Resumen
Resumen de La cosa maldita
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of La cosa maldita, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
Para quién es
Readers who love ghost stories, creeping horror and sharply edged short fiction will enjoy this tale, as will those drawn to nineteenth-century American storytelling about fear, doubt and the unexplained.
De qué trata este libro
Picture a log cabin deep in the mountains at night. A single tallow candle burns on a rough table. On the table lies a dead man under a sheet, and seven farmers and woodsmen sit against the walls, saying nothing. What killed him? The only witness swears it was something nobody can see.
The Damned Thing is a short horror tale by Ambrose Bierce, the American writer known for sharp, dark stories of war and the uncanny. It holds three voices: a coroner's inquest, a young journalist's written account, and the dead man's diary. You get a chill that grows from what is left unsaid, and a lesson in how small things build dread.
En este resumen
- 1A coroner opens an inquest by candlelightFree
- 2A young writer swears to an unbelievable story
- 3Two hunters cross a ridge at dawn
- 4Morgan fires, and something unseen strikes
- 5The body is shown, and the jury scorns the witness
- 6Morgan's diary records fear before the attack
- 7The tale is about what we refuse to believe
Idea clave 1 de 7
A coroner opens an inquest by candlelight
The tale opens in a small log cabin where an inquest is about to resume. A dead man lies faceup on a rough table with a sheet drawn over part of him. Seven men sit silent against the log walls, so close that any of them could touch the body. Nobody speaks. Everyone seems to be waiting.
One tallow candle lights the room. Outside, a coyote calls far away, and insects thrum in the trees. The men notice none of it. They are farmers and woodsmen, and their rugged faces show no taste for idle interest.
One man is different. He sits at the table with a badly worn account book and sometimes holds a page close to the flame. His coat would not pass in San Francisco, and he is the only man bareheaded. He is the coroner. The book was found among the dead man's belongings.
When he finishes reading, he puts the book in his breast pocket and says nothing about what it holds. The listener is left wondering what the dead man wrote there. Then the door opens, and a young man in dusty city clothes comes in, having ridden hard. A scene of dread can begin with stillness and let the quiet do the frightening.
That’s 1 of 7 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Take this summary with you
Send to Kindle downloads the file and opens Amazon's page: drop the file there.
Go deeper: the whole of La cosa maldita
About 10 min to read.Empieza 90 días gratisPaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
Who’s who
- Hugh Morgan
- A solitary, usually cool-headed man who lives alone in the mountains and is haunted by something he cannot explain.
- William Harker
- A twenty-seven-year-old writer who visits Morgan to hunt and to study him, and who swears to a story no one wants to believe.
- The coroner
- A worldly official who runs the inquest, mocks Harker, and keeps the dead man's diary in his pocket.
- The foreman
- A tall, bearded man of sixty who leads the jury and trusts only what he can understand.
- The jurors
- Seven farmers and woodsmen who have seen violent death before and have no patience for strange tales.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 3,060 words
- Reading timeAbout 15 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 11 other languages
Questions about La cosa maldita
What is The Damned Thing by Ambrose Bierce about?
It is a short horror tale in which a coroner holds an inquest over a hunter killed in the mountains. The only witness describes an attack by something unseen, and the dead man's diary adds clues about weeks of fear.
Who is William Harker in The Damned Thing?
Harker is a twenty-seven-year-old writer who stays with Hugh Morgan to hunt and fish, and to study him as a model for fiction. He is the only witness to Morgan's death, and the jury doubts his story.
What does the title The Damned Thing mean?
It is the phrase Hugh Morgan uses when Harker asks what is there, after the bushes have fallen quiet. He uses it as a name for the unseen force that has been troubling him, and the story keeps it close until the end.
Is The Damned Thing a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction by Ambrose Bierce, who wrote many tales of fear and the unexplained. Within the story, Harker even says he wrote his account as fiction because he thought no one would believe it.
Is The Damned Thing worth reading?
It is a good pick if you like quick, atmospheric horror. The tale takes a single sitting, combines an inquest with testimony and diary entries, and builds its chill from small details and a calm narrative voice.
Cite this edition
Bierce, Ambrose. The Damned Thing. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-damned-thing.
Bierce, A. (2026). The damned thing. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-damned-thing (Original work published 1893)
Bierce, Ambrose. The Damned Thing. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-damned-thing.
@book{bierce2026damned,
author = {Bierce, Ambrose},
title = {The Damned Thing},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-damned-thing},
note = {First published 1893}
}
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of La cosa maldita, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
