the end. And I'm very happy to say that I didn't see any of those endings coming. And that's how you know you've just read a great horror story! To me, Bierce is a bit the American E.A. Poe. I loved diving into the world his stories were set in and rediscovering horror through the voice of a man who lived more than a century before my time. To conclude this review, I'll just say this: I'm very glad to have found this collection and I'll definitely be reading more of Bierce's stories in the future. Thanks to the publisher for putting forth this collection and reintroducing these stories to modern readers!
August 3, 2016
This is a fascinating story told from three views.
The first is narrated by Joel Hetman, Jr.. He is a college boy called home by his father, because his mother, Julia, has been strangled to death. His father claims that he returned from a business trip and saw a man running from home. When he went inside the house, he says he found his wife dead on the bedroom floor. Quite some time later the father and son are walking down a moonlit road when the father sees something that quite upsets him and then he just disappears.
The second part of the story is told by the father. And the third and final section is the statement of the murder victim, Julia Hetman.
This is put together very very nicely and is a combination mystery / ghost story.
The first is narrated by Joel Hetman, Jr.. He is a college boy called home by his father, because his mother, Julia, has been strangled to death. His father claims that he returned from a business trip and saw a man running from home. When he went inside the house, he says he found his wife dead on the bedroom floor. Quite some time later the father and son are walking down a moonlit road when the father sees something that quite upsets him and then he just disappears.
The second part of the story is told by the father. And the third and final section is the statement of the murder victim, Julia Hetman.
This is put together very very nicely and is a combination mystery / ghost story.
May 2, 2019
Pretty cool and unique little story! A murder told from three different perspectives - including the victim's!
April 11, 2020
“When I turned to look for my father he was gone, and in all the years that have passed no whisper of his fate has come across the borderland of conjecture from the realm of the unknown.”
The Moonlit Road is a short horror story written by Ambrose Bierce, an American editorialist, journalist and short story writer. The moonlit Road was first published in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1907. Ambrose Bierce switched back and forth between rigidly controlled war stories and macabre, otherworldly ghost stories but he also publishes several volumes poetry. This is my first experience with Ambrose Bierce and was a wonderful way to become acquainted with his works.
This morbid and tragic tale of Julia Hetman is imparted to the reader from three perspectives that being Julia Hetman, her husband Joel Hetman, and her son Joel Hetman, Jr. The irrational state of events is conveyed n an ambiguous and distorted manner which is never really resolved leaving the reader to make gleam some sense out of the affair for themselves. I enjoyed the narrative segments each one building on the story from a different point of view and it is completely subversive. The language used is also beautifully eloquent and the three-handed narration is a very clever technique that I have never come across until now. The abrupt dark imagery used to describe these impossible events serves to not only draws you further into this world but to do so with ease. I would recommend this little tale; it plays out almost like a fireside ghost story or an urban legend.
The Moonlit Road is a short horror story written by Ambrose Bierce, an American editorialist, journalist and short story writer. The moonlit Road was first published in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1907. Ambrose Bierce switched back and forth between rigidly controlled war stories and macabre, otherworldly ghost stories but he also publishes several volumes poetry. This is my first experience with Ambrose Bierce and was a wonderful way to become acquainted with his works.
This morbid and tragic tale of Julia Hetman is imparted to the reader from three perspectives that being Julia Hetman, her husband Joel Hetman, and her son Joel Hetman, Jr. The irrational state of events is conveyed n an ambiguous and distorted manner which is never really resolved leaving the reader to make gleam some sense out of the affair for themselves. I enjoyed the narrative segments each one building on the story from a different point of view and it is completely subversive. The language used is also beautifully eloquent and the three-handed narration is a very clever technique that I have never come across until now. The abrupt dark imagery used to describe these impossible events serves to not only draws you further into this world but to do so with ease. I would recommend this little tale; it plays out almost like a fireside ghost story or an urban legend.
February 12, 2015
The Moonlit Road is a short horror story written by Ambrose Bierce, an American editorialist, journalist and short story writer. The moonlit Road was first published in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1907. Ambrose Bierce switched back and forth between rigidly controlled war stories and macabre, otherworldly ghost stories but he also publishes several volumes poetry. This is my first experience with Ambrose Bierce and was a wonderful way to become acquainted with his works.
This morbid and tragic tale of Julia Hetman is imparted to the reader from three perspectives that being Julia Hetman, her husband Joel Hetman, and her son Joel Hetman, Jr. The irrational state of events are conveyed n an ambiguous and distorted manner which is never really resolved leaving the reader to make gleam some sense out of the affair for themselves. I enjoyed the narrative segments each one building on the story from a different point of view and it is completely subversive. The language used is also beautifully eloquent and the three-handed narration is a very clever technique that I have never come across until now. The abrupt dark imagery used to describe these impossible events serves to not only draw you further into this world but to do so with ease. I would recommend this little tale, it plays out almost like a fireside ghost story or an urban legend.
This morbid and tragic tale of Julia Hetman is imparted to the reader from three perspectives that being Julia Hetman, her husband Joel Hetman, and her son Joel Hetman, Jr. The irrational state of events are conveyed n an ambiguous and distorted manner which is never really resolved leaving the reader to make gleam some sense out of the affair for themselves. I enjoyed the narrative segments each one building on the story from a different point of view and it is completely subversive. The language used is also beautifully eloquent and the three-handed narration is a very clever technique that I have never come across until now. The abrupt dark imagery used to describe these impossible events serves to not only draw you further into this world but to do so with ease. I would recommend this little tale, it plays out almost like a fireside ghost story or an urban legend.
