THE
COLLECTED
WORKS
Version 3.1 [May 2016] by pynch
contents — bierce
THE DEVIL’S DICTIONARY (1906)
EPIGRAMS
early writings
THE FIEND’S DELIGHT (1873)
NUGGETS AND DUST (1873)
COBWEBS FROM AN EMPTY SKULL (1874)
THE DANCE OF DEATH (1877)
stories
ASHES OF THE BEACON
THE LAND BEYOND THE BLOW
FOR THE AHKOOND
IN THE MIDST OF LIFE—TALES OF SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS (1898)
CAN SUCH THINGS BE? (1893)
THE WAYS OF GHOSTS
SOLDIER-FOLK
SOME HAUNTED HOUSES
“MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES”
THE MONK AND THE HANGMAN’S DAUGHTER (1892)
NEGLIGIBLE TALES
THE PARENTICIDE CLUB
THE FOURTH ESTATE
THE OCEAN WAVE
KINGS OF BEASTS
MISCELLANEOUS
index of stories
fables
FANTASTIC FABLES (1899)
FABLES FROM “FUN” (1872–73)
ÆSOPUS EMENDATUS
OLD SAWS WITH NEW TEETH
FABLES IN RHYME
index of fables
plays
THE MUMMERY (1892)
TWO ADMINISTRATIONS
poems
SHAPES OF CLAY (1903)
SOME ANTE-MORTEM EPITAPHS
THE SCRAP HEAP
BLACK BEETLES IN AMBER (1892)
ON STONE (1892)
index of poems
essays, articles & reviews
BITS OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY
“ON WITH THE DANCE!” A REVIEW
TANGENTIAL VIEWS
THE OPINIONATOR
THE REVIEWER
THE CONTROVERSIALIST
THE TIMOROUS REPORTER
THE MARCH HARE
THE SHADOW ON THE DIAL AND OTHER ESSAYS (1909)
WRITE IT RIGHT (1909)
index of essays
by Ambrose Bierce
Published by Doubleday under the title “The Cynic’s Word Book”: New York, 1906.
[The text follows The Collected Works, Volume VII, The Neale Publishing Company 1909.]
contents — dictionary
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PREFACE
A B C D E F G
H I J K L M N
O P Q R S T U
V W X Y Z
The Devil’s Dictionary was begun in a weekly paper in 1881, and was continued in a desultory way and at long intervals until 1906. In that year a large part of it was published in covers with the title The Cynic’s Word Book, a name which the author had not the power to reject nor the happiness to approve. To quote the publishers of the present work:
“This more reverent title had previously been forced upon him by the religious scruples of the last newspaper in which a part of the work had appeared, with the natural consequence that when it came out in covers the country already had been flooded by its imitators with a score of ‘cynic’ books—The Cynic’s This, The Cynic’s That, and The Cynic’s t’Other. Most of these books were merely stupid, though some of them added the distinction of silliness. Among them, they brought the word ‘cynic’ into disfavor so deep that any book bearing it was discredited in advance of publication.”
Meantime, too, some of the enterprising humorists of the country had helped themselves to such parts of the work as served their needs, and many of its definitions, anecdotes, phrases and so forth, had become more or less current in popular speech. This explanation is made, not with any pride of priority in trifles, but in simple denial of possible charges of plagiarism, which is no trifle. In merely resuming his own the author hopes to be held guiltless by those to whom the work is addressed—enlightened souls who prefer dry wines to sweet, sense to sentiment, wit to humor and clean English to slang.
A conspicuous, and it is hoped not unpleasing, feature of the book is its abundant illustrative quotations from eminent poets, chief of whom is that learned and ingenious cleric, Father Gassalasca Jape, S. J., whose lines bear his initials. To Father Jape’s kindly encouragement and assistance the author of the prose text is greatly indebted.
A. B.