Ambrose Bierce's Civilians and Soldiers in Context: A Critical StudyAmbrose Bierce's In the Midst of Life, the second volume of The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, is hailed by critics and scholars alike as his most important literary work. In Ambrose Bierce's Civilians and Soldiers in Context: A Critical Study, Donald T. Blume refutes this and instead identifies Bierce's original 1892 collection as his most definitive and authoritative work. The two subsequent collections, appearing in 1898 and 1909, although containing subtle clues pointing back to the importance of the 1892 collection, are in their primary effect literary red herrings. This new study reveals that the nineteen stories that comprised the original Tales of Soldiers and Civilians consist of carefully developed and interrelated meanings and themes that can only be fully understood by examining the complex circumstances of their original productions. By considering each of the nineteen tales in the order in which they were first published and by drawing heavily on contemporary related materials, Blume re-creates much of the original milieu into which Bierce carefully placed his short stories. Blume systematically examines many of Bierce's editing flaws, exposing that Bierce's decisions often weakened the original literary merits of his stories. Ultimately this story reveals, tale by tale and layer by layer, that the nineteen stories included in Bierce's 1892 collection were masterpieces of fiction, destined to become classics. Historians and Civil War enthusiasts, as well as literary scholars, will welcome this new study. |
From inside the book
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... head of the In- terlibrary Loan Department at Central Connecticut State University's Elihu Burritt Library . Each of these persons served with distinction . My mentor at Florida State University , Joseph McElrath Jr. , deserves my most ...
... heads of all mankind — our enemies alone excepted — we spread in benediction palms which have never been soiled by a dishonest dollar . This rite , we beg the good reader to observe , is a more gracious and impressive perfor- mance than ...
... head- boards " ( 819 , 205 ) . Although they are not mentioned again , these headboards are nevertheless nearby when much later in the story Bierce explains that Doman , from within the open grave , " tried with imperfect success to ...
... heads of ornamental screws . This frail example of the undertaker's art had been put into the grave the wrong side up ! ( 820 ) On the paste - up copytext , in revising this paragraph for his 1892 book , Bierce , quite possibly no ...
... Mrs. Doman as she sat motionless at the foot of the tree , her head dropped forward , her fingers clutching a crushed photo- graph " ( 821 ) . Further evidence of Mary 32 AMBROSE BIERCE'S CIVILIANS AND SOLDIERS IN CONTEXT.
Contents
1 | |
34 | |
Killed at Resaca | 64 |
One of the Missing | 83 |
A Son of the Gods | 99 |
A Tough Tussle | 114 |
Chickamauga | 124 |
The Horseman in the Sky | 145 |
The Watcher by the Dead | 193 |
The Man and the Snake | 203 |
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge | 211 |
The Middle Toe of the Right Foot | 244 |
Haïta the Shepherd | 259 |
James Adderson Philosopher and Wit | 276 |
An Heiress from Redhorse | 302 |
The Boarded Window | 315 |
The Coup de Grâce | 161 |
The Suitable Surroundings | 179 |
The Affair at Coulters Notch | 185 |
The Collections | 329 |