Bøger af Ambrose Bierce

A certain Persian nobleman obtained from a cow gipsy a small oyster. Holding him up by the beard, he addressed him thus: "You must try to forgive me for what I am about to do; and you might as well set about it at once, for you haven't much time. I should never think of swallowing you if it were not so easy; but opportunity is the strongest of all temptations. Besides, I am an orphan, and very hungry."

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 - circa 1914) was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist. He wrote the short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and compiled a satirical lexicon, The Devil's Dictionary. His vehemence as a critic, his motto "Nothing matters," and the sardonic view of human nature that informed his work, all earned him the nickname "Bitter Bierce." Despite his reputation as a searing critic, Bierce was known to encourage younger writers, including the poets George Sterling and Herman George Scheffauer and the fiction writer W. C. Morrow. Bierce employed a distinctive style of writing, especially in his stories. His style often embraces an abrupt beginning, dark imagery, vague references to time, limited descriptions, impossible events, and the theme of war. In 1913, Bierce traveled to Mexico to gain first-hand experience of the Mexican Revolution. He was rumored to be traveling with rebel troops, and was not seen again. Bierce was born in a log cabin at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, Ohio, on June 24, 1842, to Marcus Aurelius Bierce (1799-1876) and Laura Sherwood Bierce.His mother was a descendant of William Bradford. He was the tenth of thirteen children whose father gave all names beginning with the letter "A": in order of birth, the Bierce siblings were Abigail, Amelia, Ann, Addison, Aurelius, Augustus, Almeda, Andrew, Albert, and Ambrose. His parents were a poor but literary couple who instilled in him a deep love for books and writing.Bierce grew up in Kosciusko County, Indiana, attending high school at the county seat, Warsaw.He left home at 15 to become a "printer's devil" at a small Ohio newspaper.

Ambrose Bierce's "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a short story that is indispensable in any anthology of short stories. Located in the historic event that was the 1860 Civil War between the states of the North and the South, the author paints a feverish landscape where the outer vision is mixed with the subjectivity of the hero Peyton Fahrquhar, dragging and involving the reader into the phantasmal action where Peyton agonistes builds a parallel reality but far more superior and palatable than objective reality. Not only is the story suspenseful, but also well measured in its description of the landscape. Of course a war story has to be violent, yet in the midst of fighting the author manages to convey a message of fidelity, loyalty--and love for wife and family!

A Cynic Looks at Life is a classic collection of essays and observations on life by the great American humorist, Ambrose Bierce. This collection contains the following titles: Civilization -- The gift o' gab -- Natura benigna -- The death penalty -- Immortality -- Emancipated woman -- A mad world -- Epigrams of a cynic.Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842[2] - circa 1914[3]) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and Civil War veteran.Bierce's book The Devil's Dictionary was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration.[4] His story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" has been described as "one of the most famous and frequently anthologized stories in American literature";[5] and his book Tales of Soldiers and Civilians(also published as In the Midst of Life) was named by the Grolier Club as one of the 100 most influential American books printed before 1900.[6]A prolific and versatile writer, Bierce was regarded as one of the most influential journalists in the United States, [7][8] and as a pioneering writer of realist fiction.[9] For his horror writing, Michael Dirda ranked him alongside Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft.[10] His war stories influenced Stephen Crane, Ernest Hemingway, and others, [11] and he was considered an influential and feared literary critic.[12] In recent decades Bierce has gained wider respect as a fabulist and for his poetry.[13][14]In December 1913, Bierce traveled to Chihuahua, Mexico, to gain first-hand experience of the Mexican Revolution.[15] He disappeared, and was rumored to be traveling with rebel troops. He was never seen again.Bierce was born in a log cabin at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, Ohio, on June 24, 1842, to Marcus Aurelius Bierce (1799-1876) and Laura Sherwood Bierce.[2] He was of entirely English ancestry: all of his forebears came to North America between 1620 and 1640 as part of the Great Puritan Migration.[16] He often wrote critically of both "Puritan values" and people who "made a fuss" about genealogy.[17] He was the tenth of thirteen children, all of whom were given names by their father beginning with the letter "A": in order of birth, the Bierce siblings were Abigail, Amelia, Ann, Addison, Aurelius, Augustus, Almeda, Andrew, Albert, Ambrose, Arthur, Adelia, and Aurelia.[18] His mother was a descendant of William Bradford His parents were a poor but literary couple who instilled in him a deep love for books and writing.[2] Bierce grew up in Kosciusko County, Indiana, attending high school at the county seat, Warsaw.He left home at 15 to become a printer's devil at a small abolitionist Ohio newspaper, the Northern IndianaAt the outset of the American Civil War, Bierce enlisted in the Union Army's 9th Indiana Infantry. He participated in the operations in Western Virginia (1861), was present at the Battle of Philippi (the first organized land action of the war), and received newspaper attention for his daring rescue, under fire, of a gravely wounded comrade at the Battle of Rich Mountain. Bierce fought at the Battle of Shiloh (April 1862), a terrifying experience that became a source for several short stories and the memoir "What I Saw of Shiloh".In April 1863 he was commissioned a first lieutenant, and served on the staff of General William Babcock Hazen as a topographical engineer, making maps of likely battlefields.[20]As a staff officer, Bierce became known to leading generals such as George H. Thomas and Oliver O. Howard, both of whom supported his application for admission to West Point in May 1864. General Hazen believed Bierce would graduate from the military academy "with distinction" and William T. Sherman also endorsed the application for admission even though stating he had no personal acquaintance with Bierce.[21] In June 1864, Bierce sustained a serious head wound (since diagnosed as a Traumatic Brain Injur

