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The Fiend's Delight
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- GenresClassics
184 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1873
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 14, 2018
This book is akin to SEINFELD, not in quality but in theme. It is about nothing. Bierce focuses on violence and death in bizarre manner.
I was going to give this a two star rating, exceeded in a waste of paper and pen only by James Joyce’s Ulysses, but while that sentiment may still ring true, the final third of the book rallied it up, barely, to three stars.
Three stars heavily waning.
I was going to give this a two star rating, exceeded in a waste of paper and pen only by James Joyce’s Ulysses, but while that sentiment may still ring true, the final third of the book rallied it up, barely, to three stars.
Three stars heavily waning.
December 2, 2022
"Bierce lived and wrote in England from 1872 to 1875, contributing to Fun magazine. His first book, The Fiend's Delight, a compilation of his articles, was published in London in 1873 by John Camden Hotten under the pseudonym 'Dod Grile'." Bierce, Ambrose (2003). Joshi, ST; Shultz, David E (eds.). A Much Misunderstood Man: Selected Letters of Ambrose Bierce. Ohio State University Press. p.8
The Fiend's Delight consists of the sections Some Fiction, Tall Talk, Current Journaling's, Obituary Notices, Musings, Philosophical and Theological, Laughorisms, Items from the Press of Interior California, and Posey. "The stories titled Some Fiction which The Fiend's Delight begins with are the weakest part of the book and many of the characters speak in the dialect Bierce came to deplore in opposing the local color writers, but Tall Talk, the section that was added fairly late in planning the book, is a group of quite creditable essays, followed by some aphorisms and epigrams. Current Journalings, which comes next consists of disconnected little paragraphs on a variety of topics, something like the New Yorkers Talk of the Town. The fourth section is made up of a few satirical Obituary Notices on 'Christians' and 'Pagans,' the latter group constituting a savage attack on the mistreatment of Orientals by American westerners. Musings Philosophical and Theoretical, are exemplified by No. XII (p.159) 'Everybody professes to know that it would be difficult to find a needle in a haystack, but very few reflect that this is because haystacks seldom contain needles.' The next section Laughorisms, show Bierce at his epigrammatic best. The Items from the Press of Interior California, last of the prose sections, are little paragraphs, satirizing the freewheeling journalism of western towns. The final section Posey, is devoted to a strange assortment of verses, on the whole rather high in quality."
Grenander, M. E. Ambrose Bierce, John Camden Hotten, ‘The Fiend’s Delight,’ and ‘Nuggets and Dust.’ Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 4, 1965, p.366.
CONTENTS:
Preface ✔
Some Fiction:
"One More Unfortunate" 3.25⭐
The Strong Young Man of Colusa 2.5⭐
The Glad New Year 2.25⭐
The Late Dowling, Senior 3⭐
"Love's Labour Lost" 3⭐
A Comforter 3⭐
Little Isaac 2.5⭐
The Heels of Her 3⭐
A Tale of Two Feet 2⭐
The Scolliver Pig 2⭐
Mr. Hunker's Mourner 1.5⭐
A Bit of Chivalry 2⭐
The Head of the Family 1⭐
Deathbed Repentance 2⭐
The New Church that was not Built 3.5⭐
A Tale of the Great Quake 3⭐
Johnny 2⭐
The Child's Provider 3⭐
Boys who Began Wrong 2⭐
A Kansas Incident 3⭐
Mr. Grile's Girl 2⭐
His Railway 1⭐
Mr. Gish Makes a Present 1⭐
A Cow-County Pleasantry 1⭐
The Optimist, and What He Died Of 1⭐
The Root of Education 2⭐
Retribution 2⭐
The Faithful Wife 2⭐
Margaret the Childless 1⭐
The Discomfited Demon 2.5⭐
The Mistake of a Life 1⭐
