The Damned Thing

by Ambrose Bierce

This engrossing tale presents as its central theme the ultimately unknowable – and untameable – essence of nature and the natural world. Told from several different perspectives, the story focuses on a freak fatal accident that is written off as a wild animal attack. But does that description get at the truth of the matter? At least one witness is convinced otherwise. A story of the paranormal that was once loosely adapted for an episode of the television series Masters of Horror.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Mystery, Gothic, American

19 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1893

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

[Federico DN · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Damned Review.

A mangled corpse beyond recognition, an unreliable witness, and the personal diary of the victim to try to understand who killed him, or what..

Well I'll be Damned! This was Damn Good! This felt like one of Allan Poe’s finest, but without the pompous vocabulary. For a classic this was very down to earth. Also heavily reminded me of The Mezzotint. Another tiny story of ten pages that deserves a special place among my shorts shelf. A fine surprise! Looking forward to reading more of this Damned Author.

And apologies for my french! I usually don’t like to curse but sometimes I feel I need to go with the flow, you know?

It’s public domain. You can find it HERE.

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PERSONAL NOTE :
[1894] [10p] [Horror] [Damn Recommendable]
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★★★★☆ The Damned Thing.
★★★★☆ An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. [3.5]
★★★☆☆ Un Habitante de Carcosa y otros Relatos de Terror
★★★☆☆ Civil War Stories [2.5]

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La Maldita Reseña.

Un cadáver destrozado más allá de lo imaginable, un testigo poco confiable, y el diario personal de la víctima para tratar de entender quién lo mató, o qué..

¡Maldita Sea! ¡Esto estuvo condenadamente bueno! Esto se sintió como uno de los mejores de Allan Poe, pero sin el lenguaje pomposo. Para ser un clásico esto fue muy fácil de leer. También me recordó mucho El Grabado. Otra pequeña historia de diez páginas que merece un lugar especial en mi estante de cortos. ¡Una genial sorpresa! Con ganas de leer más de este Maldito Autor.

¡Y perdón por el vocabulario! Usualmente no me gusta maldecir pero a veces siento que debo ir con la corriente, ¿saben?

Es dominio público, lo pueden encontrar ACA.

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NOTA PERSONAL :
[1894] [10p] [Horror] [Condenadamente Recomendable]
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[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very short story that packs a mean punch, The Damned Thing is about what you can't fathom, but it can get you if you don't take it seriously.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the beginning of the story we meet a coroner, a jury and the body of a dead man on a table. What was the reason for his death? Harker, the main character, enters the story and gives testimony to the jury on the last couple of hours he spent with the recluse hunting quails. Morgan spoke about a 'damned thing' when he fired his shotgun. What is the meaning behind? And what was the shotgun fired against? Classic uncanny story with some funny dialogue between coroner and harper. I also liked the element of Henry's diary with missing pages read by the coroner. Highly recommended. Quick and essential reading.

[Janete on hiatus due health issues · Rating 2 out of 5]

For me, it was an Okay read. There's an excellent premise, but it could have been better developed and IMHO this short story could have more pages. Also, I came to the conclusion that Ambrose Bierce's writing is not for me.

SUMMARY at http://johnghostworks.com/the-damned-...

"The story takes place in the middle of the woods on a dark night. Eight people are gathered in a cabin and surround the dead body of the cabin’s owner, Hugh Morgan. The men are reading Morgan’s notebook and holding an inquest into his murder. Another man enters, his name is Harker, he was the last person to see Morgan alive and is there to testify. He tells them that Morgan invited him out hunting and while they were walking in the dark of night, they heard rustling and moaning noises. Morgan yelled, “It’s that damn thing!” The dogs were barking, but no one could see anything. Then the stars became distorted as if a large invisible object were rising in front of them, and Morgan shot at it. The thing charged through the grass and Harker ran away. He heard the screams of Morgan and growling sounds from the Thing. He then sees Morgan wrestling with something invisible. He saw him stop moving and found him dead."

[رزی - Woman, Life, Liberty · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Nicolai Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short story collection of weird and ghostly tales – filled with uncanny mystery - by Ambrose Bierce, a renowned American writer, journalist, satirist and poet. His writing is mainly realistic or naturalistic and often concerns war, but I’m only interested in his supernatural short stories. Especially since I’ve heard that his literary output and influence on supernatural literature is comparable to Edgar Allan Poe. (They have a very different literary style, though!)

