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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shall not perish from the earth?,
This review is from: Fall Of Republic & Political Satires (Paperback)
It seems incredible that much of the work in this volume has not been widely available since the publication of Bierce's Collected Works more than ninety years ago. It seems particularly incredible in the case of the two long satires, "Ashes of the Beacon" and "The Land Beyond the Blow", since these constitute perhaps his most sustained attack on the absurdities of American society, and contain some of his most pointed and iconoclastic writing. Bierce himself seems to have held them in high regard, but until the Collected Works no publisher took an interest. "The Land Beyond the Blow" is a voyage to strange lands, undertaken courtesy of a large hairy fist applied to the narrator's eye; the various customs and other foibles of the peoples encountered serve to parody the government, judiciary, public taste, dog lovers, etc., etc., of Bierce's own time and place. "Ashes of the Beacon" purports to be "An Historical Monograph Written in 4930" and gives a few indications concerning the lamentable failure of "self-government" in America. It is less amusing and more analytical; and while practically everyone will find much in it to disagree with, there is also plenty to think about. Though generally conservative (with some startling exceptions) and frequently pigheaded, Bierce is neither a fool nor a hypocrite, and he makes his points with thoroughgoing clarity. His work as a whole is (among many other things) a lifelong battle against woolly thinking, murky logic and bad writing, and the pieces in The Fall of the Republic are no exception. Besides the long satires, the book includes a number of short essays on such topics as capital punishment (which Bierce favours), insurance (which he does not favour), temperance (which he demolishes completely) and the Decay of the Nose (upon which he is coolly judicious and commendably straight-faced). A further section is devoted to the Annals of the Future Historian, a series of pieces in which the Future Historian's misconceptions and presuppositions serve to point the reader towards uncomfortable questions not only about the present but, by implication, about the possible misconceptions and presuppositions embedded in our own perception of history. There is also a scholarly and sympathetic critical introduction by the editors who, in hunting out this work and making it available to a general readership, have done satire, literature and the rest of us an immense service.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Book,
By
This review is from: Fall Of Republic & Political Satires (Paperback)
This is a collection of satires written by Ambrose Bierce. The collection containes a number of lesser known short works by the author, all dealing with political satire. Bierce bills himself as another Voltaire or Swift; however, I don't think the writings in this book compare to the works of those authors. Reading the satires in this book reminds me more of the writings of Lucian and the story of the "Adventures of Baron von Munchausen". These later works are more bizzar and off the wall than the former works. A few of the stories come close to the writings of Swift (e.g., "Ashes of the Beacon, "A Scientific Dream", and "Annals of the Future Historian"); however, I found most of the stories not on par with the stories of Voltaire or Swift. There is a reason these stories are not well known and Bierce had a difficult time finding anyone who would publish these.
The best part of the book is the second half of the writings. There are a collection of essays by Bierce with political topics. These elaborate on many of the ideas touched on in the stories. I am a huge fan of Bierce (along with Mark Twain), I was hoping to find some rare gems with this collection. I have used Swift for years in my AP European history classes, I was hoping to find something usable from Bierce in my AP U.S. history classes - but in the end, I really found nothing I can use. The collection is interesting and if you are a Bierce fan, you should read these stories, especially the essays. Overall good collection, but will be of interest most to those individuals who are Bierce fans, or fans of satire. Reminds me more of Lucian rather than Voltaire or Swift.
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