L.S. 2.5⭐
The Baffled Asian 1⭐
Tall Talk:
A Call to Dinner 2.5⭐
On Death and Immortality 2⭐
Music, Muscular and Mechanical 3⭐
The Good Young Man 3⭐
The Average Parson 3⭐
Did We Eat One Another? 3⭐
Your Friend's Friend 3⭐
Le Diable est aux Vaches 1⭐
Angels and Angles 1⭐
A Wingless Insect 1⭐
Pork on the Hoof 2.5⭐
The Young Person 2⭐
A Certain Popular Fallacy 1⭐
Pastoral Journalism 2.5⭐
Mendicity's Mistake 3⭐
Insects 1⭐
Picnicking considered as a Mistake 1.5⭐
Thanksgiving Day 3⭐
Flogging 2⭐
Reflections upon the Beneficent Influence of the Press 3⭐
Charity 3⭐
The Study of Human Nature 2.5⭐
Additional Talk—Done in the Country 3⭐
Current Journalings: 3⭐
Following is the manner of death incurred by Dr. Deadwood ✔
The prim young maidens ✔
Some raging iconoclast ✔
There are a lot of evil-minded horses about the city ✔
In the telegraphic account of a distressing railway accident in New York ✔
Mr. J. L. Dummle ✔
In deference to a time-worn custom ✔
A town in Vermont has a society of young men ✔
There is a bladdery old nasality ranging about the country ✔
We hold a most unflattering opinion of the man who will thieve a dog ✔
A religious journal published in the Far West ✔
Henry Wolfe, of Kentucky, aged one hundred and eight years ✔
One day an obscure and unimportant person ✔
There is war! ✔
The funeral of the Rev. Father Byrne ✔
Two hundred dollars for biting a woman's neck and arms! ✔
We are tolerably phlegmatic ✔
We like a liar -- a thoroughly conscientious, industrious, and ingenious liar. ✔
For the memory of the late John Ridd, of Illinois, we entertain the liveliest contempt. . ✔
"About the first of next month," ✔
A man in California has in his possession the rope ✔
A contemporary has some elaborate obituary commendation of a boy seven years of age ✔
A young physician of Troy became enamored of a rich female patient ✔
A young woman stood before the mirror with a razor ✔
Miss Olive Logan's lecture upon "girls" ✔
Some women in New York have set the fashion of having costly diamonds ✔
The Coroner having broken his leg ✔
John Reed, of Illinois, is a man who knows his rights ✔
In answer to the ladies who are always bothering him ✔
Only one hundred and ten thousand pious pilgrims ✔
It is commonly supposed that President Lopez, of Paraguay ✔
There is a person resident in Stockton Street ✔
At the Coroner's inquest in the case of John Harvey ✔
We find the following touching tale ✔
We get the most distressing accounts of the famine in Persia ✔
An old lady was set upon by a fiend ✔
From London we have intelligence of the stabbing to death ✔
A small but devout congregation were at worship ✔
We hear a great deal of sentiment with regard to the last solar eclipse ✔
We have observed with considerable impatience ✔
A young correspondent, who has lately read ✔
A young woman writes to a contemporary ✔
Mr. Knettle, deceased, became irritated ✔
A pedagogue has been sentenced to the county gaol ✔
A man who played a leading part ✔
People ought not to pack cocked pistols ✔
A man ninety-seven years of age ✔
The letter following was written by the Rev. Reuben Hankerlockew ✔
We are filled with unspeakable gratification ✔
The head biblesharp of the New York Independent ✔
Some of the Red Indians on the plains ✔
Some raving maniac sends us a mass of stuff ✔
A liberal reward will be paid ✔
We have received from a prominent clergyman ✔
The New York Tribune decanting upon the recent national misfortune ✔
A young girl in Grass Valley ✔
The Rev. Dr. Cunningham instructs his congregation ✔
Obituary Notices: 2.5⭐
CHRISTIANS:
Mr. Jacob Pigwidgeon ✔
Mrs. Margaret Ann Picklefinch ✔
Mr. Bildad Gorcas ✔
Mr. Jowler ✔
PAGANS:
Yo Hop ✔
Chineece jaik (Chinese Jake) ✔
Yow Kow ✔
Musings, Philosophical and Theoretical 4⭐
Laughorisms 3.25⭐
Items from the Press of Interior California 3⭐