Even though Bierce was a skilled and experienced writer, most of his stories are either a bit too tidy and systematic or structurally uneven, cryptic and confusing. To me, he seems to be forsaking or downplaying striking prose, imagery and atmosphere for suspense, unsettling speculation and surprising and/or grim endings. Not always, but most of the time. That’s what I personally liked most about his stories, though; horrifying events, deaths, strange beings and the psychological aspect - state of minds shrouded in mystery, violence, deterioration and poetry.

“Oh God! what a thing it is to be a ghost, cowering and shivering in an altered world, a prey to apprehension and despair!” (42)

My take is similar to Lovecraft’s in that he says that “Bierce’s work is in general somewhat uneven. Many of the stories are obviously mechanical, and marred by a jaunty and commonplacely artificial style derived from journalistic models; but the grim malevolence stalking through all of them is unmistakable, and several stand out as permanent mountainpeaks of American weird writing.” (Page 63 in Supernatural Horror in Literature: And Notes on Writing Weird Fiction)

In addition, he points out that "Bierce seldom realizes the atmospheric possibilities of his themes as vividly as Poe […] Nevertheless the genuineness and artistry of his dark intimations are always inmistakable, so that his greatness is in no danger of eclipse.” (65)

His stories, alongside Poe’s, could be described as proto-weird fiction, predating the The Weird Tale and classic weird fiction by just a few decades. He is worth a read if you are interested in the development of that kind of literature, that classic spooky horror stuff - especially about ghosts and other supernatural creatures lurking in the dark. My favorites are “An Inhabitant of Carcosa” (1886), “The Damned Thing” (1893) and “Moxon’s Master” (1899). Each of them are pretty cool and brings something fairly new to the table, so definitely go check those out.

The cover illustration of my luxurious deluxe edition from Pushkin press is pretty stylish, by the way! I love that shiny, almost unearthly glowing orange, the terrified man holding a candle behind a window and what appears to be barb wiring trying to break in and invading the whole frame of the front, seemingly alive and deadly. This is a keeper.

A short review of each story:

The Damned Thing - (1893) - ★★★★★

A very early example of the classic horror trope of invisible monsters. (SEE what I did there?) The explanation behind this one is actually more science based, though, than supernatural, which I think is pretty neat.

It's is divided into four chapters/parts. (Bierce seems to like dividing his narratives into different parts and viewpoints.) In the opening scene, there are seven people gathered around a man’s corpse for an inquest into the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death. One witness arrives to give testimony under oath. His name is William Harker, and he recalls, unsettlingly: “Nothing that I had ever seen had affected me so strangely as this unfamiliar and unaccountable phenomenon”(15).

That phenomenon is the Damned Thing!

And then we simply listen to Harker’s account about what happened to Hugh Morgan. What’s interesting is Harker visited Morgan “to study him, and his odd, solitary way of life” because Morgan “seemed a good model for a character in fiction” (13).

I agree. Morgan is like every human being in the face of powers beyond their apprehension. Simply because we lack perspective, the prerequisite knowledge, or because human senses have their limitations, because we lack the technology, the right instrument to measure such things. Lovecraft must have drawn some inspiration from this piece! I mean, “there are colors that we can not see” (25)!?

That’s what I like about this one. I liked that this story is short, but effective and suspenseful! Bierce keeps us guessing, keeps us wondering and questioning and peering out of our windows and into the night, fearful of unseen things lurking in the forest.

We so rely upon the orderly operation of familiar natural laws that any seeming suspension of them is noted as a menace to our safety, a warning of unthinkable calamity. (16)

The Moonlit Road (1907) - ★★★★★

A ghost story and a murder mystery presented in three parts from three different perspectives: The mother, the father and the son. I won't spoil anything else, but I really liked the way Bierce set up the narrative. There's such a stark difference between the three people and perspectives, and key elements of the event is revealed by each of them, making the story a very engaging read. I liked the prose too; it's like the words are uncomfortably distorted in some way, as if they’re spoken through a thick ghostly veil.

Standing upon the shore of eternity, I turn for a last look landward over the course by which I came. There are twenty years of footprints fairly distinct, the impressions of bleeding feet. They lead through poverty and pain, devious and unsure, as of one staggering beneath a burden --

Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow.

