Bierce also plays with the idea of holes in reality in the various âMysterious Disappearancesâ stories, portals to horrifying locations in âThe Spook House,â and parallel dimensions or altered states in âA Psychological Shipwreckâ and âThe Realm of the Unreal.â Not all stories in the collection are strictly âghost storiesâââMoxonâs Masterâ is one of the first examples in English literature to describe a robotic thinking machine (and the fate of its master), and âHaÃ¯ta the Shepherdâ is a tale of a young manâs search for meaning in his life. âThe Moonlit Roadâ is a strong example, providing three distinct vantage points of the same events, and both âThe Death of Halpin Frayserâ and âThe Damned Thingâ are frequently anthologized as pioneers in the genre. He must be credentialed by nudityâand that regardless of temperature or who may happen to be present.âĭespite his personal skepticism, Bierce was able to capture the essence of the supernatural horror story. Standard EbooksĨ1,444 words (4 hours 57 minutes) with a reading ease of 67.69 (average difficulty)Īmbrose Bierceâs second major short story collection, Can Such Things Be? collected nearly all of Bierceâs supernatural horror stories.īierce himself was a skeptic of the supernatural, having once written a satirical essay âThe Clothing of Ghosts,â in which he insisted that âThe materialized spook appealing to our senses for recognition of his ghostly character must authenticate himself otherwise than by familiar and remembered habiliments.

Can Such Things Be? implies and relates that anything is possible, at any time.Can Such Things Be?, by Ambrose Bierce - Free ebook download - Standard Ebooks: Free and liberated ebooks, carefully produced for the true book lover. Stories of ghosts, apparitions, and strange, inexplicable occurrences are prevalent in these tales, some of which occur on or near Civil War fields of battle, some in country cottages, and some within urban areas.

Download cover art Download CD case insert Can Such Things Be?Ģ4 short stories in fairly typical Bierce fashion - ghostly, spooky, to be read (or listened to) in the dark, perhaps with a light crackling fire burning dimly in the background.

Can Such Things Be? by Ambrose Bierce