Ambrose Bierce

Just picked up a copy of The Spook House at my local charity shop. I may have come across his work before (read a lot of old horror story anthologies as a teen) but I can't remember.

Anyone here a fan? Or not? My favourite ghost story writers are M. R. James, Henry James and J. S. Le Fanu. How does he compare?

Of course I'll be finding out for myself as I get stuck into the book but it'll be nice to see what others think.

I think his wordsmithing is sort of between M. R. James and Le Fanu, and the stories are colored with a bit of Mark-Twainian attitude. They're good stories but not exactly 'fun' in the way that I think M. R. James' are.

I'm about a quarter of the way in and finding the stories okay but with none standing out yet. One story I found unintentionally funny, and he is quite gory as old ghost story writers go, more gory than scary so far.

Well I'm about to read An Occurance at Owl Creek, a short story downloaded from Project Gutenberg-my first read of this author.

You should definitely try more of him. Ambrose Bierce was in my opinion one of the best authors of his era. In fact, from what I´ve heard his own life was a bit like one of his weird tales. Brilliant.