Ah, the poet's prophecy of Me -- how admirable, how dreadfully admirable!”

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1890) - ★★★

I read this at university for a short story class. I distinctly remember a guy falling into the water and people shooting at him. The ending definitely surprised me then, and since it's been ages since I last read it, it surprised me again now! I don't think I really liked it at the time, and I still don’t. It’s sad and intense, sure, but I’m not that into war and guns and swimming. In my dust jacket, it says it's "among the most famous American stories ever written". Very well. That doesn’t make me like it more than three stars.

These sensations were unaccompanied by thought. The intellectual part of his nature was already effaced; he had power only to feel, and feeling was torment. (57)

The Death of Halpin Frayser (1891) - ★★★★

I'm not sure what to make of this one, but I found it fascinating. It's a fairly psychologically complex and elaborate story. Quite Freudian, one could argue, even if it's written before that guy’s theories became a thing. The atmosphere is dreamy, feverish and most of all weird. The supernatural element too. I can't tell what that was. Was it a ghost, a zombie, a vampire, a witch or a manifested nightmare?

Over all was that air of abandonment and decay which seems nowhere so fit and significant as in a village of the forgotten dead. (91)

I couldn't rate it five stars simply because there were too many moving parts and too much that I didn't understand, but I enjoyed the way it was written. Poetic and creepy. And that poem was chef's kiss!

From among the trees on either side he caught broken and incoherent whispers in a strange tongue which yet he partly understood. They seemed to him fragmentary utterances of a monstrous conspiracy against his body and soul. (72)

The Suitable Surroundings (1889) - ★★★

A boy is venturing into the woods and finds a spooky house. Cut to the day before and some men are having an interesting conversation about literary enjoyment; that a work needs to be read under certain circumstances to have its full effect. Especially horror stories.

I liked the premise, and their conversation was interesting, but the execution confused me. I misunderstood what happened on my first reading. Thankfully, someone else helped me by pointing out what the deal was.

“There are certain emotions which a writer can easily enough excite […] But for my ghost story to be effective you must be made to feel fear – at least a strong sense of the supernatural […] I have a right to expect that if you read me at all you will give me a chance; that you will make yourself accessible to the emotion that I try to inspire.” (106)

Initially I gave it two stars, and it’s a four-star tale, to be fair, but I ended up on three stars because it didn’t grab me on the first read as it’s supposed to.

The Middle Toe of the Right Foot" (1890) - ★★

A haunted house story, I think. Nothing grabs me, and again I'm in the dark as to what happens. There’s no atmosphere, no build-up. No mystery. But there's a duel to the death with knives by a pair of forgettable characters. And then there's a ghost and someone dies. I guess. Oh well.

In the blaze of a midsummer noonday the Old Manton house was hardly true to its traditions. It was of the earth, earthly. The sunshine caressed it warmly and affectionately, with evident disregard of its bad reputation. (128)

Moxon’s Master (1899) - ★★★★★

Speculative writing at its best. Much like “Frankenstein”, I’m urged to pose these questions: What is life, intelligence, instinct, reason, sentience, free will, cause and effect? Is consciousness an illusion? Are machines and humans the same in any significant way? I think Bierce alludes to the theory of panpsychism, but still he seemed to be way ahead of his time with this science fiction story with a dramatic gothic vibe to it. A chess playing robot in 1899? Dangers of AI? What a pleasant surprise!

The theme has, unsurprisingly, been explored thousands of times since, but it must’ve been very innovative at the time, and I still think the story has aged well.

Consciousness is the creature of Rhythm. (143)

An Adventure at Brownville (1892) - ★★★

A man sits on a fallen tree and observes a family of lizards one night when he hears two voices – “a woman’s, angry, impetuous, rising against deep masculine tones, rich and musical”. (153) He doesn’t know who they are, but they are acting very strange. There are a lot of unanswered questions about them throughout the story, and you never quite figure out who they are or what they’re doing. This is another one of those stories where you’re in the dark as to what really happens and what kind of supernatural being the characters are encountering. It’s both frustrating and intriguing at the same time.