January 19, 2016
This title is a rare thing: a book of horror shorts set in 1700/1800 United States.
The 1800s are the Golden Age of ghost and horror, no question. But 99% of them are set in the United Kingdom, with this ancient manors and ghosts and old houses and whispering tradition of past misdeed.
I am an aficionado of the genre, as it may be noticed, but I have never read a book of the same kind and timeframe set in the United States. Because what horrors were there, after all, in such a new country without past and ghost and traditions?
Boys, girls and people for whom binaries are for trains let me tell you I was WRONG.
Welcome to the subtle horror of the ancient, whispering, dripping forest where only one tiny light in a wooden cabin is lit and then goes out. Welcome to the horror of the beast (or is it a woman?) prowling in the night. Welcome to prospecting for gold amidst the dead, in sun baked California, but be careful the dead may not like it...
All in all a superb reading, which I greatly enjoyed. Thumbs up.
*click the light shut*
The 1800s are the Golden Age of ghost and horror, no question. But 99% of them are set in the United Kingdom, with this ancient manors and ghosts and old houses and whispering tradition of past misdeed.
I am an aficionado of the genre, as it may be noticed, but I have never read a book of the same kind and timeframe set in the United States. Because what horrors were there, after all, in such a new country without past and ghost and traditions?
Boys, girls and people for whom binaries are for trains let me tell you I was WRONG.
Welcome to the subtle horror of the ancient, whispering, dripping forest where only one tiny light in a wooden cabin is lit and then goes out. Welcome to the horror of the beast (or is it a woman?) prowling in the night. Welcome to prospecting for gold amidst the dead, in sun baked California, but be careful the dead may not like it...
All in all a superb reading, which I greatly enjoyed. Thumbs up.
*click the light shut*
August 12, 2020
I picked up Bierce's collection of ghost stories because I am a huge fan of reading ghost stories written around the same time and style - think Edith Wharton, E.F. Benson, Shirley Jackson, etc.
While these stories were VERY spooky, and definitely enjoyable, I encountered some rather unfortunate mannerisms of the time; that is, sexism, racism, making men either murderers or gamblers. It is unlike Wharton's stories, which center around circumstances outside of the protagonist's control - Bierce's characters often put the supernatural experiences upon themselves while also being kind of horrible people. I didn't ignore it as I went, nor did I excuse the behavior of the characters, but I did feel these traits were what made the stories so centered upon the characters' downfalls.
I don't know if I would recommend this book to anyone who doesn't like period ghost stories as much as I do.
While these stories were VERY spooky, and definitely enjoyable, I encountered some rather unfortunate mannerisms of the time; that is, sexism, racism, making men either murderers or gamblers. It is unlike Wharton's stories, which center around circumstances outside of the protagonist's control - Bierce's characters often put the supernatural experiences upon themselves while also being kind of horrible people. I didn't ignore it as I went, nor did I excuse the behavior of the characters, but I did feel these traits were what made the stories so centered upon the characters' downfalls.
I don't know if I would recommend this book to anyone who doesn't like period ghost stories as much as I do.
April 21, 2010
As a whole the collection is better than average, but Bierce carries such a lofty reputation that I expected even better. A few pieces, such as "The Man and the Snake", meet expectations, but a few weaker entries just aren't worthy of a master. At his best, he handles the surprise ending well or introduces an idea that sparks the reader's imagination. At his worst, he falls back on his redundant fascination with death-by-terror and fails to compensate for the cliche.
December 9, 2015
A lot of the time my complaint with short stories is that they really aren't all that short, and I think an author can often do more with an actually short story than with a story that is long, but too short to be a book or novella. So I appreciated that these stories were quick and got right to the point, especially since that works particularly well with spooky stories.
Received from NetGalley.
Received from NetGalley.
March 23, 2017
This is a collection of short stories by 19th century writer Ambrose Bierce whose most famous story is probably "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge" which is not included here. These stories are more spooky than scary. Bierce, in the classic 19th century style sets up mood for each story, but the punch is often less haymaker than gentle nudge. Reading these, it is understandable where Bierce's reputation comes from. I'm not sorry I read it, but it's not one that will stay with me for long.
May 22, 2018
A crime to be solved in a plot of versions and witnesses. However, unlike the most common cases of investigation, here the information comes from a ghost, a child and a tormented person.
These three individuals are part of the story to be revealed.
Between the lines is the empty reality that each one experiences, an individual truth established by memory, rationality, emotion and insanity of each one.
An interesting supernatural story. 5 stars for the creativity!
These three individuals are part of the story to be revealed.
Between the lines is the empty reality that each one experiences, an individual truth established by memory, rationality, emotion and insanity of each one.
An interesting supernatural story. 5 stars for the creativity!
January 21, 2017
What a sad and incredible story.
According to Wikipedia, this story was a template for 'In a Grove', which in turn was the basis for Akira Kurosawa's famous film Rashōmon.
In other words, what we call today as the Rashōmon effect, should have been called 'The moonlit road effect'.
Highly recommended to everyone.
According to Wikipedia, this story was a template for 'In a Grove', which in turn was the basis for Akira Kurosawa's famous film Rashōmon.
In other words, what we call today as the Rashōmon effect, should have been called 'The moonlit road effect'.
Highly recommended to everyone.
May 21, 2008
Spooky, well written stories with a pleasing amount of wry humor.
June 16, 2009
A wonderfully chilling collection of classic ghostly stories from Ambrose Bierce.
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