Bierce Ambrose. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and Other Stories

Dover Publications, 200. — 176 p.Ambrose Bierce wrote stories so dramatically different from those of his contemporaries that they hardly seem like they were written in the nineteenth century. These original and innovative tales, most of which appeared in the 1880s and 1890s, constitute 23 examples of his best and most characteristic short fiction: anti-war satires that underscore the barbarism and futility of bloodshed; horror stories with a keenly ironic edge; and sardonic "tall tales" of the Old West.
The American Civil War was the defining experience of Bierce's life, and the battlefield ordeals from his service within the Union army contributed to his distinctive brand of cynical realism. This collection boasts the best of his Civil War tales, including "Chickamauga," "A Horseman in the Sky," and the author's much-imitated masterpiece, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." Writers of mystery and suspense stories have long been influenced by Bierce's tales of the supernatural such as "The Moonlit Road," and "The Eyes of the Panther." This anthology also features "Oil of Dog," "My Favorite Murder," and other satirical fables that continue to captivate readers with their humor and ingenuityThe Affair at Coulter
An Affair of Outposts
A Baby Tramp
Beyond the Wall
The Boarded Window
Chickamauga
The Coup De Grâce
The Crime at Pickett
The Damned Thing
The Death of Halpin Frayser
A Diagnosis of Death
Four Days in Dixie
George Thurston Three Incidents in the Life of a Man
Haïta the Shepherd
The Haunted Valley
An Heiress from Redhorse
A Horseman in the Sky
An Inhabitant of Carcosa
John Bartine's Watch A Story by a Physician
John Mortonson's Funeral
A Jug of Syrup
Jupiter Doke
Killed at Resaca
A Little of Chickamauga
The Man and the Snake
The Middle Toe of the Right Foot
The Mocking-Bird
The Moonlit Road
Moxon's MasterMy Favorite Murder
The Night-Doings at 'Deadman's' A Story that is Untrue
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
One Kind of Officer
One Officer
One of the Missing
One of Twins A Letter Found among the Papers of the Late Mortimer Barr
One Summer Night
On a Mountain
Parker Adderson
A Psychological Shipwreck
The Realm of the Unreal
A Resumed Identity
The Secret of Macarger's Gulch
A Son of the Gods A Study in the Present Tense
Staley Fleming's Hallucination
The Story of a Conscience
The Stranger
A Tough Tussle
A Watcher By The Dead