Ambrose Bierce, página 3 de 14

Sixteen dark and vivid selections by great satirist and short-story writer. "A Horseman in the Sky," "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," "Chickamauga," "A Son of the Gods," "What I Saw of Shiloh," "Four Days in Dixie" and 10 more. Masterly tales offer excellent examples of Bierce's dark pessimism and storytelling power. Note.

Una cuidada y original compilación de 99 fábulas fantásticas en la que desfilan políticos de ambición insaciable, médicos estafadores, religiosos impíos, poetas ripiosos, jueces desequilibrados, lunáticos de toda suerte, aparte de muy humanos leones, canguros, tortugas... e incluso objetos y conceptos abstractos. Seleccionadas y traducidas por Marcial Souto, estas exquisitas fabulas son ilustradas con maestria por Carlos Nine, el interprete perfecto para la pluma afilada y precisa de Bierce.

Il club dei parenticidi e una delle opere piu folli e meno conosciute dellautore del Dizionario del diavolo. Quattro incredibili narrazioni sospese fra umore nero e provocazione, celebrazione del delitto "famigliare" e cinismo ironico apparentemente fine a se stesso. Crimini senza alcuna giustificazione che rivelano in controluce un bisogno costituzionale (e psicanalitico) della violenza e aprono scenari inquietanti sulla controversa "modernita" occidentale. Il linguaggio colorito e unico di Bierce si rivela anche nel testo originale del "Club", riproposto integralmente in appendice a questa edizione.

Ambrose Bierce es uno de los más célebres y cínicos escritores de la literatura norteamericana. El diccionario del diablo es ya un clásico universal, conocido por su despiadado ingenio cáustico, cuyas puas van dirigidas a la politica, los negocios, la religion, la literatura y las artes. En este mordaz diccionario de epigramas, que el autor fue perfeccionando a lo largo de treinta años, Bierce deja en evidencia la estupidez, intolerancia y falsedad de la sociedad de su tiempo. La edicion que presentamos es una seleccion de las definiciones de mas vigencia para un lector actual, acompañadas de las viñetas de Alberto Montt, dibujante chileno conocido por sus ilustraciones satiricas.

A word book, straight up, with a twist, 'The Devils Dictionary' is an American classic. A Yankee Oscar Wilde with a wicked edge to his tongue, Ambrose Bierce, friend and rival of Mark Twain, was one of Americas first great writers and journalists. His razor-sharp wit and underlying rage against hypocrisy are perfectly complemented by Ralph Steadmans equally incisive pen-and-ink illustrations. Un diccionario, en esencia, con una vuelta de tuerca, "The Devil Dictionary" es un clasico americano Un autentico Oscar Wilde yanqui con un filo endiablado en la lengua, Ambrose Bierce, amigo y rival de Mark Twain, es uno de los mayores escritores y periodistas de los Estados Unidos...

The writer of these pages is not foolish enough to suppose that he can escape strong and bitter condemnation for his utterances. On this score he is not disposed to be greatly troubled; and for these reasons: Firstlyhe feels that he is performing a duty; secondlyhe is certain that his sentiments will be endorsed by hundreds upon whose opinion he sets great value; thirdlyhe relieves his mind of a burden that has oppressed it for many years; and fourthlyas is evident upon the face of these pageshe is no professed litterateur, who can be starved by adverse criticism. Nevertheless he would be apostate to his self-appointed mission if he invited censure by unseemly defiance of those who must read and pass judgment upon his work. While, therefore, he does not desire to invoke the leniency of the professional critic or the casual reader, he does desire to justify the position he has taken as far as may be consistent with good taste.It will doubtless be asserted by many: That the writer is a "bigoted parson," whose puritanical and illiberal ideas concerning matters of which he has no personal experience belong to an age that is happily passed. On the contrary, he is a man of the world, who has mixed much in society both in the old world and the new, and who knows whereof he affirms.That he is, for some reason, unable to partake of the amusement he condemns, and is therefore jealous of those more fortunate than himself. Wrong again. He has drunk deeply of the cup he warns others to avoid; and has better opportunities than the generality of men to continue the draught if he found it to his taste.That he publishes from motives of private malice. Private maliceno. Malice of a certain kind, yes. Malice against those who should know better than to abuse the rights of hospitality by making a bawdy-house of their hosts dwelling.But the principal objection will doubtless refer to the plain language used.

The matter of which this volume is composed appeared originally in the columns of "FUN," when the wisdom of the Fables and the truth of the Tales tended to wholesomely diminish the levity of that jocund sheet. Their publication in a new form would seem to be a fitting occasion to say something as to their merit.Homers "Iliad," it will be remembered, was but imperfectly appreciated by Homers contemporaries. Miltons "Paradise Lost" was so lightly regarded when first written, that the author received but twenty-five pounds for it. Ben Jonson was for some time blind to the beauties of Shakespeare, and Shakespeare himself had but small esteem for his own work.Appearing each week in "FUN," these Fables and Tales very soon attracted the notice of the Editor, who was frank enough to say, afterward, that when he accepted the manuscript he did not quite perceive the quality of it. The printers, too, into whose hands it came, have since admitted that for some days they felt very little interest in it, and could not even make out what it was all about. When to these evidences I add the confession that at first I did not myself observe anything extraordinary in my work, I think I need say no more: the discerning public will note the parallel, and my modesty be spared the necessity of making an ass of itself.

Tales of Soldiers and Civilians is a collection of short stories written by Ambrose Bierce. Published in 1891, the 26 stories detail the lives of soldiers and civilians during the American Civil War. His famous story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is included in this collection.

Editor: S.O. Howes

En El Diccionario del Diablo Ambrose Bierce afila las armas del ingenio para ofrecernos una burla total y despiadada del género humano, de sus honorables instituciones, de sus presupuestos lógicos -que conforman el tan peregrino "sentido comun"-, de sus ideas mas conspicuas, de sus nimias creencias. Bierce, maestro del humor negro, se convierte en diabolico lexicografo a fin de provocar una rebelion contra las ideas recibidas, contra las ideas reinantes, contra las ideas que se establecen impunemente...

Over 1,000 barbed and brilliant definitions by the 19th-century journalist and satirist often called "the American Swift." Congratulations are "the civility of envy." A coward is "one who in an emergency thinks with his legs." A historian is a "broad-gauge gossip," more. H. L. Mencken called these "some of the most gorgeous witticisms in the English language."

La presente selección de relatos versa sobre temas, situaciones y personajes -terrenos y ultraterrenos- que harán las delicias de los aficionados a la literatura fantástica, pues la imaginación de Bierce, verdadero cronista del lado tenebroso del universo, corre libremente a traves de un torrente de sardonica comedia y de una especie de alegria en las imagenes de crueldad e impavida provocacion.