In merely resuming his own the author hopes to be held guiltless by those to whom the work is addressed-enlightened souls who prefer dry wines to sweet, sense to sentiment, wit to humor and clean English to slang.

The Dictionary of the Devil

Histoires impossibles

Texte intégral révisé suivi d'une biographie d'Ambrose Bierce. L'auteur du "Dictionnaire du diable" est désormais reconnu comme le créateur de la "short story" d'horreur, et à ce titre comme l'initiateur d'un courant majeur de la littérature américaine contemporaine, de Richard Matheson à Anne Rice en passant bien entendu par Stephen King. Si Bierce a avec Edgar Poe le même goût du morbide, la même délectation pour la mort, violente, cruelle, il s'inspire pour sa part de la réalité la plus prosaïque - ici la Guerre de Sécession - qu'il décrit avec une minutie et une précision quasi photographiques. "Morts violentes" en est une bonne illustration. Là, pas de fantastique au sens littéraire du terme mais une exploration clinique de la réalité la plus crue, d'où nait le surnaturel et, chez le lecteur, le sentiment de l'horreur. Aussi, c'est à de véritables variations sur les métamorphoses du corps mort ou agonisant que se livre Bierce, de la vision d'un pendu sur un pont ("Ce qui se passa sur le pont de Owl Creek"), à celles du face-à-face pendant toute une nuit d'un soldat et d'un cadavre ("Une rude bagarre"), d'un espion apprenant qu'il va être exécuté sur-le-champ, de porcs en train de dévorer des cadavres ("Le coup de grâce"), ou encore d'une foule indistincte de blessés progressant à genoux comme des animaux et dont l'un des représentants, la mâchoire arrachée, menace bestialement du poing un enfant terrifié ("Chickamauga"). Dans "Morts violentes" la peur s'insinue partout.

Morts violentes

Epigrammes d'un cynique, un livre inédit d'Ambrose Bierce publié en 1911, soit deux ans avant sa disparition définitive au Mexique, un livre qui n'est pas sans parenté avec son fameux Dictionnaire du diable, où règne le même esprit sardonique et pourfendeur de celui qui fut si bien surnommé "Bitter Bierce", le "Tout-puissant Dieu Bierce" ou encore le "philosophe grincheux". De son vivant, la question "qui est Ambrose Bierce ?" faisait déjà couler beaucoup d'encre ! Qu'est-ce donc qu'un cynique ? C'est pour l'acrimonieux lexicographe une crapule à la vue défectueuse qui voit les choses comme elles sont et non pas comme elles devraient être. Autant dire un esprit fâché, voire chagrin, une tête lucide qui ne mâche pas ses mots et quelque peu portée sur la médisance, cette "pente secrète de l'âme à penser mal de tous les hommes" observait La Bruyère. Non seulement de tout homme, mais aussi de ses institutions comme de ses entreprises, de son risible théâtre comme de ses dieux... Ses acerbes aphorismes sont suivis des Rêveries philosophiques et théologiques extraites des Délices d'un monstre ainsi que de divers textes inédits en français, d'extraits de sa correspondance et d'une dizaine de ses Fables fantastiques, qui pour Jacques Sternberg "mettent régulièrement en pièces la morale traditionnelle". De cette noire figure si prolifique de la littérature américaine, il reste encore beaucoup à découvrir...

Epigrammes d'un cynique - Suivies de morceaux choisis, fables fantastiques et lettres

After his ship springs a leak during a voyage, a sailor details the amusingly bizarre dangers that one can face when transporting a cargo of cats across the open seas. This light-hearted short story by Ambrose Bierce was originally published in The Wasp, a magazine he edited. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

A Cargo Of Cat - Short Story

William Harker is the only witness to the death of his friend, Hugh Morgan. Morgan's body suggests that he has died traumatically, but when Harker tries to explain what he saw of his friend's last moments, the men in charge of determining Morgan's cause of death find his testimony too bizarre to be true. Written by Ambrose Bierce, "The Damned Thing" is a story of the paranormal that was once loosely adapted for an episode of the television series Masters of Horror. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

