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A review by ellisknox
Civil War Stories by Ambrose Bierce
4.0
With every review, someone had to mention he was known as "bitter Bierce" but I found him more ironic than bitter. He loved to have a character be unknowingly killed by a former benefactor, or for a villain to perform a good deed, and so on. I think today he'd be called realistic.
Short story writers do not benefit, I think, from being collected. Their stories do better when we encounter them at intervals, in various magazines--in other words, in the context for which they were written. Reading these stories in quick succession does tend to make one notice repetition (that boy was fond of the word "acclivity"), and this lessens the impact of each story. If you get this book, try reading no more than one story a month, with other reading in between.
All that said, the writing is a marvel, particularly in two respects. One is that realism. Some of his descriptions of dead bodies are horrifying, even at this long remove. He doesn't linger; the effect is more that of a jump scare in a movie, a sudden close-up that leaves you shaken.
Balancing these moments are wonderfully funny lines. Most are sardonic, and it helps to know the temper of the times, but boy howdy he gets off some zingers. His writing is the sort where you lean forward into the text, eager for the next vivid image or memorable vignette. Bierce does not keep the reader waiting.
Short story writers do not benefit, I think, from being collected. Their stories do better when we encounter them at intervals, in various magazines--in other words, in the context for which they were written. Reading these stories in quick succession does tend to make one notice repetition (that boy was fond of the word "acclivity"), and this lessens the impact of each story. If you get this book, try reading no more than one story a month, with other reading in between.
All that said, the writing is a marvel, particularly in two respects. One is that realism. Some of his descriptions of dead bodies are horrifying, even at this long remove. He doesn't linger; the effect is more that of a jump scare in a movie, a sudden close-up that leaves you shaken.
Balancing these moments are wonderfully funny lines. Most are sardonic, and it helps to know the temper of the times, but boy howdy he gets off some zingers. His writing is the sort where you lean forward into the text, eager for the next vivid image or memorable vignette. Bierce does not keep the reader waiting.