Story of a man who encounters the Angel of the Odd, a spirit who causes strange accidents as his job. (less)

Set in New Zealand, The Voyage was written in 1921. Its first appearance was in a publication known as 'The Sphere' on 24 December 1921. Later it was reprinted in collection of short stories by Katehrine called 'The Garden Party and Other Stories'. It is written in a modernist style. (less)

I was living at that time with my mother in a little seaside town. I was in my seventeenth year, while my mother was not quite five-and-thirty; she had married very young. When my father died, I was only seven years old, but I remember him well. My mother was a fair-haired woman, not very tall, with a charming, but always sad-looking face, a soft, tired voice and timid gestures. In her youth she had been reputed a beauty, and to the end she remained attractive and pretty. (less)

Very early morning. The sun was not yet risen, and the whole of Crescent Bay was hidden under a white sea-mist. The big bush-covered hills at the back were smothered. You could not see where they ended and the paddocks and bungalows began. The sandy road was gone and the paddocks and bungalows the other side of it; there were no white dunes covered with reddish grass beyond them; there was nothing to mark which was beach and where was the sea. (less)

Written in 1891, this tale is a good example of Bierce's use of the gothic to explore the realms of the consciousness, appealing in particular to the theme of identity crisis and gender identity. Predating Freud, this story has a surprising number of Freudian concepts. This is a fascinating tale to read. (less)