But a moment later I heard, seemingly from a great distance, his fine clear voice in a barbaric chant, which as I listened brought before some inner spiritual sense a consciousness of some far, strange land peopled with beings having forbidden powers. (162)

The Eyes of the Panther (1897) - ★★

A woman refuses a marriage proposal and insists that she is insane and/or possessed because of something that happened to her mother. I think. And there’s a scary panther there, or not. And someone might be a werewolf, or it might just be a subconscious instinct or desire. Bierce is being too convoluted again, and not in a good way.

Surely in such a mind imagination once kindled might burn with a lawless flame, penetrating and enveloping the entire structure. (184)

The Spook House (1889) - ★★★★

A family mysteriously disappears from a plantation house in 1858. A year later, two men are forced to take shelter there. The story is about what they experience inside, and let me tell you, it’s some gruesome and nasty and eerie stuff!

This apartment was suffused with a faint greenish light, the source of which I could not determine, making everything distinctly visible, though nothing was sharply defined. (195)

An inhabitant of Carcosa (1886) - ★★★★★

My favorite! A man from the ancient city of Carcosa awakens in a dreamy, unfamiliar, hostile environment. Very weird, poetic and atmospheric, which is what I love the most. That ending is so perfect!

This story seems to have served as inspiration to several notable authors, for instance Robert W. Chambers, who used the same setting for The King in Yellow. I wish Bierce had written more like this, but alas, it seems to be an exception.

So old seemed these relics, these vestiges of vanity and memorials of affection and piety, so battered and worn and stained -- so neglected, deserted, forgotten the place, that I could not help thinking myself the discoverer of the burial-ground of a prehistoric race of men whose very name was long extinct. (203)

New words:

Inquest = a legal or judicial inquiry, usually before a jury, especially an investigation made by a coroner into the cause of a death.

Extravasate = to force out from the proper vessels, as blood, especially so as to diffuse through the surrounding tissues.

Privation = lack of the usual comforts or necessaries of life

[Indieflower · Rating 3 out of 5]

An inquest is being held to determine the cause of death of a man who died in unusual circumstances while out hunting. Mmm, an interesting story, just because you can't see a danger, doesn't mean it's not there, 3.5 stars.

[Justin Pickett · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Can you accelerate my pulse, make me start at sudden noises, send a nervous chill along my spine and cause my hair to rise?”

Eleven short stories written in the 1800s about ghosts, haunted houses, executions, murderous machines, and other strange topics. None of the stories is bad, and several are excellent. A unique feature of the stories is that, while they are short, most are broken into sections/chapters, sometimes from different characters’ perspectives. My favorite stories in the collection are listed below, along with short summaries of each and illustrative quotes:

THE MOONLIT ROAD (Five stars)

This is the best story in the collection. In it, a college student at Yale comes home after his mother is murdered. His father loses his mind shortly thereafter and runs away, never to be seen again. One part of the story is from a ghost’s perspective. Another part is from the perspective of a man whose memory is restricted to a particular part of the past.

“You think that we are of another world. No, we have knowledge of no world but yours, though for us it holds no sunlight, no warmth, no music, no laughter, no song of birds, nor any companionship.”

“I know only that my first consciousness was of maturity in body and mind—a consciousness accepted without surprise or conjecture. I merely found myself walking in a forest, half-clad, footsore, unutterably weary and hungry.”

THE DAMNED THING (Five stars)

This is about an inquest into a solitary man’s strange, gruesome death in the woods. Someone witnessed the death, but other people believe (or hope) that the witness is crazy.

“Some of the jurors who had risen to get a better view repented their curiosity, and turned away their faces.”

“We so rely upon the orderly operation of familiar natural laws that any seeming suspension of them is noted as a menace to our safety, a warning of unthinkable calamity.”

MOXON’S MASTER (Five stars)

A man makes machines, or robots. They can do such things as play chess. The question is what these abilities indicate about the machines (e.g., how human are they?), and whether they can be controlled. It is hard to believe this story was written so long ago (first published in 1893), given its timeliness.

“Are you serious?—do you really believe that a machine thinks?”

AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE (Four stars)

This story is set during the Civil War and is about an execution (a hanging). However, it focuses on the experiences of the condemned man. I cannot recall another short story that puts readers in the shoes of someone who is about to be executed. That alone made this interesting to read.

“He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children.”