The monk and the hangman's daughter, a classical book, has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we at Alpha Editions have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies of their original work and hence the text is clear and readable.

Ambrose Bierce¿s second major short story collection, Can Such Things Be? collected nearly all of Bierce¿s supernatural horror stories.Bierce himself was a skeptic of the supernatural, having once written a satirical essay ¿The Clothing of Ghosts,¿ in which he insisted that ¿The materialized spook appealing to our senses for recognition of his ghostly character must authenticate himself otherwise than by familiar and remembered habiliments. He must be credentialed by nudity¿and that regardless of temperature or who may happen to be present.¿Despite his personal skepticism, Bierce was able to capture the essence of the supernatural horror story. ¿The Moonlit Road¿ is a strong example, providing three distinct vantage points of the same events, and both ¿The Death of Halpin Frayser¿ and ¿The Damned Thing¿ are frequently anthologized as pioneers in the genre. Not all stories in the collection are strictly ¿ghost stories¿¿¿Moxon¿s Master¿ is one of the first examples in English literature to describe a robotic thinking machine (and the fate of its master), and ¿Haïta the Shepherd¿ is a tale of a young man¿s search for meaning in his life. Bierce also plays with the idea of holes in reality in the various ¿Mysterious Disappearances¿ stories, portals to horrifying locations in ¿The Spook House,¿ and parallel dimensions or altered states in ¿A Psychological Shipwreck¿ and ¿The Realm of the Unreal.¿H.P. Lovecraft discusses Bierce in his essay ¿Supernatural Horror in Literature,¿ quoting Samuel Loveman: ¿In Bierce, the evocation of horror becomes for the first time, not so much the prescription or perversion of Poe and Maupassant, but an atmosphere definite and uncannily precise. Words, so simple that one would be prone to ascribe them to the limitations of a literary hack, take on an unholy horror, a new and unguessed transformation.¿Like his other major published collection of short stories, Bierce updated and modified his stories for each new edition. This collection includes all stories as revised and published in his 1910 Collected Works, Volume III: Can Such Things Be?, as well as several stories from the ¿Bodies of the Dead¿ section in an earlier 1903 edition, which were not included in his Collected Works.

'The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 1' is a comprehensive collection of the early works of the celebrated American author and satirist, Ambrose Bierce. This volume includes a range of Bierce's writings, including his essays, short stories, and satirical pieces, as well as selections from his journalism and letters. Bierce's writing is characterized by its acerbic wit, its incisive commentary on American society and politics, and its dark, often macabre themes. His stories frequently explore the darker aspects of human nature, and his satirical pieces are biting critiques of the social and political issues of his day. In addition to his writing, Bierce was also a noted journalist and newspaper editor, and his work in these fields is well-represented in this volume. The book provides readers with a comprehensive overview of Bierce's early career and offers valuable insights into the literary and political landscape of late 19th-century America.

"The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce" is a two-volume set of the complete works of American author Ambrose Bierce, including his essays, stories, poems, and articles. Volume 02 comprises a selection of Bierce's short stories. The stories in this volume are arranged chronologically, starting with his early work and moving on to his later, more mature stories. Bierce's writing style is characterized by its wit, satire, and dark humor. Many of his stories explore themes such as death, war, and the supernatural. Some notable stories in this volume include "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," a haunting tale of a Confederate soldier's execution during the American Civil War; "Chickamauga," a gruesome account of a young boy's encounter with the horrors of war; and "A Holy Terror," a chilling tale of a creature that is invisible to the human eye. Overall, this volume provides a comprehensive look at Bierce's development as a writer and his unique style, which has made him one of the most influential and enduring figures in American literature.

