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[books 2010] Ambrose Bierce
41. The Spook House by Ambrose Bierce
Bierce was a 19th-century American writer of ghost stories (and other weird & macabre tales), though is primarily remembered today for The (Enlarged) Devil's Dictionary. His stories often appear in collections of Golden Age stories of the supernatural, though I have to admit that I couldn't remember any, nor did any in this collection ring a bell. I have been too lazy to consult my ghost story collection to check.
As ghost stories go, I was a little underwhelmed. Most of them are too short to build up any real suspsense and the stories can be a big repetitive. His writing style is good, though at times he wants to be Mark Twain so much it hurts.
I was, however, fascinated by the settings for Bierce's stories - several involve the Civil War, and most are set in frontier locations, most notably California Gold Rush towns (before California was a state, so characters refer to going back to "the States"). Bierce moved all over the US during his lifetime and disappeared in the Mexican revolution in 1813.
So - not bad, but probably only of interest to serious ghost story nerds.
Bierce was a 19th-century American writer of ghost stories (and other weird & macabre tales), though is primarily remembered today for The (Enlarged) Devil's Dictionary. His stories often appear in collections of Golden Age stories of the supernatural, though I have to admit that I couldn't remember any, nor did any in this collection ring a bell. I have been too lazy to consult my ghost story collection to check.
As ghost stories go, I was a little underwhelmed. Most of them are too short to build up any real suspsense and the stories can be a big repetitive. His writing style is good, though at times he wants to be Mark Twain so much it hurts.
I was, however, fascinated by the settings for Bierce's stories - several involve the Civil War, and most are set in frontier locations, most notably California Gold Rush towns (before California was a state, so characters refer to going back to "the States"). Bierce moved all over the US during his lifetime and disappeared in the Mexican revolution in 1813.
So - not bad, but probably only of interest to serious ghost story nerds.
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http://fiction.eserver.org/short/occurrence_at_owl_creek.html
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