‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’ by Ambrose Bierce

We had this story on the high school curriculum in Ireland and it is the one I always cite as my favourite ever since. The experience of first reading the ending can never be quite as intense but the narrative is so wonderful that it bears rereading. We begin with the slow ticking of a fob watch. In the American civil war, a man is about to be hanged on Owl Creek Bridge. This is an adventure story of escape and pursuit leading to a beautiful and emotional vision, perhaps symbolising what was lost in Civil War. It has something in common with ‘Bullet in the Brain’ by Tobias Wolff, another story often selected as a favourite, in that the action in both takes place in an instant.

First published in The San Francisco Examiner, 1890. Collected in Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, ELG Steele, 1891. Available to read online at Project Gutenberg