¿Dictionary, n: A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work.¿Bierce¿s groundbreaking Devil¿s Dictionary had a complex publication history. Started in the mid-1800s as an irregular column in Californian newspapers under various titles, he gradually refined the new-at-the-time idea of an irreverent set of glossary-like definitions. The final name, as we see it titled in this work, did not appear until an 1881 column published in the periodical The San Francisco Illustrated Wasp.There were no publications of the complete glossary in the 1800s. Not until 1906 did a portion of Bierce¿s collection get published by Doubleday, under the name The Cynic¿s Word Book¿the publisher not wanting to use the word ¿Devil¿ in the title, to the great disappointment of the author. The 1906 word book only went from A to L, however, and the remainder was never released under the compromised title.In 1911 the Devil¿s Dictionary as we know it was published in complete form as part of Bierce¿s collected works (volume 7 of 12), including the remainder of the definitions from M to Z. It has been republished a number of times, including more recent efforts where older definitions from his columns that never made it into the original book were included. Due to the complex nature of copyright, some of those found definitions have unclear public domain status and were not included. This edition of the book includes, however, a set of definitions attributed to his one-and-only ¿Demon¿s Dictionary¿ column, including Bierce¿s classic definition of A: ¿the first letter in every properly constructed alphabet.¿Bierce enjoyed ¿quoting¿ his pseudonyms in his work. Most of the poetry, dramatic scenes and stories in this book attributed to others were self-authored and do not exist outside of this work. This includes the prolific Father Gassalasca Jape, whom he thanks in the preface¿¿jape¿ of course having the definition: ¿a practical joke.¿This book is a product of its time and must be approached as such. Many of the definitions hold up well today, but some might be considered less palatable by modern readers. Regardless, the book¿s humorous style is a valuable snapshot of American culture from past centuries.

Abandonados. y adj. El que no tiene favores que otorgar. Desprovisto de fortuna. Amigo de la verdad y el sentido común.Abdicacións. Acto mediante el cual un soberano demuestra percibir la alta temperatura del trono.Abdomens. Templo del dios Estómago, al que rinden culto y sacrificio todos los hombres auténticos. Las mujeres sólo prestan a esta antigua fe un sentimiento vacilante. A veces ofician en su altar, de modo tibio e ineficaz, pero sin veneración real por la única deidad que los hombres verdaderamente adoran. Si la mujer manejara a su gusto el mercado mundial, nuestra especie se volvería graminívora.Aborígeness. Seres de escaso mérito que entorpecen el suelo de un país recién descubierto. Pronto dejan de entorpecer; entonces, fertilizan.Abruptoadj. Repentino, sin ceremonia, como la llegada de un cañonazo y la partida del soldado a quien está dirigido. El doctor Samuel Johnson, refiriéndose a las ideas de otro autor, dijo hermosamente que estaban «concatenadas sin abrupción».Absolutoadj. Independiente, irresponsable. Una monarquía absoluta es aquella en que el soberano hace lo que le place, siempre que él plazca a los asesinos. No quedan muchas: la mayoría han sido reemplazadas por monarquías limitadas, donde el poder del soberano para hacer el mal (y el bien) está muy restringido; o por repúblicas, donde gobierna el azar.Abstemios. Persona de carácter débil, que cede a la tentación de negarse un placer. Abstemio total es el que se abstiene de todo, menos de la abstención; en especial, se abstiene de no meterse en los asuntos ajenos.

The Parenticide Club, has been considered important throughout human history. In an effort to ensure that this work is never lost, we have taken steps to secure its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for both current and future generations. This complete book has been retyped, redesigned, and reformatted. Since these books are not scans of the authors' original publications, the text is readable and clear.

While most of us have heard of the likes of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, there is a host of less-famous philosophers who have just as much to say.‘400 Quotes from Little-known Philosophers’ is a collection of thoughts, observations, and reflections made by those that history hasn’t chosen for the Big League. Spanning the centuries, these quotes are just as fascinating, insightful, and relevant, as those whose names are synonymous with philosophy. A superb and inspirational book to browse through, ‘400 Quotes from Little-known Philosophers’ is ideal for anyone needing a bit of extra motivation throughout their day. Born in Ohio, Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914) went on to write one of the greatest American novels of all time, ‘The Devil’s Dictionary.’ A Romanian, Emil Cioran (1911 – 1995) was an acclaimed philosopher, who embraced nihilism and pessimism in his ideology. A former slave, Epictetus (50 AD – C 135) went on to promote philosophy as a way of life rather than a set of beliefs. Gaston Bachelard (1884 – 1962) was born in Bar-sur-Aube and went on to become an important scientific philosopher.

