Publisher: Dover

Copyright Date: 1994

Edition Date: 1994 Release Date: 07/13/94

Pages: iv, 123 pages

ISBN: 0-486-28038-1

ISBN 13: 978-0-486-28038-7

Dewey: Fic

LCCN: 93046121

Dimensions: 21 cm.

Subject Heading:
War stories, American.
United States. History. Civil War, 1861-1865. Fiction.

Language: English

Reading Level: 9.0

Interest Level: 9+

Newspaperman, short-story writer, poet, and satirist, Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) is one of the most striking and unusual literary figures America has produced. Dubbed "Bitter Bierce" for his vitriolic wit and biting satire, his fame rests largely on a celebrated compilation of barbed epigrams, The Devil's Dictionary , and a book of short stories ( Tales of Soldiers and Civilians , 1891). Most of the 16 selections in this volume have been taken from the latter collection. The stories in this edition include: "What I Saw at Shiloh," "A Son of the Gods," "Four Days in Dixie," "One of the Missing," "A Horseman in the Sky," "The Coup de Grace," "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," "The Story of Conscience," "One Kind of Officer," "Chickamauga," and five more. Bierce's stories employ a buildup of suggestive realistic detail to produce grim and vivid tales often disturbing in their mood of fatalism and impending calamity. Hauntingly suggestive, they offer excellent examples of the author's dark pessimism and storytelling power.

What I saw of Shiloh
Four days in Dixie
A horseaman in the sky
An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Chickamauga
A son of the gods
One of the missing
Killed at Resaca
The affair at Coulter's Notch
The coup de grace
Parker Adderson, philosopher
An affair of outposts
The story of a conscience
One kind of officer
George Thurston
The mocking-bird.