THE EYES OF THE PANTHER (Four stars)

A family suffers repeated tragedies, all of which are associated with strange occurrences and possibly with visual hallucinations.

“One does not always marry when insane.”

“Her knees failed her, and by degrees, instinctively striving to avoid a sudden movement that might bring the beast upon her, she sank to the floor, crouched against the wall and tried to shield the babe with her trembling body without withdrawing her gaze from the luminous orbs that were killing her.”

THE SPOOK HOUSE (Four stars)

A short, truly memorable haunted house story. Or, maybe more accurately, a story about a house with a very dark secret.

“That is was tenanted by evil spirits, visible, audible and active, no one in all the region doubted…”

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bierce wrote in the 1890s. I don’t know if he primarily wrote horror, but horror and ghost stories are what you get in this collection.

There is a surprising economy of words in Bierce’s writing. I always expect overblown prose in writing from this period, and I’m grateful when it’s absent. Bierce loves to present stories from multiple perspectives and he’s very effective.

These stories obviously influenced Lovecraft as much as Bierce was influenced by Poe. If you’re addicted to early haunts like these, then this book is mandatory.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as a tween and was quite taken with the idea that living creatures could reflect light at wavelengths humans can not perceive without technology. Given that bats, dolphins... use sonor, sound which we cannot perceive, why not colors. Though presented as a horror, this short story could easily have been a predecessor to hard science fiction. Perhaps it should be so considered.

Reading it again 5 decades later, it seems almost trivial. The galaxy has turned a bit too much for me. Yet, as a reminiscence it was worth the little time it took to re-read and remind me of Yoda saying to Luke, "Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future."

[Michael Sorbello · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very early glimpse of what would later be known as cosmic horror. This story plays off of Lovecraft’s wonderfully scary concept of fear of the unknown.

What if there are horrific monstrosities that could annihilate us at any moment wandering in plain sight yet we can’t even see them because of their uncanny ability to blend in with certain sounds and colors that human senses fail to pick up?

The concept is wonderful, but the execution in this story feels like an unfinished idea that needed some more time to properly cook. With that being said, still a great look into one of my favorite horror concepts.

[ThatBookish_deviant · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0/5

[إيمان الحبيشي · Rating 2 out of 5]

it was easy to me to imagine the story, the description was good, some times I feel exited, I wonder what happened with the dead man and how he lost his life but I think I feel disappointed in the end maybe I couldn't guess the events because from the beginning I thought its was a murder

[Riello · Rating 4 out of 5]

Krótkie i konkrente. Właśnie takie rzeczy czytuję do porannej kawusi.

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cool horror story because it never reveals the monster. It's presence is sensed more than seen; the only physical manifestation being the sight of the wheat pressing down in its wake, as it creeps towards the hunters. This is another one of Bierce's better known stories, and for good reason. The only reason I give it three stars instead of four is that, as with many of his tales, the idea is so cool it deserves deeper exploration. Many of Bierce's stories - well, short stories in general - are like a teasing little bite of a much larger, delicious looking cake. I suppose that's where the magic of short fiction lies. In little bites.

But I'm a greedy motherf****r.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to here on one of my favourite YouTube channels..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfGjX...

Another little gem from Mr Bierce, possibly the inspiration for a certain Lovecraft tale me thinks? A quick read or listen with some very snappy dialogue for the age of the piece. And poor old Harker, mocked by all who hear his story, except, it seems H.P. himself.

[Mark Redman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Damned Thing: Weird and Ghostly Tales by Ambrose Bierce is a gripping and unsettling collection of eleven of his best short stories. Bierce explores the themes of the unknown and the mysterious. Bierce's use of suspense and tension kept me engaged from start to finish. The narrative of each story is well-paced and adds to the sense of dread and anticipation. There were plenty of favourites; An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, The Suitable Surroundings and The Spook House. Bierce's writing style is concise and effective, and his vivid descriptions create a vivid mental image of the eerie and the unsettling. One of the strengths of this collection is Bierce’s ability to provoke thought and discussion. These are stories that leave a lasting impression. A brilliant exploration of the supernatural and the unexplained makes it a must-read for those who enjoy thought-provoking ghost stories, mystery and the weird.

[Adam Sharples · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant collection of 11 "weird fiction" stories, written before the term was mainstream and even before HP Lovecraft penned his famous Cthulhu Mythos all which provoke the feeling that you've read this somewhere before. To be honest you probably have, it's just that the authors uses Bierce's work as their base.

They all introduce us to some well used tropes, such as "The narrator discovers they are dead" to "Offering different perspectives on the same story". One stand out is "The Damned thing" which uses perspective to gain a different outlook on a crime. Such a well done story. An Occurrence at Owl creek is another stand out entry as was Moxon's master. Just well ahead of it's time and would have probably scared readers in the 1800's.

But the most interesting story is "An inhabitant of Carcosa" which is supposed to have inspired HP Lovecraft to write his famous horror collection.

Well worth your time.

[Dhanaraj Rajan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Aldiko again. It is a free book.

Having only 15 pages, it was easy to read it in 5 mins.

The story is simple. A Man is murdered/killed. Who killed or what killed him? It is a mystery. May be a supernatural force or may be a force in the nature that is yet undiscovered by us and is invisible to all our senses as of now. What will you make of it? Is it something supernatural or unknown natural force? What will you name such a thing? May be, the damned thing.

Bierce has teased the minds of readers alluding to both possibilities (supernatural/natural).

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining fantasy listening 🎶🔰

Another will written British 🏰 fantasy relationship short story by Ambrose Bierce about two male friends. One has been asked to stay with the other too help with his health but when out hunting he dies. How did he die? You will have to read this novella to find out. I would recommend this novella to anyone looking for a quick read. Enjoy the adventure of novels 👍🔰 and books 📚. 2022 😢👑⏰🏠

I listened to this as part of the Classic Tales of Horror - 500+ Stories. It was very entertaining 2023

[Jim Hardison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Early Cosmic Horror

A spooky short from an early master. A quick read with a nice balance of the pragmatic and fantastical. Worth a look.

[Esther Button · Rating 2 out of 5]

(read for uni)

Man is killed by something unseen and then it's all pinned on a mountain lion, because the people at the inquest cannot comprehend any other conclusion. Lots of gothic conventions at play, and a deliberate and interesting episodic structure, but ultimately a little underdeveloped, I think.

rating as of 07/10/2024: 2.5 stars

[Gabs 🫧 · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok, although I expected more after the beginning *sigh*.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Damned Thing is the second thing I have read from Ambrose Bierce so far, and I can't honestly say I've fallen in love with his work. It's alright. This story specifically has a decent premise, the prose was decent enough (although it isn't the writing that I've had any issues with), but ultimately this particular tale felt more like an incomplete idea. This needed to be longer, mostly to actually complete the thought.

Overall this was an okay read. I wouldn't advise against reading it, but it's not on the list of short stories I'd recommend.

[S.Baqer Al-Meshqab · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure of the message the story wants to deliver, if there was any anyway.
Probably something like; there are things which we may not be aware of, and we might try ignore, but they still exist, lurking in the darkness. And we try to convince ourselves why we cannot perceive them, and should we actually perceive them at all?
Good narration and description, but not very much interesting.

[Adriana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leído para el Reto "Leer 5 libros en Inglés" de LosMilLibros 3/5

2.5/5: Estuvo interesante pensé que sería aterrador pero no.
The title was catchy and the description was quite interesting.

[Murgatroyd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe I was spacing out, I don't know, but this story seemed to go in one side of my brain and out of he other. no idea what this was supposed to be about. Yawn.

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great collection of short stories, very enjoyable, with some good twists and turns. My favourite story was 'A Spook House' while my other most liked stories were 'The Moonlit Road' and 'The Death of Halpin Frayser'. With Moxon's Master being an honorable mention as I believe it is one of the first stories about robots (published in 1899) which was really interesting to read.

[Netanella · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The Damned Thing" damned confused me. Possibly because it's told by an unreliable narrator using a story-within-a-story technique, and on top of that the damned thing is invisible! haha. Great short story, but it didn't capture me, unfortunately.

[Joeri Ryckaseys · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een eerste kennismaking met deze 19de eeuwse horror auteur. Minder 'super' dan ik verwacht had maar het is slechts een zéér kort kortverhaal. Ik zal meer moeten lezen van deze auteur :D

Hij staat wel bekend als één van de grote Amerikaanse auteurs uit de 19de eeuw.