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Before he trailed off into the wilds of Mexico, never to be heard
from again, Ambrose Bierce achieved a public persona as "bitter
Bierce" and "the devil's lexicographer." He left behind a nasty
reputation and more than ninety short stories that are perfect
expressions of his sardonic genius. Brought together in this
volume, these stories represent an unprecedented accomplishment in
American literature. In their iconoclasm and needle-sharp irony,
their formal and thematic ingenuity and element of surprise, they
differ markedly from the fiction admired in Bierce's time. Readers
familiar with the classic "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" will
want to turn to Bierce's other Civil War stories. Also included
here are his horror stories, among them "The Death of Halpin
Frayser" and "The Damned Thing," and such tall tales as "Oil of
Dog" and "A Cargo of Cat."
An incomparable satirist, Ambrose Bierce became the "laughing devil" of the San Francisco news media, for he was about as discreet as a runaway locomotive, according to H.L.Mencken, and nowhere are his uninhibited irony and gift for verse parody more in evidence than in this "dictionary".
In "The Devil's Dictionary" Ambrose Bierce defined "war" as "a
by-product of the arts of peace." A Civil War veteran, Bierce had
absolutely no illusions about "courage," "honor," and "glory" on
the battlefield. These stories form one of the great antiwar
statements in American literature. Included here are the classic
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, " "Chickamauga," "The Mocking
Bird," "The Coup de Grace," "Parker Anderson," "Philosopher," and
other stories celebrated for their intensity, startling insight,
and mastery of form.
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