Small town. Dark secrets. Whose lies are worth killing for? After her husband's tragic death, Val returns to her childhood home with her seven-year old daughter, hoping to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. But the sleepy logging community isn't as safe as she remembers. Wildfires rage in the hills and Val is convinced that a stranger is prowling around her property. She looks for help from Joel, an old high school friend who's distinguished himself as a local detective. Together, Val and Joel are pulled into a dark tale of jealousy and murder as they uncover the truth behind the most infamous trial in Owl Creek's history. When they find a body in the woods near Val's house, one thing is clear: Someone has a secret they'll kill to protect.
Classic Books Library presents this brand new edition of the short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (1890) by Ambrose Bierce. In this text Bierce creatively uses both structure and content to explore the concept of time, from present to past, and reflecting its transitional and illusive qualities. The story is one of Bierce’s most popular and acclaimed works, alongside “The Devil’s Dictionary” (1911). Bierce (1842-c. 1914) was an American writer, journalist and Civil War veteran associated with the realism literary movement. His writing is noted for its cynical, brooding tones and structural precision.
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (1890) is a short story by the American writer and Civil War veteran Ambrose Bierce. Described as "one of the most famous and frequently anthologized stories in American literature", it was originally published by The San Francisco Examiner on July 13, 1890, and was first collected in Bierce's book Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1891). The story, which is set during the American Civil War, is known for its irregular time sequence and twist ending. Bierce's abandonment of strict linear narration in favor of the internal mind of the protagonist is an early example of the stream of consciousness narrative mode. Peyton Farquhar, a civilian and plantation owner, is being prepared for execution by hanging from an Alabama railroad bridge during the American Civil War. Six military men and a company of infantrymen are present, guarding the bridge and carrying out the sentence. Farquhar thinks of his wife and children and is then distracted by a noise that, to him, sounds like an unbearably loud clanging; it is actually the ticking of his watch. He considers the possibility of jumping off the bridge and swimming to safety if he can free his tied hands, but the soldiers drop him from the bridge before he can act on the idea. Famous works of the author Ambrose Bierce: "A Psychological Shipwreck", "Killed at Resaca",, "An Inhabitant of Carcosa", "One of the Missing", "A Tough Tussle", "An Unfinished Race", "One of Twins", "A Horseman in the Sky", "The Spook House", "The Middle Toe of the Right Foot", "The Man and the Snake", "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", "The Realm of the Unreal", "The Boarded Window", "The Secret of Macarger's Gulch", "The Death of Halpin Frayser", "The Damned Thing", "The Eyes of the Panther", "Moxon's Master", "The Moonlit Road", "Beyond the Wall".
»The Man and the Snake« is a short story by Ambrose Bierce, originally published in 1893. AMBROSE BIERCE [1842-1914] was an American author, journalist, and war veteran. He was one of the most influential journalists in the United States in the late 19th century and alongside his success as a horror writer he was hailed as a pioneer of realism. Among his most famous works are The Devil's Dictionary and the short story »An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.«
This story is about the meeting of an adult man and woman in a remote area of the Southern USA. They meet by chance at a roadside rest area. The woman, Shannon Joyce, middle aged, is traveling to complete legal matters related to her deceased relative. The man, Tyler Winslow, middle aged, is traveling to interview for a position in law enforcement in the town of Crescent Falls. They become traveling companions and arrive in Crescent Falls where they learn that a serial murderer is thought to be in the area. The main property of the Shannon Joyce’s relative, thought to be a ‘drop point’ for some of the murderers victims. The actions following bring them in contact with many locals who are not all friendly.
»Chickamauga« is a short story by Ambrose Bierce, originally published in 1889. AMBROSE BIERCE [1842-1914] was an American author, journalist, and war veteran. He was one of the most influential journalists in the United States in the late 19th century and alongside his success as a horror writer he was hailed as a pioneer of realism. Among his most famous works are The Devil's Dictionary and the short story »An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.«
-While biographers have made much of the influence of the Civil War on Bierce and his work, none have undertaken to write a detailed account of his war experience. Likewise, among literary critics, Bierce's status in nineteenth-century American realism has led critics to explore the relationship of his wartime experiences to his output, but they have often done so without a deep understanding of his wartime experience. This manuscript concentrates closely on that experience, examining Bierce's few autobiographical writings, official records, secondary sources, and his works to come up with a portrait of the Ambrose Bierce during the Civil War era---
Ambrose Bierce didn't just write about the Civil War, he lived through it--on the battlefields and over the graves--and in doing so gave birth to a literary chronicle of men at war previously unseen in the American literary canon. The fact that some of these stories verged on the supernatural, others on factual reporting, and others on the fine line between humor and morbidity in no way detracts from their resonance to both the history of the war between the states and the imaginative historical literature in the tradition of Washington Irving. Shadows of Blue & Gray collects all of Bierce's Civil War stories (twenty-seven in total) with six of his memoir pieces on his own experiences on the front lines. This collection includes such classics as "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," "A Horseman in the Sky," "Parker Addison, Philosopher", and "A Bivouac of the Dead"; as well as lesser known stories and sketches such as "The Mockingbird" and "Two Military Executions" and memoirs of his experiences at Shiloh, Chickamauga, and Franklin. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
