"One of Twins" is a short story by American Civil War soldier, wit, and writer Ambrose Bierce exploring a telepathic connection between the twins. It was first published in The San Francisco Examiner on October 28, 1888 and was included in Bierce's 1893 collection of supernatural tales Can Such Things Be? [1]
Henry Stevens, one of a set of twins, explains to someone how he has never really experienced much in terms of strange phenomena as a twin except for this one series of events which he will relate. First, he explains that he and his twin brother John were so identical that it is likely they were switched back and forth many times in their infancy. Upon growing up, they moved to San Jose where they ended up living in different parts of the city.
One day, the narrator encounters a man who begins talking with him and assumes him to be his twin. The man invites him over for a meal and he agrees thanking the man by using the man's last name, even though he had never met the man. When he meets up with his twin, his twin randomly asks the man for the address the next day, having somehow known about the meeting.
The host, Mr. Margovan, has a daughter, Julia, to whom John Stevens becomes engaged. Meanwhile, the narrator explains he found an inexplicable desire to follow a woman whom he never met. He followed her until she met up with another man and entered a disreputable place. Later on, he met his brother for dinner with his fiancée. Here, he discovers that his twin's soon-to-be wife is in fact the woman he saw earlier. He confronts her when others are not near. He demands that she call off the wedding. Others come back into the room and the conversation ends there.
The next night while sleeping, the narrator is startled by some dark feeling that he cannot fully identify. A short time later, he hears a scream that he knows to be his brother's. He races to the Margovan house wherein he finds that the fiancée had killed herself with poison hours earlier and that his brother had shot himself.
Years later, while wandering the street, Henry encountered a man. As he approached a lantern, the narrator recognized him as Julia's lover whom he had seen at the "disreputable place" years before. "He was terribly altered — gray, worn and haggard; dissipation and vice were in evidence in every look". The man exclaimed at the narrator, apparently taking him for the apparition of his twin brother, and attempted to punch him, but then died on the spot.
Like Edgar Poe before him, Bierce consciously blurs the edges of identity between the narrator and his twin doppelgänger. [2] Even their parents view John and Henry as two sides of the same personality, "Jehnry". From a psychoanalytic perspective, John's death is supposed to be beneficial for Henry: it allows John's passion, the id, to join with Henry's sense of moral responsibility, or super ego , into a now collective consciousness, or ego. [3]
It is not clear from the story whether Julia committed suicide or was murdered by her fiancé. Bierce implies that "Henry's knowledge about her infidelity has been shared psychically with his twin, prompting John to a tragic confrontation". [3]
The Devil's Dictionary is a satirical dictionary written by American journalist Ambrose Bierce, consisting of common words followed by humorous and satirical definitions. The lexicon was written over three decades as a series of installments for magazines and newspapers. Bierce's witty definitions were imitated and plagiarized for years before he gathered them into books, first as The Cynic's Word Book in 1906 and then in a more complete version as The Devil's Dictionary in 1911.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a novella by Gabriel García Márquez, published in 1981. It tells, in the form of a pseudo-journalistic reconstruction, the story of the murder of Santiago Nasar by the Vicario twins.
"Moxon's Master" is a short story by American writer Ambrose Bierce, which speculates on the nature of life and intelligence. It describes a chess-playing automaton that murders its creator. First published in The San Francisco Examiner on April 16, 1899, it is one of the first descriptions of a robot in English-language literature written much before the word 'robot' came to be used. The story was included in the 1910 edition of the short story anthology Can Such Things Be?.
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (1890) is a short story by the American writer and Civil War veteran Ambrose Bierce. Described as "one of the most famous and frequently anthologized stories in American literature", it was originally published by The San Francisco Examiner on July 13, 1890, and was first collected in Bierce's book Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1891). The story, which is set during the American Civil War, is known for its irregular time sequence and twist ending. Bierce's abandonment of strict linear narration in favor of the internal mind of the protagonist is an early example of the stream of consciousness narrative mode.
