Buy Used

$4.00

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Jenson Online Inc

Fulfilled by Amazon

Condition: Used: Good

Comment: This book has already been loved by someone else. It MIGHT have some wear and tear on the edges, have some markings in it, or be an ex-library book. Over-all it is still a good book at a great price! (if it is supposed to contain a CD or access code, that may be missing)

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

47 used & new from $0.01

See All Buying Options

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

The Devil's Dictionary Hardcover – January 17, 2004

by Ambrose Bierce (Author), Ralph Steadman (Illustrator)

77 customer reviews

See all 3 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Amazon Price New from Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$24.65

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$21.32

$17.28

$15.32

Hardcover, January 17, 2004

—

$34.02

$0.01

Bierce's classic work of satirical wit and Steadman's pointed pen redefine the way we see even the seemingly simplest of terms.

Acquaintance, n.: A person whom we know well enough to borrow from but not well enough to lend to.

Bride, n.: A woman with a great future behind her.

Consult, v: To seek another's approval of a course already decided on.

Ambrose Bierce's "dictionary" of epigrams, essays, verses, and vignettes targets the religious, the romantic, the political, and the economic, in equal measure. The book you need to define both friends and enemies, The Devil's Dictionary is also the perfect gift, showcasing Bierce's razor-sharp wit and Ralph Steadman's incisive pen to their best advantage.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Ambrose Bierce

24

Paperback
$17.16
H. P. Lovecraft

97

Hardcover
$25.10
Ambrose Bierce

30

Paperback
$13.79
Ambrose Bierce

42

Paperback
$3.50
Ralph Steadman

11

Hardcover
$18.25
Robert W. Chambers

140

Paperback
$6.99

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Product Details

Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; 1 edition (January 17, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1582343802
ISBN-13: 978-1582343808
Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.8 x 7.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #832,119 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #646 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Family Activities
- #1379 in Books > Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Dictionaries

Would you like to update product info, give feedback on images, or tell us about a lower price?

Customer Reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars

5 star		62%
4 star		18%
3 star		11%
2 star		1%
1 star		8%

See all 77 customer reviews

Share your thoughts with other customers

Write a customer review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 54 people found the following review helpful

Excellent legacy library edition

By robert johnston on October 2, 2011

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

This is a can't miss treat for the literary or the civil war buff. Give it as a gift if you want to be remembered.

Bierce is a strange, haunting writer. He comes directly to us in this printing as unedited and sans commentary. Bierce's heavy burden from a rather severe Civil War post-traumatic stress disorder is central to his writings. His `Devil's Dictionary' is frequently quoted but it may do Bierce an injustice as a sort of typecasting to be considered without exploring the full dimensions of the prolific writer in his time and place.

Bierce can be accessed online. The power of Bierce's work for me is captured in his short essay "A Son of the Gods". If you've not sampled Bierce before, give this one a try. It's among those in this collection. It's a rare author that can pull a tear and possess the readers mind's eye. Ambrose Bierce is an author who seizes on simple moments to create a stunning story.

Bierce is a 19th century socio-rhetorical everyman, however, at core, he's like no other witness of the times. His post war stories on the quirks of his San Francisco newspaper beat are thoroughly entertaining. Bierce writes on many topics with an acerbic and cynical tone and elsewhere he writes as a man forged by discipline and fire. He can be genteel. He can be over the top. He can be moving and empathetic. He can be rough as a cob. There is an essential human reflection to be considered in every tale. In the 21st century, his word choices and usage are `quaint' but quite readable although you cannot escape a feeling that already, some meaning is overcome by the intervening 150 years. I'd wager that in another hundred years his material will need a `modern translation' as language moves on.Read more ›

6 Comments Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback. If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful

Some brief lessons from a true master.

By Stranger on October 30, 2011

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

This is quite a good collection of some of Ambrose Bierce's best works of fiction and non-fiction in a nice compact hardback volume. The publisher is the prestigious "Library of America" which has been anthologizing for years those books regarded as the best and most significant ever produced in the literary history of the United States. When I heard that they were going to put into circulation some of Bierce's writings I could only thought: "Wow, about time!!!". You know, Bierce has always been something of an outsider and despite the more than evident quality of his writing (he has more substance than Mark Twain and is the best stylist of his generation) his figure and works remain not very well known or appreciated. Proof of this is the fact that "The Library of America" had even published the works of pulp writers like H.P. Lovecraft or Dashiell Hammett before Bierce's (who is the much better author). For many, he is still just the guy who wrote "The Devil's Dictionary" (a cruel satirical volume inconsistently marketed as "a book of humour") and that quaint short story of a man about to be hanged who sees the events of his life passing before him. This is a pity, but the truth is that Bierce's style and grim usual themes are not for everyone and that his unrelenting acerbic wit coupled with his biased opinions can disgust many people as they confront them against some very uncomfortable truths. Anyway, it is beyond this humble reviewer's remit to change the world's ways in that respect.