The Damned Thing - Short Story

This   carefully crafted ebook: "The Land Beyond the Blow (After the method of   Swift, who followed Lucian, and was himself followed by Voltaire and many   others)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed   table of contents.
Is a story by Ambrose Bierce, an American editorialist, journalist, short   story writer, fabulist, and satirist. 
Table of Contents: 
1.Thither 
2.Sons of the Fair Star 
3.An Interview with Gnarmag-Zote 
4.The Tamtonians 
5.Marooned on Ug 
6.The Dog in Ganegwag 
7.A Conflagration in Ghargaroo 
8.An Execution in Batrugia 
9.The Jumjum of Gokeetle-Guk 
10.The Kingdom of Tortirra 
11.Hither
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1913) 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 poet George Sterling and 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.

The Land Beyond the Blow (After the method of Swift, who followed Lucian, and was himself followed by Voltaire and many others)

Dans ces douze contes, Ambrose Bierce a oublié son cynisme et sa misanthropie pour laisser la place à un sens profond de la misère humaine, une étude subtile du mécanisme de la peur, une incursion troublante dans le royaume du surnaturel. Ambrose Bierce compte au nombre de ceux pour lesquels écrire est un art difficile et qui mérite tous nos soins. Ce fossoyeur impénitent, ce familier de la mort, ce compagnon des ombres, est un des derniers classiques de la littérature mondiale.

Contes noirs

This   carefully crafted ebook: "The Fiend's Delight (novella + short stories +   poetry)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed   table of contents.
The Fiend's Delight, a compilation of Bierce's articles; essays, stories,   poems and reflection, was published in London in 1873 by John Camden Hotten   under the pseudonym "Dod Grile". This was Bierce's first book when   he lived and wrote in England from 1872 to 1875, contributing to Fun   magazine.
Ambrose Bierce (born June 24, 1842; assumed to have died sometime after   December 26, 1913) 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 poet George Sterling and 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.
Content:
Some Fiction.
1. "One More Unfortunate."
2. The Strong Young Man of Colusa.
3. The Glad New Year.
4. The Late Dowling, Senior.
5. "Love's Labour Lost."
6. A Comforter.
7. Little Isaac.
8. The Heels of Her.
9. A Tale of Two Feet.
10. The Scolliver Pig.
11. Mr. Hunker's Mourner.
12. A Bit of Chivalry.
13. The Head of the Family.
14. Deathbed Repentance.
15. The New Church that was not Built.
16. A Tale of the Great Quake.
17. Johnny.
18. The Child's Provider.
19. Boys who Began Wrong.
20. A Kansas Incident.
21. Mr. Grile's Girl.
22. His Railway.
23. Mr. Gish Makes a Present.
24. A Cow-County Pleasantry.
25. The Optimist, and What He Died Of.
26. The Root of Education.
27. Retribution.
28. Margaret the Childless.
29. The Discomfited Demon.
30. The Mistake of a Life.
31. L. S.
32. The Baffled Asian.
Tall Talk.
1. A Call to Dinner.
2. On Death and Immortality.
3. Music-Muscular and Mechanical.
4. The Good Young Man.
5. The Average Parson.
6. Did We Eat One Another?
7. Your Friend's Friend.
8. Le Diable est aux Vaches.
9. Angels and Angles.
10. A Wingless Insect.
11. Pork on the Hoof.
12. The Young Person.
13. A Certain Popular Fallacy.
14. Pastoral Journalism.
15. Mendicity's Mistake.
16. Picnicking considered as a Mistake.
17. Thanksgiving Day.
18. Flogging.
19. Reflections upon the Beneficent Influence of the Press.
20. Charity.
21. The Study of Human Nature.
22. Additional Talk-Done in the Country.
Current Journalings.
Obituary Notices.
1. Christians.
2. Pagans.
Musings, Philosophical and Theological.
Laughorisms.
"Items" from the Press of Interior California.
Poesy.
1. Ye Idyll of Ye Hippopopotamus.
2. Epitaph on George Francis Train.
3. Jerusalem, Old and New.
4. Communing with Nature.
5. Conservatism and Progress.
6. Inter Arma Silent Leges.
7. Quintessence.
8. Resurgam.

The Dictionary of the Devil

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