In the Midst of Life. By Ambrose Bierce. (Chatto and
Windus.) —All these "Tales of Soldiers and Civilians" but the last, are studies in psychology, and of a somewhat ghastly nature. Many of them relate to the War of Secession, and Ambrose Bierce has done his very best to bring the terror and the grotesque horror of the battle-field before us. The kind of narrative, however, peculiar to our author, and which displays him at his best, is the analysis of a man's thoughts during the brief moments in which he ;s being sent from life to eternity. Thus, in the description of the hanging of a Southern planter from the cross-tie of a bridge, we escape with the man by the breaking of the rope, drop into the stream, reach the river-bank, and are on the point of entering his home, when the narrative breaks off, and we realise that all these incidents have taken place in the doomed man's imagination, and his death follows instantly. Again, in one or two other stories the terror- inspired by the dead, and the attendant circumstances, form the groundwork of the narrative, and the end quite fulfils the dismal anticipation of the reader. Terrifying and realistic as Ambrose Biome is—he spares no details that may impress—the literary quality of his work is undeniable, and the fascination exercised by the stories is due to the compactness of his style, its clearness
and terseness, and the sententious brevity of his phrases; every word is in its place, and tells. In his own line, our author is not likely to be beaten from the field by any one, and occasionally, as in "An Heiress from Red-Horse," he shows himself capable of interpreting kinder aspects of life.
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