Posey
Ye Idyll of Ye Hippopopotamus 2.25⭐
Epitaph on George Francis Train 2⭐
Jerusalem, Old and New 2⭐
Communing with Nature 3⭐
Conservatism and Progress 2.5⭐
Inter Arma Silent Leges 2⭐
Quintessence 2⭐
Resurgam 2⭐
The Fiend's Delight consists of the sections Some Fiction, Tall Talk, Current Journaling's, Obituary Notices, Musings, Philosophical and Theological, Laughorisms, Items from the Press of Interior California, and Posey. "The stories titled Some Fiction which The Fiend's Delight begins with are the weakest part of the book and many of the characters speak in the dialect Bierce came to deplore in opposing the local color writers, but Tall Talk, the section that was added fairly late in planning the book, is a group of quite creditable essays, followed by some aphorisms and epigrams. Current Journalings, which comes next consists of disconnected little paragraphs on a variety of topics, something like the New Yorkers Talk of the Town. The fourth section is made up of a few satirical Obituary Notices on 'Christians' and 'Pagans,' the latter group constituting a savage attack on the mistreatment of Orientals by American westerners. Musings Philosophical and Theoretical, are exemplified by No. XII (p.159) 'Everybody professes to know that it would be difficult to find a needle in a haystack, but very few reflect that this is because haystacks seldom contain needles.' The next section Laughorisms, show Bierce at his epigrammatic best. The Items from the Press of Interior California, last of the prose sections, are little paragraphs, satirizing the freewheeling journalism of western towns. The final section Posey, is devoted to a strange assortment of verses, on the whole rather high in quality."
Grenander, M. E. Ambrose Bierce, John Camden Hotten, ‘The Fiend’s Delight,’ and ‘Nuggets and Dust.’ Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 4, 1965, p.366.
CONTENTS:
Preface ✔
Some Fiction:
"One More Unfortunate" 3.25⭐
The Strong Young Man of Colusa 2.5⭐
The Glad New Year 2.25⭐
The Late Dowling, Senior 3⭐
"Love's Labour Lost" 3⭐
A Comforter 3⭐
Little Isaac 2.5⭐
The Heels of Her 3⭐
A Tale of Two Feet 2⭐
The Scolliver Pig 2⭐
Mr. Hunker's Mourner 1.5⭐
A Bit of Chivalry 2⭐
The Head of the Family 1⭐
Deathbed Repentance 2⭐
The New Church that was not Built 3.5⭐
A Tale of the Great Quake 3⭐
Johnny 2⭐
The Child's Provider 3⭐
Boys who Began Wrong 2⭐
A Kansas Incident 3⭐
Mr. Grile's Girl 2⭐
His Railway 1⭐
Mr. Gish Makes a Present 1⭐
A Cow-County Pleasantry 1⭐
The Optimist, and What He Died Of 1⭐
The Root of Education 2⭐
Retribution 2⭐
The Faithful Wife 2⭐
Margaret the Childless 1⭐
The Discomfited Demon 2.5⭐
The Mistake of a Life 1⭐
L.S. 2.5⭐
The Baffled Asian 1⭐
Tall Talk:
A Call to Dinner 2.5⭐
On Death and Immortality 2⭐
Music, Muscular and Mechanical 3⭐
The Good Young Man 3⭐
The Average Parson 3⭐
Did We Eat One Another? 3⭐
Your Friend's Friend 3⭐
Le Diable est aux Vaches 1⭐
Angels and Angles 1⭐
A Wingless Insect 1⭐
Pork on the Hoof 2.5⭐
The Young Person 2⭐
A Certain Popular Fallacy 1⭐
Pastoral Journalism 2.5⭐
Mendicity's Mistake 3⭐
Insects 1⭐
Picnicking considered as a Mistake 1.5⭐
Thanksgiving Day 3⭐
Flogging 2⭐
Reflections upon the Beneficent Influence of the Press 3⭐
Charity 3⭐
The Study of Human Nature 2.5⭐
Additional Talk—Done in the Country 3⭐
Current Journalings: 3⭐
Following is the manner of death incurred by Dr. Deadwood ✔
The prim young maidens ✔
Some raging iconoclast ✔
There are a lot of evil-minded horses about the city ✔
In the telegraphic account of a distressing railway accident in New York ✔
Mr. J. L. Dummle ✔
In deference to a time-worn custom ✔
A town in Vermont has a society of young men ✔
There is a bladdery old nasality ranging about the country ✔
We hold a most unflattering opinion of the man who will thieve a dog ✔