Holiday is a 1938 American romantic comedy film directed by George Cukor, a remake of the 1930 film of the same name.
Alfred Lennon, also known as Freddie Lennon, was an English seaman and singer who was best known as the father of musician John Lennon. Alfred spent many years in an orphanage with his sister, Edith, after his father died.
Luther Stickell is a fictional character in the Mission: Impossible film series who first appeared in the 1996 film Mission: Impossible and is the only character besides Ethan Hunt to appear in every film to date.
"A Horseman in the Sky" is a heavily anthologized short story by American Civil War soldier, wit, and writer Ambrose Bierce. It was published on April 14, 1889 under the title The Horseman in the Sky in the Sunday edition of The Examiner, a San Francisco newspaper owned by William Randolph Hearst. It is set during the American Civil War and is one of Bierce's best known war stories. Bierce revised the story for his book Tales of Soldiers and Civilians.
In Black and White is a collection of eight short stories by Rudyard Kipling which was first published in a booklet of 108 pages as no. 3 of A H Wheeler & Co.’s Indian Railway Library in 1888. It was subsequently published in a book along with nos 1 and 2, Soldiers Three (1888) and The Story of the Gadsbys, as Soldiers Three (1899). The characters about whom the stories are concerned are native Indians, rather than the British for writing about whom Kipling may be better known; four of the stories are narrated by the Indians, and four by an observant wise English journalist. The stories are:
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book The Devil's Dictionary was named one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration. His story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" has been described as "one of the most famous and frequently anthologized stories in American literature", and his book Tales of Soldiers and Civilians was named by the Grolier Club one of the 100 most influential American books printed before 1900.
"The Moonlit Road" is a gothic horror short story by American Civil War soldier, wit, and writer Ambrose Bierce. It first appeared in a 1907 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, illustrated by Charles B. Falls. This story is presented in three parts and relates the tale of the murder of Julia Hetman from the perspective of her son, a man who may be her husband, and Julia herself, through a medium.
Blanche Partington was a prominent San Francisco journalist and member of the San Francisco Bay Area literary and cultural scene. She is particularly noted for her relationships with prominent California writers, including Ambrose Bierce, Jack London, and Yone Noguchi.
"Killed at Resaca" is a short story by American Civil War soldier, wit, and writer Ambrose Bierce. First published in The San Francisco Examiner on June 5, 1887, it was later included in Bierce's Tales of Soldiers and Civilians in 1891.
"Beyond the Wall" is a ghost story by American Civil War soldier, wit, and writer Ambrose Bierce. It was published by Cosmopolitan in December 1907.
"The Death of Halpin Frayser" is a Gothic ghost story by Ambrose Bierce. It was first published in the San Francisco periodical The Wave on December 19, 1891 before appearing in the 1893 collection Can Such Things Be?
"The Secret of Macarger's Gulch" is a Gothic ghost story by American Civil War soldier, wit, and writer Ambrose Bierce. It was first published in the San Francisco periodical The Wave on April 25, 1891, before appearing in the 1893 collection Can Such Things Be?
"A Psychological Shipwreck" is a short story by American Civil War soldier, wit, and writer Ambrose Bierce and published by The Argonaut under the title "My Shipwreck" on May 24, 1879. It was included in the 1893 collection Can Such Things Be?
"The Realm of the Unreal" is a short story by American Civil War soldier, wit, and writer Ambrose Bierce. It appeared in The San Francisco Examiner on July 20, 1890 and was reprinted in the 1893 collection Can Such Things Be?
The Monogram Murders is a 2014 mystery novel by British writer Sophie Hannah featuring characters created by Agatha Christie. It is the first in Hannah's series of Hercule Poirot books, continuation novels sanctioned by the estate of Agatha Christie. The novel was followed by Closed Casket (2016), The Mystery of Three Quarters (2018), and The Killings at Kingfisher Hill (2020).