The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce Fiction Classics Fantasy Horror

<p><strong>Finally published in its entirety in 1911 the definitions found therein are as apt today as they were nearly a century ago.</strong> An example: HOMICIDE n. The slaying of one human being by another. There are four kinds of homicide: felonious excusable justifiable and praiseworthy but it makes no great difference to the person slain whether he fell by one kind or another -- the classification is for advantage of the lawyers.</p><p>Portions of it were published in the San Francisco Wasp as a weekly column and in The Cynic's Word Book of 1906.</p>