A religious journal published in the Far West ✔
Henry Wolfe, of Kentucky, aged one hundred and eight years ✔
One day an obscure and unimportant person ✔
There is war! ✔
The funeral of the Rev. Father Byrne ✔
Two hundred dollars for biting a woman's neck and arms! ✔
We are tolerably phlegmatic ✔
We like a liar -- a thoroughly conscientious, industrious, and ingenious liar. ✔
For the memory of the late John Ridd, of Illinois, we entertain the liveliest contempt. . ✔
"About the first of next month," ✔
A man in California has in his possession the rope ✔
A contemporary has some elaborate obituary commendation of a boy seven years of age ✔
A young physician of Troy became enamored of a rich female patient ✔
A young woman stood before the mirror with a razor ✔
Miss Olive Logan's lecture upon "girls" ✔
Some women in New York have set the fashion of having costly diamonds ✔
The Coroner having broken his leg ✔
John Reed, of Illinois, is a man who knows his rights ✔
In answer to the ladies who are always bothering him ✔
Only one hundred and ten thousand pious pilgrims ✔
It is commonly supposed that President Lopez, of Paraguay ✔
There is a person resident in Stockton Street ✔
At the Coroner's inquest in the case of John Harvey ✔
We find the following touching tale ✔
We get the most distressing accounts of the famine in Persia ✔
An old lady was set upon by a fiend ✔
From London we have intelligence of the stabbing to death ✔
A small but devout congregation were at worship ✔
We hear a great deal of sentiment with regard to the last solar eclipse ✔
We have observed with considerable impatience ✔
A young correspondent, who has lately read ✔
A young woman writes to a contemporary ✔
Mr. Knettle, deceased, became irritated ✔
A pedagogue has been sentenced to the county gaol ✔
A man who played a leading part ✔
People ought not to pack cocked pistols ✔
A man ninety-seven years of age ✔
The letter following was written by the Rev. Reuben Hankerlockew ✔
We are filled with unspeakable gratification ✔
The head biblesharp of the New York Independent ✔
Some of the Red Indians on the plains ✔
Some raving maniac sends us a mass of stuff ✔
A liberal reward will be paid ✔
We have received from a prominent clergyman ✔
The New York Tribune decanting upon the recent national misfortune ✔
A young girl in Grass Valley ✔
The Rev. Dr. Cunningham instructs his congregation ✔
Obituary Notices: 2.5⭐
CHRISTIANS:
Mr. Jacob Pigwidgeon ✔
Mrs. Margaret Ann Picklefinch ✔
Mr. Bildad Gorcas ✔
Mr. Jowler ✔
PAGANS:
Yo Hop ✔
Chineece jaik (Chinese Jake) ✔
Yow Kow ✔
Musings, Philosophical and Theoretical 4⭐
Laughorisms 3.25⭐
Items from the Press of Interior California 3⭐
Posey
Ye Idyll of Ye Hippopopotamus 2.25⭐
Epitaph on George Francis Train 2⭐
Jerusalem, Old and New 2⭐
Communing with Nature 3⭐
Conservatism and Progress 2.5⭐
Inter Arma Silent Leges 2⭐
Quintessence 2⭐
Resurgam 2⭐
May 16, 2022
OK listening 🎶🔰
Another will written entertaining short story by Ambrose Bierce about life, friends, relationships, and death. The novella was not what I expected but it may work for you. Enjoy the adventure of novels 👍🔰 and books 📚. 2022
Another will written entertaining short story by Ambrose Bierce about life, friends, relationships, and death. The novella was not what I expected but it may work for you. Enjoy the adventure of novels 👍🔰 and books 📚. 2022
May 25, 2024
Utter garbage...nearly one star but a few good lines amongst the silly and unpleasant nonsense.
March 24, 2012
I read this as part of Classic American Literature: 13 books by Bierce in a single file, improved 1/7/2011 [Kindle Edition]
September 5, 2023
So here is the ever-surprising Ambrose Bierce writing flash fiction in 1873.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews