Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce

Bierce's writing is a bit uneven, but his best ghost and horror stories, such as "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", are among the best ever written. This is a very good introduction to his work.

It's great to get into pre-lovecraftian horror and tales of the fantastic. Mr. Bierce has a serious knack for the sardonic and a truly subtle twist in words.

Nope. Can't do it. I read the first five stories, that took me to exactly a quarter of the way in, then took a break. The next story was the one that likely made him famous: The Occurrence at Owl Creek, which reminded me of seeing the movie in my Grade 9 English class. The movie blew my 14-year-old mind. The story completely bored my 57-year-old mind.

I figured I'd go to the story that was listed in the introduction as the second most reprinted of this batch, The Middle Toe of the Right Foot, and when it did nothing for me, I decided that Bierce's particular brand of horror was in and of its time, and it has not aged well.

I was not entertained, so I gave up. Bummer.

While I appreciate Bierce's knack for "dropping the bomb on the reader," some of these stories became a little to predictable. Don't get me wrong; for the most part, I enjoyed this book. However, if you're a fan of his Civil War shorts, you probably won't like this. He becomes extremely wordy at times, and some of the stories don't even have a plot. Not to be negative, the stories are enjoyable overall. Look for his classic "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and some of his creepy ones: "The Damned Thing" and "The Middle Toe of the Right Foot."

S. T. Joshi’s Ambrose Bierce: The Devil’s Dictionary, Tales, & Memoirs is a better all-around sampler of Bierce’s many facets, but this collection is cheaper, uses Bierce’s Collected Stories as the source for the stories – important since Bierce liked to revise his work each printing, and has all of Bierce’s most famous and significant weird stories and science fiction. I would argue it’s only missing Bierce’s science fiction satires “For the Ahkoond” and “Ashes of the Beacon”. Joshi’s work includes all of Bierce’s Can Such Things Be?, primarily a collection of horror and supernatural works.

It does have two things Joshi’s book lacks.

First is a Bierce essay on the importance of dreams in his life, “Visions show more of the Night”.

The second is Bleiler’s lengthy introduction. Putting aside that some have found its summary of Bierce’s life as scurrilous, I think its summary and critique of the volume’s stories is valuable. show less