While we tend to think of the great thinkers as hailing from Ancient Greece, the 20th century has had more than its fair share of sharp minds.‘500 Quotations from the Great Philosophers of the 20th Century’ is a collection of reflections, insights, and observations from some of the best brains of that era. A superb book for dipping in and out of, this makes a great gift for anyone with an interest in history or philosophy.Born in Ohio, Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914) went on to write one of the greatest American novels of all time, ‘The Devil’s Dictionary.’ Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939) was an Austrian neurologist who founded the science of psychoanalysis. A Romanian, Emil Cioran (1911-1995) was an acclaimed philosopher who embraced nihilism and pessimism in his ideology. One of the founders of analytical psychology, Carl Jung (1875 – 1961) was a Swiss psychoanalyst and psychologist who had a huge impact on psychology as a science. Gaston Bachelard (1884 – 1962) was born in Bar-sur-Aube and went on to become an important scientific philosopher.

A bone-chilling, beautifully produced new collection of 11 uncanny tales from one of the great American masters of the ghost story Any lover of dark and unsettling tales will be enthralled by the short stories in this collection, all from the pen of the great Ambrose Bierce. Bierce is often seen as the link between Poe and Lovecraft in the American fantastical tradition, and this collection showcases his mastery of the macabre. A murder is relived from three startling perspectives; a hunter is driven out of his mind by an invisible, malevolent entity; a man meets a terrifying end in an abandoned house; a werepanther creeps through a window in the dead of night... Contains: The Damned Thing; The Moonlit Road; An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge; The Death of Halpin Frayser; The Suitable Surroundings; The Middle Toe of the Right Foot; Moxon's Master; An Adventure at Brownville; The Eyes of the Panther; The Spook House; An Inhabitant of Carcosa

Journalist, short story writer, poet, and critic Ambrose Bierce has been called one of America's greatest wits and an uncompromising satirist. He wrote unsparingly and with haunting realism of his Civil War experiences. His finest and most famous Civil War writings are gathered in this volume of six essays and twenty stories, including "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," "What I Saw of Shiloh," and "A Horseman in the Sky." Edited and introduced by William McCann, this annotated Warbler Classics edition also includes a detailed biographical timeline of Bierce's life.

In this book, the author's major goal is to impart writing precision lessons. Precision is crucial for good writing, which is really just clear thinking in writing form. It is achieved by selecting a term that fully and accurately captures the writer's intention and by avoiding words that either imply or suggest something else. According to Quintilian, the writer should write in a way that the reader can't help but understand. An edition of Ambrose Bierce's famous manual of proper speech with annotations is presented by one of America's leading linguists. Although "The Devil's Dictionary" is what Ambrose Bierce is most known for, the prolific writer, humorist, and fabulist was also an expert in the proper language. Few words have more than one literal and useful meaning, despite the fact that lexicographers may think it worthwhile to collect as many metaphorical, derivative, linked, or even unrelated meanings from all types and conditions of men in order to inflate their ludicrous and misleading dictionaries. The author of this small manual of solecisms affirms this true and useful interpretation, which is not always established by derivation and infrequently by widespread usage.

Ambrose Bierce wrote a satirical dictionary titled The Devil's Dictionary. The lexicon was first written over a period of thirty years as a collection of articles for magazines and newspapers. It has gained a name all across the world by being frequently repeated and imitated. It was listed among the top 100 works of American literature in the 1970s.The English Language, his dictionary, was released on April 15th, 1755. 42,733 terms were defined in Johnson's Dictionary, almost all seriously. The alphabetical list of definitions that we have here was put together from several notes, copies, and variations.The first definition attributed to Ambrose Bierce was released in 1867. His satirical dictionary "The Demon's Dictionary" was only published once, but it inspired imitators. Harry Ellington Brook wrote one of the most significant ones for The Illustrated San Francisco Wasp. In The Wasp, Paul Bierce's satirical definitions took the place of "Wasp's Improved Webster" and were replaced with his own. He penned 79 articles for "The Devil's Dictionary," making his way through the alphabet to the word "lickspittle" in the 14 August 1886 edition.