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.

Begun in a weekly paper in 1881, The Devil's Dictionary was continued with some intervals until 1906, when it was first published as The Cynic's Word Book. It is an irreverant dictionary which was so popular in its time that many definitions and anecdotes became part of popular speech. Wickedly humorous, it still has relevance today. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Questing after Pancho Villa's revolutionary forces, Ambose Bierce rode into Mexico in 1913 and completely vanished off the face of the earth. Though his ultimate fate remains a mystery to this day, Bierce's contribution to American letter's rests firmly on the basis of his incomparable Devil's Dictionary and a remarkable body of short fiction. This new collection gathers some three dozen of Bierce's finest stories, including the celebrated Civil War fictions "An Occurrence at Owl Creek" and "Chickamauga, " his macabre masterpieces "The Damned Thing" and "Moxon's Master, " and his hilariously horrific "Oil of Dog" and "My Favorite Murder."

"A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama ... A rope closely encircled his neck..."


An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge opens with the story's hero, Peyton Farquhar, hanging bound from a bridge, awaiting hanging. Farquhar is a Confederate sympathizer in the American Civil War and has been brought to this end by a Union spy. The novel was unique in its time for its jumbled chronology and is also famous for its surprising conclusion.


Ambrose Bierce
(1842-1914) was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist. Today, he is best known for his short story,
'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' (1890)
and his satirical lexicon, 'The Devil's Dictionary' (1911) .

Since its original publication in 1966, this volume has attained classic status. Now its contents have been updated and its cultural framework enlarged by the orginal editors. Many of the 44 stories come from a new writing generation with a contemporary consciousness, and this brilliant blending of masters of the past and the brightest talents of the present achieves the goal of making a great collection even greater.

Anticipada por notables precedentes (Lord Dunsany, Ambrose Bierce, R. W. Chambers, A. Machen, Algernon Blackwood) y enriquecida posteriormente por otros escritores, corresponde sin embargo a HOWARD PHILLIPS LOVECRAFT (1890-1937) el papel más importante en la invención de LOS MITOS DE CTHULHU, ciclo de narraciones de horror cósmico ambientadas en mundos primigenios de caos y espanto. El presente volumen, prologado y seleccionado por Rafael Llopis, ofrece una completa panorámica del desarrollo de los mitos y reúne las piezas fundamentales en la configuración de ese singular e inquietante universo que remueve en el interior del lector profundos terrores atávicos.

"Días de ocio en el país del Yann" (Iddle Days on the Yann, 1910), de Lord Dunsany
"Un habitante de Carcosa" (An Inhabitant of Carcosa, 1886), de Ambrose Bierce
"El signo amarillo" (The Yellow Sign 1895), de Robert W. Chambers
"Vinum Sabbati" (The White Powder, 1895), de Arthur Machen
"El Wendigo" (The Wendigo, 1910), de Algernon Blackwood
"La maldición que cayó sobre Sarnath" (The Doom that Came to Sarnath, 1920), de H.P. Lovecraft
"El ceremonial" (The Festival, 1925), de H.P. Lovecraft
"Los Perros de Tíndalos" (The Hounds of Tindalos, 1929), de Frank Belknap Long
"La Sombra sobre Innsmouth" (The Shadow over Innsmouth, 1936), de H.P. Lovecraft
"La piedra negra" (The Black Stone, 1931), de Robert E. Howard
"Estirpe de la cripta" (The Nameless Offspring, 1932), de Clark Asthon Smith
"En la noche de los tiempos" (The Shadow out of Time, 1936), de H.P. Lovecraft
"Reliquia de un mundo olvidado" (Out of the Eons, 1933), de Hazel Heald
"Las ratas del cementerio" (The Graveyard Rats, 1936), de Henry Kuttner
"El vampiro estelar" (The Shambler from the Stars, 1935), de Robert Bloch
"El Morador de las Tinieblas" (The Haunter of the Dark, 1936), de H.P. Lovecraft
"La Hoya de las Brujas" (Witches" Hollow, 1962), de H.P. Lovecraft y August Derleth
"El Sello de R"lyeh" (The Seal of R"lyeh, 1957), de August Derleth
"La sombra que huyó del chapitel" (The Shadow from the Steeple, 1950), de Robert Bloch
"La iglesia de High Street" (The Church of High Street, 1962), de J. Ramsey Campbell
"Con la técnica de Lovecraft" (Amb la tècnica de Lovecraft, 1956), de Juan Perucho

Source title: ESOPO EMENDADO & OUTRAS FÁBULAS FANTÁSTICAS (Portuguese Edition)

Anticipada por notables precedentes, como Lord Dunsany, Ambrose Bierce, R. W. Chambers, A. Machen o Algernon Blackwood, y enriquecida posteriormente por otros escritores, corresponde sin embargo a Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) el papel más importante en la invención de LOS MITOS DE CTHULHU, ciclo de narraciones de horror cósmico ambientadas en mundos primigenios de caos y espanto. El presente volumen, prologado y seleccionado por Rafael Llopis, ofrece una completa panorámica del desarrollo de los mitos y reúne las piezas fundamentales en la configuración de ese singular e inquietante universo que remueve en el interior del lector profundos terrores atávicos.

Born in Ohio in 1842, journalist, short-story writer and critic Ambrose Bierce developed into one of this country's most celebrated and cynical wits - a merciless "American Swift" whose literary barbs were aimed at folly, self-delusion, politics, business, religion, literature and the arts. In this splendid "dictionary" of epigrams, essays, verses and vignettes, you'll find over 1,000 pointed definitions, e.g. Congratulation ("The civility of envy"), Coward ("One who in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs") and Historian ("A broad-guage gossip"). Anyone who likes to laugh will love "the Devil's Dictionary." Anyone looking for a bon mot to enliven their next speech, paper or conversation will have a field day thumbing through what H.L. Mencken called "some of the most gorgeous witticisms in the English language."