Tales of Soldiers and Civilians and Other Stories

electronic resource

English language

Published Nov. 7, 2009 by Penguin USA, Inc..

ISBN:: 978-1-101-17600-9

Collection contains: From In the Midst of Life
Soldiers:
A Horseman in the Sky
Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Chickamauga A Son of the Gods
One of the Missing
Killed at Resaca
The Affair at Coulter’s Notch
The Coup de Grâce
Parker Adderson, Philosopher
An Affair of Outposts
The Story of a Conscience
One Kind of Officer The Mocking-Bird
Civilians:
The Man Out of the Nose The Man and the Snake
The Boarded Window
From Can Such Things Be?
Can Such Things Be?:
Moxon’s Master
A Tough Tussle
A Resumed Identity
The Night-Doings at “Deadman’s” The Realm of the Unreal Damned Thing Haïta the Shepherd
The Ways of Ghosts: Present at a Hanging
A Wireless Message
Soldier Folk
Three and One Are One
from NEGLIGIBLE TALES
Negligible Tales
A Bottomless Grave
Jupiter Doke, Brigadier-General The City of the Gone Away
The Major's Tale
Curried Cow A Revolt of the …

Collection contains: From In the Midst of Life
Soldiers:
A Horseman in the Sky
Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Chickamauga A Son of the Gods
One of the Missing
Killed at Resaca
The Affair at Coulter’s Notch
The Coup de Grâce
Parker Adderson, Philosopher
An Affair of Outposts
The Story of a Conscience
One Kind of Officer The Mocking-Bird
Civilians:
The Man Out of the Nose The Man and the Snake
The Boarded Window
From Can Such Things Be?
Can Such Things Be?:
Moxon’s Master
A Tough Tussle
A Resumed Identity
The Night-Doings at “Deadman’s” The Realm of the Unreal Damned Thing Haïta the Shepherd
The Ways of Ghosts: Present at a Hanging
A Wireless Message
Soldier Folk
Three and One Are One
from NEGLIGIBLE TALES
Negligible Tales
A Bottomless Grave
Jupiter Doke, Brigadier-General The City of the Gone Away
The Major's Tale
Curried Cow A Revolt of the Gods
The Parenticide Club
My Favorite Murder
Oil of Dog
from ANTEPENULTIMATA
A Bivouac of the Dead
from THE OPINIONATOR
The Controversialist
The Short Story

2 editions

Orlion reviewed Tales of Soldiers and Civilians and Other Stories by Ambrose Bierce (Penguin Classics)

Review of 'Tales of Soldiers and Civilians and Other Stories' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Ambrose Bierce was born in Meigs County, Ohio. Let that sink in for a moment. One of the most redneck regions in Ohio produced one of the greatest American writers, and yet he seems to have passed into obscurity in Ohio's obsession with disappointing sports teams and OSU. Why is that? Could it be that the continually underperforming Browns give the average Joe more hope then an Ambrose Bierce short story?

Mr. Bierce understands that a good short story builds to an "effect". In Bierce's case, the idea is to offer a twist at the end that will clarify with terrible force the story preceding it. This leads to some incredibly...distressing... endings, sometimes even when you are expecting it.

Tales of Soldiers and Civilians is divided between the war short stories and the "civilian" stories. The war stories take place during the Civil War, of which Ambrose Bierce was a …

Ambrose Bierce was born in Meigs County, Ohio. Let that sink in for a moment. One of the most redneck regions in Ohio produced one of the greatest American writers, and yet he seems to have passed into obscurity in Ohio's obsession with disappointing sports teams and OSU. Why is that? Could it be that the continually underperforming Browns give the average Joe more hope then an Ambrose Bierce short story?

Mr. Bierce understands that a good short story builds to an "effect". In Bierce's case, the idea is to offer a twist at the end that will clarify with terrible force the story preceding it. This leads to some incredibly...distressing... endings, sometimes even when you are expecting it.

Tales of Soldiers and Civilians is divided between the war short stories and the "civilian" stories. The war stories take place during the Civil War, of which Ambrose Bierce was a veteran. In these stories, Bierce is at his best drawing from actual experience and knowledge of how the Northern army works. One would probably learn more about the Civil War reading these stories then taking a class on them... so often do we reduce history to dates and events, the people and how they interacted in such times are forgotten. We forget human history is made by human nature.

The Civilian stories, with some very notable exceptions, are inferior to the war stories and sometimes verge on "pulp" quality. Here, we see a Bierce expanding his horizons which will lead to his "ghost stories" (which I shall review when I read that volume).