Books › Can Such Things Be? [24 stories]
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Can Such Things Be? [24 stories]
First published 1893 · 427 pages
A collection of macabre tales that peel back the veil of reality to reveal the chilling and the uncanny.
What it feels like
Stepping into this collection of late nineteenth-century short stories feels like walking down a moonlit road where the shadows stretch just a little too far. The mood is dread-soaked and uncanny, built on a foundation of macabre inquests, clinical coroners, and unsettling encounters with the unknown. Moving at a brisk pace, these first-person narratives pull the reader through a series of chilling vignettes that blur the line between psychological shipwreck and supernatural horror. The prose is observant and eerie, capturing the sudden, terrifying presence of mountain lions or the haunting call of owls in the dead of night. It is a perfect read for those who devour classic, atmospheric horror and delight in the creeping sensation that reality is far more fragile than it seems.
- Mood
- dread-soaked
- uncanny
- shadowy
- chilling
- Tone
- macabre
- clinical
- eerie
- detached
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- the fragility of reality · encounters with the unknown · mortality and death · psychological unraveling
- The writing
- Told through first-person narratives that blend clinical observation with creeping dread.
- The arc
- Moves from unsettling curiosity to a chilling realization of the macabre.
- Who it's for
- Readers who appreciate classic, atmospheric horror and the uncanny dread of late nineteenth-century short fiction.
Content notes
- death
- horror
- animal encounters
About the book
24 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. 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. Can Such Things Be? implies and relates that anything is possible, at any time. (Summary by Roger Melin)
Description from Open Library.
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