This was one of the first short stories I read, as part of a short story writing course. It is a fascinating story in a number of ways, particularly for its narrative structure. I even tried to map it out on paper – how it ebbs between the past, the imagination of the protagonist Peyton Farquhar, a Southern plantation owner who is about to be hanged by Union soldiers for attempting to sabotage a railroad bridge, and the present.
As a reader, we are catapulted into the immediate moment where Farquhar stands on the edge of Owl Creek Bridge with a noose around his neck. What a beginning. This is when time slows down and we become part of his inner world, as he imagines himself escaping from his captors and returning to his family. I wanted him to escape.
At the end, having been lulled into thinking he had escaped, he hasn’t. He’s already dead. The rug is pulled from under our feet. It’s a brilliant showcase of how Bierce plays so plausibly and confidently with the perception of time and reality. I read it as an anti-war story as well.
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
A Personal Anthology 