Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce

by Ambrose Bierce and E.F. Bleiler

Book Overview

Ambrose Bierce was one of the strangest phenomena of American letters. The adjectives used to describe his writing -- and character -- tend to have a rather uncomplimentary ring: "venomous," "vindictive," "paranoid," "rancorous," "malevolent"; yet few would deny his brilliance of intellect and style. About half of his fiction output consisted of stories of horror and the supernatural, a genre which appealed to his psychic constitution and may have...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486207676
• ISBN13: 9780486207674
• Release Date: June 1964
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Brilliant Bierce

Brilliant writing by Bierce still scary for today’s audience. A. Bierce a writer way ahead of his time. Wow!

Over looked American Author

Bierce was a journalist who served in the Union army from the beginning till the end of the Civil War. He was so close to the battles that it's a miracle he didn't get killed in action. Bierce doesn't just write ghost and horror stories he writes about everything going on in America during and after the 1860's. What caught my attention early on was that everything he writes sounds and feels like it was written NOW. So many authors write in their time not Bierce. I find his to ability to write across time fascinating.

bierce is a great writer

Hello, Bierce ranks with Poe and Lovecraft as one of the greatest American writers of horror stories, I love his writing and find his style to be creative but he leaves a lot to th imagination, I love this collection because it tells you a lot about the author and he is a very interesting man and inspiring horror writers can learn a lot just from the introduction to this book if you like horror storys you should read ambrose bierce,I am a lot like him i wonder if I am him reincarnated :) take care all enjoy the book

Review of Bierce's Ghost & Horror Stories

This was an excellent book. I ordered it because we had to do readings for an English class, but I got so engrossed in the stories required that I ended up reading the entire book cover to cover. Highly recommended!!

An American original...

Ambrose Bierce is an American original. His tales of ghosts and horror are like no other, and one story in particular, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," is considered to be, in some circles, a classic. Bierce's writings are also an acquired taste -- one gets the impression that he knew a bit about what he wrote: inner torment and a feeling of unsettlement. The preface to the book is very illuminating, giving us some insight into his personal life, which was then translated into these tales. Personally, I find them fascinating, but others may not. It's up to you to decide.

Ambrose Bierce's Ghost and Horror Stories

This book should be considered a classic for all that it offers (and for such an unbelievably low price!) Better than today's masters of macabre, Bierce goes deep into the mind of macabre. His stories make you contemplate the truth of the existence of what he writes about. If you want truly "deep" horror, I would highly suggest the works of Bierce and this book is a great place to start.

Careful - it bites

Bierce ranks with Poe and Lovecraft as one of the greatest American writers of horror stories. This collection presents a selection of his supernatural tales, leaving out the Civil War stories for which he is perhaps better known. The first story, "The Death of Halpin Frayser", is a genuine nightmare, and well worth the price of the volume on its own. But the book also includes Bierce's genre-bending experiments with science fiction, "Moxon's Master" and "The Damned Thing"; the cynical Rashomon precursor "The Moonlit Road"; the apocalyptic "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" and "The Eyes of the Panther", a lycanthrope story (maybe) which grows more unsettling the more you think about it, as well as a number of minor works which may be hard to find elsewhere. The only real flaw is E F Bleiler's sanctimonious introduction, which seems to attempt to escape the satiric snap of Bierce's work by repeating unpleasant (and largely unreliable) opinions of the writer. Watch out for this book - even the cover is scary.