I have now a small stack of 5 books to review so I guess I better get cracking.
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce - Selected and introduced by E.F Bleiler
After duly skipping the introduction of this one, I plunged into the stories. As usually is the case with an anthology some are "ooh, you clever boy" and some make you go "eh?".
24 Stories in all and some are only a few pages long.
The thing that struck me most about the stories in general is that they are very tough, masculine and at times full of the frontier mentality. It seems that a lot of them are about men who are from somewhere else trying to establish themselves. No female main character in sight in any of the stories. They seem to be written for men, with gruff men in them. They are dark and fierce and driven. They also have a little social commentary in them every now and again. In some stories you get just one little remark, every so often that either clarifies Bierce's personal position on issues or criticises and makes fun of current social and political opinion... I am not quite sure which?
The Death of Halpin Frayser
I started this one twice and went back through it whilst reading it and I am still not sure what it is trying to tell me. Halpin is a drifter, a man who has a family but no links to them any longer. He ends up falling a sleep somewhere and has a vision and a memory of a name. Then two guys come along looking for some guy who had committed murder. Turns out the name and the victim are the same.... Halpin's mother. However, Halpin being dead now kinds of defeats the object of potential revenge. Oh, and he leaves a badly written poem.. apparently in the style of one of his ancestors.
Explanations on a postcard please.
Moxon's Master
Having a discussion about whether or not a machine can think is all well and good until someone gets hurt!
Moxon believes that machines can think his opponent does not. Each ends up trying to make the other see sense but in the end Moxon seems to draw the short straw and gets beaten by his chess playing machine.... literally. Nice but a bit gruesome and philosophical.
Beyond the Wall
A man goes to visit an old acquaintance, Dampier and is told a story of young, foolish love. Dampier used to live next door to a lovely girl whom he was too shy to woo openly. They used to signal to eachother by knocking on their respective adjoining bedroom walls (aah, true love, must be). He thinks of approaching her but is too much of a coward to do so. She falls ill and dies but not before (of course) she gives one more knock on the wall which he duly ignores. She, however, has not given up hope of getting in touch. Conveniently for her, one his story is told and out narrotor leaves, Dampier passes "into the Unknown". Okay but bit melodramatic, pining, young love and all that.
The Damned Thing
Some guys, a corpse and an invisible assailant.
I love the cynicism of the coroner in this story. He clearly does not believe a word of what he has been told by the witness (who is a journalist!) but has not choice but to enter a verdict of death by mountain lion. The account that the dead man has left himself is so fantastical that it could not possibly be true. Colours on a spectrum we cannot see with the human eye??? Do us a favour!! No well respected frontier man would ever believe that one.
Short, sweet and not too creepy. great dialogue between the journalist and the coroner.
A Watcher by the Dead
A bet turned bad. Some guys decide that they are going to have a little fun at the expense of one of their fellow human beings. A man is challenged to sit by a corpse that turns out to be not really a corpse. After the watch is completed there is a corpse but not the one we expected. Vengeance is achieved in the end however so all is well.
Nice little story.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
A man's last moments on this earth. Told very well and movingly. Peyton Farquhar is waiting to be hanged and observes all around him. Then the unexpected seems to happen. But it seems that none can escape the hangman's noose.
Liked this one a lot. It starts out all very plausible and you want our man to be right about what is going on but how lucky can one guy get? True, honest, desperate emotion in a tale of both hope and death.
The Way of Ghosts
Several short short stories about people being haunted by ghosts. Best one of the four: A Cold Greeting where etiquette and vague acquaintances are the basis of a ghost story.
Some Haunted Houses
Several ones about haunted houses... does what it says on the tin.
The best one in this bunch is The Spook House where rooms seem to be best left alone.
"Mysterious Disappearances"
Almost presented as fact stories of people going missing... vanishing in to this air.
Even a bit of science at the end in case you were confused on what is actually going on here.
The Man and the Snake
How the power of suggestion can lead to all sorts of trouble.
A man conned by his own imagination. Well structured, tense, dreamy and the twist at the end is priceless!
The Suitable Surroundings
Seems that some authors are really particular in what kind of surroundings you should read their stories and not to particular to what might happen to you when you do. the nice ting about this one is that the story is told a bit back to front. You go to the end of it only to go back to the beginning. Nicely done!
The Eyes of the Panther
A man is trying to convince a woman to marry her but she tells him she is insane so she cannot. Turns she is not so much insane as a woman with a really interesting and tragic family history. You want her to be happy but in the end she still ends up dead. Moody and sombre story about love and loss and panther eyes.
The Famous Gilson Bequest
A man convicted of horse theft is duly strung up. His bequest basically challenges his accuser to try and prove him a liar and and somehow makes one man very rich. However the truth of it all will out. Moral: greed baaaaad.
An Adventure at Brownville
A man overhears on conversation he shouldn't and tries to save the damsel in distress. She is under some other guy's spell and it all ends with a corpse. Not too eerie, not too weird, just a bit of a strange story. Seems there is more to it but it ends where it does.
An Inhabitant of Carcosa
Weird with a beard!
Strange story of someone who is lost and really should have used google maps to get to where he wanted to go. Now he lost and stuck and a long way from home.
Mr Bierce needs to lay of the caffeinated coffees for a bit methinks.
The Secret of Macarger's Gulch
A drifter decides to hide out in the ruins of some deserted, ruined house. His rest is brief and the place gives him the creeps. It is no surprise to learn someone was murdered there.
Short and sweet, nothing too special even slightly predictable.
The Moonlit Road
Murder from three perspectives. Read this one before. Kind of liked it then... still like it now.
A wife is murdered but is her husband really to blame? Is she trying to comfort or haunt?
The Haunted Valley
Bigotry and ghosts. A weird combination. Never knew there was a particular way to fell a tree and that it mattered so much to get it right! Some cheeky humor as well as someone's bad conscience gets the better of him trough someone trying to satisfy his curiosity.
A Jug of Sirup
A ghost store that has its visitors stumbling in the dark but appears to be fully trading to those watching from the outside. Nice.
The Night-Doings at Deadman's
A story of don't mess with the Chinese. A man gets a very silent late night visitor, a murder is avenged and a man reunited with is hair.
The Middle Toe of the Right Foot
A man is lured to a house he knows very well seemingly by a group of strangers. There is supposed to be a fight but things do not go quite to plan. Needless to say the bad guy gets his comeuppance and a few ore ghost rest easy after that night.
John Bartine's Watch
A prime example how sometimes it is better not to try a be a smarty pants. You may think you are only trying to help but the power of suggestion is a dangerous tool to mess with. People may get hurt or worse!
The one ghost story where a man is beating by a watch and the words "trust me I'm a doctor" do not signify anything.
The Stranger
A man visits a group of friends out in the middle of nowhere and tells the tale of how he and is friends were left to the mercies of some murdering indians. Some to the easy way out, others didn't.
Moody, eerie and good.
Visions of the Night
Some stories, or perhaps more memories of dreams. Weird, vague and not that good.
All in all this is a nice collection of stories by Bierce.
Some of them are a bit weird and wonderful and only a few a bit unreadable. Not bad going. Keen to read more of his to see if all his work has this rough edge of frontier mentality.
Title: Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce
Author: Ambrose Bierce, selected and introduced by E.F. Bleiler
199 pages
Dover Publications Inc
ISBN #0-486-20767-6
Books to be read: 148
No comments:
Post a Comment