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Anytime I read a short story that seems to have some sense of horror, creepiness, or summat, I tend to think of Edgar Allan Poe. He is like the benchmark for this genre of literature for me now. Tell Tale Heart was masterpiece if we are being honest. I read a piece by Ambrose Bierce some time ago; A baby Tramp was the title. It was actually good, but It didn't particularly influence my decision to read this one. I had a feeling it would be dark and morbid somewhat, so I decided to give it a try.
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- Author - Ambrose Bierce
- Title - A Vine on a House
- Originally Published - 1905
- Genre - Horror, Fiction, Short Stories
PLOT
! [Hidden Spoiler Text] Ambrose Bierce tells a thrilling story of a small family; a father, a wife, kids, and a sister to the wife. They lived in a small town isolated from their neighbors never seeming to interact with anyone in the neighborhood. The man and his sister-in-law managed the farm, so they were close, and people naturally think oddly of things but perhaps they thought wrong. The wife at some point traveled away to visit her mother, and then the whole family left with no prior notice, never to be seen again. The house became abandoned and a vine started to grow from within it. One day, a clergy and an attorney went around there to hold a meeting when they noticed a strange thing. The vine shook with no obvious course. The old people of this and eventually, the whole village started to dig into the root of the vine and what they found was scary.
CHARACTERS
- Robert Harding - The Husband
- Matilda Harding - The wife
- Miss Julia Went, Matilda's Sister
- Rev. J. Gruber and Hyatt the attorney who discovered the anomaly.
SETTINGS
The story was set in a small town called Norton, Missouri. All Matilda visited Iowa.
PURPOSE
It's just a creepy story. Nothing more.
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It is believed that the author, Ambrose Bierce came from a troubled and dysfunctional family and one could see the same here in this story. From the beginning, the story puts you on edge, wanting to see how the whole thing unravels. The ending was a damp squib, to be honest. I was really hoping for something more chilling, or numbing even. The Harding feels like a typical family, one with secrets and a lot of things to hide, maybe the author was onto something. Maybe. If I rate this, I would say 2.9 out of 5, and I will not recommend it to be honest. The endgame was not what was expected.
Thank you for reading my short story review. I try my best not to give spoilers, and you also should not reveal spoilers if you intend on reading them. :). Everything you have read in this post is entirely my own opinion, and what I thought of the story. If there is anything I might have missed out, misinterpreted, or quoted wrongly, please point me toward it in the comment. The story can be found in American Literature so you can read it for free. Till next time. Cheers.