Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: A Marvel of Monsters
- The Epic of Gilgamesh — Selections
- The Bible — Selections
- Hesiod, Theogony — Selections
- Homer, The Odyssey, Odysseus and his Men Encounter the Cyclops
- Bust of Polyphemus
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History — Selections
- Ovid, Metamorphoses, Lycaon and Cadmus
- St. Augustine of Hippo, City of God — Selections (XVI.vii–ix; XXI.vii–viii)
- Táin Bó Cúailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley) — Selections
- The Wonders of the East
- Donestre, Huntress, and Boar-Tusked Women
- Beowulf Introduction, Fight With Grendel, the Attack By Grendel's Mother, Fight With Grendel's Mother, and Fight With the Dragon)
- Modern Images of Grendel: (Twentieth Century)
- Marie de France, Bisclavret
- Völsunga saga (The Saga of the Volsungs) — Selections
- The Life of Saint Christopher
- Illumination of Saint Christopher
- The Alliterative Morte Arthure — Selections
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight — Selections
- Ambroise Paré, on Monsters Book 25: Treating of Monsters and Prodigies
- Renaissance Figures of Monsters: First Published in Ambroise Paré, Les Oeuures D'Ambroise Paré, Conseiller, Et Premier Chirurgien Du Roy (Lyon, Chez Jean GréGoire, 1664).
- Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene — Selections
- William Shakespeare, The Tempest — Selections
- Images of Caliban
- John Spencer, A Discourse Concerning Prodigies: Wherein the Vanity of Presages by them is Reprehended, and their True and Proper Ends are Indicated
- John Milton, Paradise Lost — Selections
- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus — Selections
- Frankenstein Frontispiece
- Edgar Allan Poe, “William Wilson”
- Christina Rossetti, “Goblin Market”
- Illustration of Buy From Us With A Golden Curl
- Lewis Carroll, “Jabberwocky”
- Illustration of Jabberwocky
- Ambrose Bierce, “The Damned Thing”
- Bram Stoker, Dracula — Selections
- Frontispiece to Bram Stoker, Dracula
- Algernon Blackwood, “Ancient Sorceries”
- H. P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”
- Sketch of Cthulhu
- C. L. Moore, “Shambleau”
- J.R.R. Tolkien, the Hobbit, or There and Back Again — Selections
- Theodore Sturgeon, “It!”
- Ray Bradbury, “Fever Dream”
- Edward D. Hoch, “The Faceless Thing”
- John Gardner, Grendel — Selections
- Joyce Carol Oates, “Secret Observations on the Goat-Girl”
- Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake — Selections
- Slender Man
- The SCP (Special Containment Procedures) Foundation
- Contributor Biographies
Ambrose Bierce, “The Damned Thing”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 January 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: A Marvel of Monsters
- The Epic of Gilgamesh — Selections
- The Bible — Selections
- Hesiod, Theogony — Selections
- Homer, The Odyssey, Odysseus and his Men Encounter the Cyclops
- Bust of Polyphemus
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History — Selections
- Ovid, Metamorphoses, Lycaon and Cadmus
- St. Augustine of Hippo, City of God — Selections (XVI.vii–ix; XXI.vii–viii)
- Táin Bó Cúailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley) — Selections
- The Wonders of the East
- Donestre, Huntress, and Boar-Tusked Women
- Beowulf Introduction, Fight With Grendel, the Attack By Grendel's Mother, Fight With Grendel's Mother, and Fight With the Dragon)
- Modern Images of Grendel: (Twentieth Century)
- Marie de France, Bisclavret
- Völsunga saga (The Saga of the Volsungs) — Selections
- The Life of Saint Christopher
- Illumination of Saint Christopher
- The Alliterative Morte Arthure — Selections
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight — Selections
- Ambroise Paré, on Monsters Book 25: Treating of Monsters and Prodigies
- Renaissance Figures of Monsters: First Published in Ambroise Paré, Les Oeuures D'Ambroise Paré, Conseiller, Et Premier Chirurgien Du Roy (Lyon, Chez Jean GréGoire, 1664).
- Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene — Selections
- William Shakespeare, The Tempest — Selections
- Images of Caliban
- John Spencer, A Discourse Concerning Prodigies: Wherein the Vanity of Presages by them is Reprehended, and their True and Proper Ends are Indicated
- John Milton, Paradise Lost — Selections
- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus — Selections
- Frankenstein Frontispiece
- Edgar Allan Poe, “William Wilson”
- Christina Rossetti, “Goblin Market”
- Illustration of Buy From Us With A Golden Curl
- Lewis Carroll, “Jabberwocky”
- Illustration of Jabberwocky
- Ambrose Bierce, “The Damned Thing”
- Bram Stoker, Dracula — Selections
- Frontispiece to Bram Stoker, Dracula
- Algernon Blackwood, “Ancient Sorceries”
- H. P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”
- Sketch of Cthulhu
- C. L. Moore, “Shambleau”
- J.R.R. Tolkien, the Hobbit, or There and Back Again — Selections
- Theodore Sturgeon, “It!”
- Ray Bradbury, “Fever Dream”
- Edward D. Hoch, “The Faceless Thing”
- John Gardner, Grendel — Selections
- Joyce Carol Oates, “Secret Observations on the Goat-Girl”
- Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake — Selections
- Slender Man
- The SCP (Special Containment Procedures) Foundation
- Contributor Biographies
Summary
Critical Introduction
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?) was an American journalist and fiction writer best known for the satirical Devil's Dictionary and the short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Twenty years before he mysteriously disappeared in 1913, he published a science-fiction/horror story that rivals the work of Jules Verne or Edgar Allan Poe. Following a documentary approach (like that in Frankenstein and Dracula), Bierce begins his story at the end of the action and works backward, slowly filling in gaps and details as he goes: what starts as a typical mystery slowly reveals itself to be a science-fiction/horror tale.
Bierce was not the first to incorporate an invisible adversary: Fitz James O’Brien included one in “What Was It?” in 1859. However, Bierce brings a depth to the story that had been lacking before. Here, we never know just what the invisible thing is. The mystery is never solved, and the ending of the story is not the ending of the creature (if it is, indeed, a creature at all). Bierce gives us just enough detail to believe in the existence of the creature, but not enough to picture it in our mind's eye. By the end of the narrative, the characters and readers are left in the classic situation that monsters cause: we must rely on known events and classifications that do not quite fit the facts or accept the presence of something outside our ken based on imperfect evidence. The characters, despite the evidence, choose the former and label the death due to a mountain lion. The story—from the title onwards—seems to delight in foiling the reader's attempts to do the same.
Reading Questions
The beginning of Bierce's story is unsettling and confusing for most first-time readers, though on a second reading one can see what he is up to. Why do you think Bierce chose to fragment the plot line is such a way? Why would he want to confuse or mislead the reader?
The purposes of both the story's form and some of its characters are to provide answers. What is it about this monster (and monsters in general) that seem to defeat those purposes? Can you think of any other texts you’ve read that show this same tension? How do monsters in other texts compare to Bierce's creation?
Editorial Note
All explanatory footnotes are our own insertions.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Primary Sources on MonstersDemonstrare Volume 2, pp. 209 - 214Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2018