This new volume is an excellent introduction for anyone wishing to penetrate into the dark, witty and ingenious world of the most genuine satirist and maverick America has ever produced. It includes his two main volumes of short-stories "Can Such Things Be?" and "Tales of Soldiers and Civilians".Read more ›

8 Comments Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback. If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

really good i keep these to give as

By john a steritz on June 28, 2015

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

really good i keep these to give as gifts

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback. If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Five Stars

By Leelou Cervant on January 1, 2015

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

Love this book! A delightful addition to anyone's library, especially a writer's.

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback. If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

funny!

By Hannah on August 25, 2014

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

Ambrose Bierce cracks me up. He is so cynical and snarky! This dictionary is a blast to flip through!

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback. If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

Bierce at his best!

By TipsWithALip on June 28, 2013

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

Warning: This dictionary isn't for the faint of heart or for those easily offended.

If you can get past that, you're in for a real treat. Ambrose "Bitter" Bierce has constructed a dictionary from a particularly nefarious point-of-view, and it is hilarious! His word choices for his dictionary are clever and idiosyncratic, as are his uses of archaic words (even in his own time), his actual neologisms, and his accompanying poetry for words, all written by different, mysterious pseudonyms. He completely dismisses the letter "X" and refuses to put down any word beginning with that letter. Why? You'll see. But it is his definitions for his words that make this little volume a classic.

A typical definition of one of the words in this dictionary usually begins with a staggeringly trenchant one-liner that, in just a few words, is as funny and cutting as any political cartoon you could see in any paper or any routine delivered by a comedian. These one-liners are the real gems of the book; they will stick in your head and make you laugh, often laughing at yourself or some cherished notion of yours. That is truly great satire, and folks, that is hard to find anywhere. These lines are so pithy and clever that they are much more effective than an op-ed in any publication that drones on about some group or idea the journalist hates. Sometimes, you may have to read Bierce's definitions a few times to get the joke, but when you get it, it's always worth it.

Some of these definitions are only pithy one-liners because to add anything more to them would be to try to improve on perfection. But if you want more, sometimes Bierce gives it to you in a wry, brief description of the word's origins (he has fun with etymologies, for sure) and history.Read more ›

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback. If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

See all 77 customer reviews (newest first)

Write a customer review

Customer Images

Most Recent Customer Reviews

I already had the Portuguese translation of the Dictionary itself ...

I already had the Portuguese translation of the Dictionary itself. Just wanted to see the original definitions.
And got pleasantly surprised with the stories.

Published 5 days ago by Carlos H. W. Flechtmann

Pure Devilish Genius!

Unparalleled humor & satire that is timeless and prescient to this day!

Published 2 months ago by Nina Rose-Racine

This Here Edition

Now ya may notice the Bison Books edition has more short stories, an' that'd be a fact. The good ol' LoB doesn't skimp out on the Civil War stuff, though, which most people are... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Alex

I love it!

Wonderful volume from the Library of America (which is, by the way, a non-profit publisher...so yeah, go support it!) as usual. Read more

Published 5 months ago by ircupinojr

It's OK

It's ok

Published 7 months ago by Merle Wayne Hutton

Love Bierce!

Tales that resonate.

Published 7 months ago by Tim Crater

Irreverent Wit and the Brutality of War

From my college days I've owned a copy of Ambrose Bierce's "Devil's Dictionary," but I had not known his short stories. His stories set in the U.S. Read more

Published 8 months ago by Peter O. Pierson

... re-read the book after 40 years and was somewhat disappointed. I...

I re-read the book after 40 years and was somewhat disappointed. I had remembered the good and relevant part, but had forgotten that there was a lot of boring definitions or ones... Read more

Published 9 months ago by Keith S Massey

Witty, clever, irreverent and timeless. One of my favorite books, a...

One of my favorite books, which I have also shared with others. It's hard to believe that it was written in the 1860s. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Jennifer A. Hoffman

I like anything different and odd

Very interesting. I like anything different and odd. This has been a fun read.

Published 10 months ago by TC