Ambrose Bierce Books & Short Stories on Audio

Witty, opinionated alphabetical examples of what Bierce considered poor (American) English and advice on alternatives – entertaining, thought-provoking, occasionally outdated but so interesting to see how style and taste have changed. Summary by Philippa

At the outset of the American Civil War, [the writer Ambrose] Bierce enlisted in the Union Army's 9th Indiana Infantry Regiment....In February 1862 he was commissioned First Lieutenant, and served on the staff of General William Babcock Hazen as a topographical engineer, making maps of likely battlefields.

Civilization, Immortality, the Death Penalty, these are just a few of the essays enclosed in this collection, A Cynic Looks At Life.

CYNIC, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.

Includes four stories: My Favorite Murder, Oil of Dog, An Imperfect Conflagration, The Hypnotist.

Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914?), satirist, critic, poet, short story writer and journalist. In the Devil's Dictionary, he let his sense of humour and his cynical outlook on life colour a collection of dictionary-like definitions.

This collection includes The Oval Portrait by Edgar Allan Poe; Ethan Brand by Nathaniel Hawthorne; The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers; The Upper Berth by F. Marion Crawford; and An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce.

Stories of strange, spooky, ghostly or inexplicable occurrences read in dim lit backgrounds relating to whether anything is possible at any time.

A chilling collection of ghost stories containing Rats by MR James, The Raven and Berenice by Edgar Allan Poe....

The vengeful dead, premonition, ghosts, pacts with the devil and a strange madness - these are the themes of this collection of chilling tales, written by some of the great names in English literature and masters of the genre.