6 h 48 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 6 h 48 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the most dangerous thing in the room is something no one can see?
In Can Such Things Be?, Ambrose Bierce makes ordinary places feel unsafe. A forest cabin holds a lonely settler. A coroner’s jury gathers around a body. Houses hold old crimes, and a night in a room turns dangerous. These short Gothic tales bring ghosts and strange deaths close, without explaining the fear away.
In The Damned Thing, Hugh Morgan senses a presence he cannot name, while William Harker gives testimony no one wants to believe. The Boarded Window follows the isolated Murlock. The Moonlit Road gathers broken accounts of a family death, while The Death of Halpin Frayser blurs the line between dream and life.
What you’ll discover
- Ordinary places, sudden fear Enter cabins, rooms, and woods where familiar surroundings offer no promise of safety.
- An unseen threat Follow The Damned Thing into an inquest where a witness struggles to be believed.
- Truth in broken pieces Hear The Moonlit Road through separate voices, each holding only part of a violent story.
- Dreams that unsettle waking Join Halpin Frayser in a lonely wood where he cannot tell dream from life.
- Fear without fuss Feel the force of spare prose, cold irony, and sudden endings that leave questions open.
Who will love it
For readers who love short, sharp ghost stories, dark humour and plain prose, and anyone who enjoys Poe or the Gothic tale.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Bierce makes the ordinary feel unsafe
- The dead frighten the living most
- What we cannot see may still kill us
- The truth arrives in broken pieces
- The mind can become a trap
- Cold irony and sudden endings carry the fear
Who’s who
- Hugh MorganA hunter and keeper of a diary in The Damned Thing, who senses a presence near him that he cannot name.
- William HarkerA witness in The Damned Thing who comes before a coroner's jury with sworn testimony that no one wants to believe.
- MurlockA lonely settler in The Boarded Window who lives in a forest cabin far from any neighbour.
- Halpin FrayserA man in The Death of Halpin Frayser who falls asleep in a Napa Valley wood and cannot tell dream from life.
- Jenner BradingA man in The Eyes of the Panther whose love for Irene Marlowe is shadowed by an old, odd fear.
- Joel Hetman JuniorOne of the three voices in The Moonlit Road, who tells what he knows of a violent death in his family.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 6 h 48 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Peut-il en être ainsi ?
by Ambrose Bierce · 1893
A witness faces a coroner's jury with testimony of an unseen creature that may have killed a man.
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In short
Can Such Things Be? is a book of tales of ghosts, strange deaths and things that cannot be seen. Ambrose Bierce, an American newspaperman and Union soldier in the Civil War, gathered it in 1893 from stories he had first printed in San Francisco papers.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Bierce makes the ordinary feel unsafe
Most stories in the collection begin in a plain, believable place. It may be a frontier cabin, a San Francisco room, a hillside in Napa Valley, or a camp in wartime. Bierce names the place and the people, then gives the facts. The horror enters slowly and never announces itself.
This habit comes from his own life. Bierce served in the Union army and saw terrible fighting, and he later worked as a journalist and a sharp critic. He knew how quickly a normal day could end in a death that no one could explain. His tales carry that lesson, that safety is a habit and not a promise.
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What is Can Such Things Be about?
It is a collection of short stories by Ambrose Bierce, published in 1893. The tales deal with ghosts, haunted houses, unseen creatures and strange deaths, and many leave open whether the cause is supernatural.
What is The Damned Thing about?
It is a tale in the collection told through an inquest into a man's death. Witnesses and a diary suggest that an unseen creature, beyond normal human sight, may have been responsible.
Is Can Such Things Be hard to read?
No. Bierce writes short, clear sentences, and the stories are brief. The plots are easy to follow.
The author
Ambrose Bierce
1842–1914 · American satirist and story writer
American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist.
More by Ambrose Bierce
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