Short Story #210: A Revolt of the Gods by Ambrose Bierce
Title: A Revolt of the Gods
Author: Ambrose Bierce
Summary
A husband who collects dead dogs grows increasingly frustrated with his wife, who sells cat-food and beats up the cleric who married them. Upon this act, the city grows resentful and people refuse to give him dead dogs; allowing them to rot throughout the city. This destabilizes his income and also invokes the rage of the wife, for though she loathes the husband, she is still dependent upon that income. She stops selling cat-food which caused the cats in the town to become angry and worried the citizenry since the cats were part of their spiritual believes. Eventually, the starving cats and dead dogs rise up to do battle and the humans themselves join in and the city descends into chaos and destruction. The narrator explains this is where he received a pivotal education to be a Chief of Misrule in America today.
A husband who collects dead dogs grows increasingly frustrated with his wife, who sells cat-food and beats up the cleric who married them. Upon this act, the city grows resentful and people refuse to give him dead dogs; allowing them to rot throughout the city. This destabilizes his income and also invokes the rage of the wife, for though she loathes the husband, she is still dependent upon that income. She stops selling cat-food which caused the cats in the town to become angry and worried the citizenry since the cats were part of their spiritual believes. Eventually, the starving cats and dead dogs rise up to do battle and the humans themselves join in and the city descends into chaos and destruction. The narrator explains this is where he received a pivotal education to be a Chief of Misrule in America today. Reflection
Another quirky and strange tale but one that has precursor elements of Lovecraft, Del Tuermo, or other authors of the strange and macabre. Underlying this tale, there is some weird mythos that begs exploring and explaining.
Short Story #210 out of 365
Rating: 3 (out of 5 stars)
Date Read: 7/29/2014
Source: The Complete Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce, compiled by Ernest Jerome Hopkins. Bison Books, 1984. The full works of Ambrose Bierce, including this story can be found here on Archive.org.
For a full listing of all the short stories in this series, check out the category 365 Short Stories a year.
Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and check out some of my other posts!. You might also want to keep up to date with my blog by signing up for them via email.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
For a full listing of all the short stories in this series, check out the category 365 Short Stories a year.
Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and check out some of my other posts!. You might also want to keep up to date with my blog by signing up for them via email.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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