DIY in July Best Books of the Month Shop Men's Classics Shop Men's Classics Shop Men's Learn more nav_sap_plcc_6M_fly_beacon Storm Free Fire TV Stick with Purchase of Ooma Telo Grocery Home Improvement Shop all gdwf gdwf gdwf Amazon Echo Amazon Echo Kindle Voyage Shop Cycling on Amazon Deal of the Day
REf Dictionaries Atlas Language Guides Writing Guides Learn more
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
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)

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

Wish List unavailable.
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)
› Visit Amazon's Ambrose Bierce Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
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"
$25.85
— —
Hardcover
"Please retry"
$21.32
$16.94 $15.32
Hardcover, January 17, 2004
—
$33.95 $0.01
The Associated Press Stylebook 2015
The Associated Press Stylebook 2015
This new edition contains more than 3,000 A to Z entries detailing the AP’s rules on grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, abbreviation, and word and numeral usage. Learn more

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.
Back
  1. The Complete Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce
    Ambrose Bierce
    24
    Paperback
    $17.16 Prime
  2. The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
    Ambrose Bierce
    30
    Paperback
    $13.79 Prime
  3. H. P. Lovecraft: Tales (Library of America)
    H. P. Lovecraft
    97
    Hardcover
    $25.10 Prime
  4. The Devil's Dictionary (Dover Thrift Editions)
    Ambrose Bierce
    42
    Paperback
    $3.50 Prime
  5. The Ralph Steadman Book of Dogs
    Ralph Steadman
    11
    Hardcover
    $18.25 Prime
  6. The King in Yellow
    Robert W. Chambers
    140
    Paperback
    $6.99 Prime
Next
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
Best Books of the Month
Best Books of the Month
Want to know our Editors' picks for the best books of the month? Browse Best Books of the Month, featuring our favorite new books in more than a dozen categories.

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: #841,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

106 of 110 people found the following review helpful
Complete Table of Contents
By Roger Zeus on December 26, 2011
Format: Hardcover
Since Amazon doesn't give a complete listing of the contents, I thought I would. Hopefully somebody might find this of use:

IN THE MIDST OF LIFE (TALES OF SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS)

Soldiers
A Horseman in the Sky
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Chickamauga
A Son of the Gods
One of the Missing
Killed at Resaca
The Affair at Coulter's Notch
The Coup de Grâce
Parker Adderson, Philosopher
An Affair of Outposts
The Story of a Conscience
One Kind of Officer
One Officer, One Man
George Thurston
The Mocking-Bird

Civilians
The Man Out of the Nose
An Adventure at Brownville
The Famous Gilson Bequest
The Applicant
A Watcher by the Dead
The Man and the Snake
A Holy Terror
The Suitable Surroundings
The Boarded Window
A Lady from Red Horse
The Eyes of the Panther

CAN SUCH THINGS BE?

Can Such Things Be?Read more ›
4 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
71 of 74 people found the following review helpful
it ain't Webster's
By Orrin C. Judd VINE VOICE on August 26, 2001
Format: Paperback
Beginning in 1881 and continuing to 1906, Ambrose Bierce created a series of sardonic word definitions of his own. Many of these were collected and published as The Cynic's Word Book, which he later protested was "a name which the author had not the power to reject or happiness to approve." So in 1911, he pulled together a collection that was more to his own liking and called it The Devil's Dictionary. The entries are a tad uneven in quality, but most are amusing and some are great. Each reader will have his own favorites, some of mine are as follows : ACQUAINTANCE, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor or obscure, and intimate when he is rich or famous. ALLIANCE, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third. BIGOT, n. One who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain. BORE, n. A person who talks when you wish him to listen. CONSULT, v.i. To seek another's disapproval of a course already decided on. CYNIC, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a cynic's eyes to improve his vision. DICTIONARY, n. A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work. DISCRIMINATE, v.i. To note the particulars in which one person or thing is, if possible, more objectionable than another. EDUCATION, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding. FUTURE, n.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
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

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 6 days ago by Carlos H. W. Flechtmann
really good i keep these to give as

really good i keep these to give as gifts

Published 25 days ago by john a steritz
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
Five Stars

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

Published 6 months ago by Leelou Cervant
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

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.



Want to discover more products? Check out this page to see more: standards of excellence piano