
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $4.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
John Michaels
-
By:
-
Ambrose Bierce
About this listen
"Death is a dignitary who when he comes announced is to be received with formal manifestations of respect, even by those most familiar with him." This line was written by Ambrose Bierce in his short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Death by execution has historically been ritualized, perhaps to absolve those accomplishing the execution from guilt or blame.
The sensations and emotions of the condemned are well documented up to the moment of death. The only way to truly know death is to die, however; and though there are many theories, this being one, no living person truly knows the final instant dying person. Is death instantaneous when the hangman's noose snaps the condemned persons neck and spinal cord severing the connection from the brain to life and the physical body? Bierce speculates that Peyton Fahrquhar, the condemned man spends his final instant returning to his home and loved ones one last time prior to traveling to his final reward or forever nothingness. Peyton Fahrquhar’s fictional journey has become the subject of several movies and TV shows.
Public Domain (P)2012 Audio Books by Mike VendettiListeners also enjoyed...
-
To Build a Fire
- By: Jack London
- Narrated by: Peter Husmann
- Length: 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"He travels fastest who travels alone...but not after the frost has dropped below zero 50 degrees or more." (Yukon Code) Jack London’s best short story.
-
-
THE ABSENCE OF SUN
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-05-17
By: Jack London
-
Can Such Things Be?
- By: Ambrose Bierce
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Prepare yourself for the shocking, the strange, and the terrifying in Ambrose Bierce’s 1893 story collection Can Such Things Be? One of the greatest masters of horror brings you 25 tales of the supernatural and the unexplained. Whether in stories of ghosts sending desperate warnings to their human counterparts, psychics attempting to bridge unknown dimensions, howling werewolves, or a robot who takes on a life of his own, Bierce plumbs the depths of fear and fascination.
-
-
Excellent narration of the classics
- By Adeliese Baumann on 10-31-14
By: Ambrose Bierce
-
The Open Boat
- By: Stephen Crane
- Narrated by: Richard Rohan
- Length: 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a well-paid war correspondent, Stephen Crane was shipwrecked en route to Cuba in early 1897. He and a small party of passengers spent 30 hours adrift off the coast of Florida, an experience that Crane would later transform into this, his most famous short story, in 1898.
-
-
Worth hearing again
- By HamIAm on 09-15-15
By: Stephen Crane
-
The Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 1
- By: Ambrose Bierce
- Narrated by: Charton Griffin
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Horror and the supernatural are the background of Bierce's short stories. His style is marked by vivid description, grim situations, and sardonic twists of fate. In terms of technique, he was far ahead of his time and his short stories are among the very best in American literature.
-
-
Death is fascinating
- By Stephen on 09-30-05
By: Ambrose Bierce
-
The Yellow Wallpaper
- By: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- Narrated by: Jo Myddleton
- Length: 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Instructed to abandon her intellectual life and avoid stimulating company, she sinks into a still-deeper depression invisible to her husband, who believes he knows what is best for her. Alone in the yellow-wallpapered nursery of a rented house, she descends into madness.
-
-
A Visceral Reaction
- By Em on 05-02-12
-
Young Goodman Brown
- By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Narrated by: B.J. Harrison
- Length: 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How long would you walk, if the Devil sauntered up to you of an evening, and journeyed alongside of you? Young Goodman Brown is led by the Devil to a midnight ritual, where fire, blood, and water change his opinions of the nature of humanity.
-
-
Perfect
- By Andrew H. on 09-21-17
-
To Build a Fire
- By: Jack London
- Narrated by: Peter Husmann
- Length: 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"He travels fastest who travels alone...but not after the frost has dropped below zero 50 degrees or more." (Yukon Code) Jack London’s best short story.
-
-
THE ABSENCE OF SUN
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-05-17
By: Jack London
-
Can Such Things Be?
- By: Ambrose Bierce
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Prepare yourself for the shocking, the strange, and the terrifying in Ambrose Bierce’s 1893 story collection Can Such Things Be? One of the greatest masters of horror brings you 25 tales of the supernatural and the unexplained. Whether in stories of ghosts sending desperate warnings to their human counterparts, psychics attempting to bridge unknown dimensions, howling werewolves, or a robot who takes on a life of his own, Bierce plumbs the depths of fear and fascination.
-
-
Excellent narration of the classics
- By Adeliese Baumann on 10-31-14
By: Ambrose Bierce
-
The Open Boat
- By: Stephen Crane
- Narrated by: Richard Rohan
- Length: 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a well-paid war correspondent, Stephen Crane was shipwrecked en route to Cuba in early 1897. He and a small party of passengers spent 30 hours adrift off the coast of Florida, an experience that Crane would later transform into this, his most famous short story, in 1898.
-
-
Worth hearing again
- By HamIAm on 09-15-15
By: Stephen Crane
-
The Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 1
- By: Ambrose Bierce
- Narrated by: Charton Griffin
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Horror and the supernatural are the background of Bierce's short stories. His style is marked by vivid description, grim situations, and sardonic twists of fate. In terms of technique, he was far ahead of his time and his short stories are among the very best in American literature.
-
-
Death is fascinating
- By Stephen on 09-30-05
By: Ambrose Bierce
-
The Yellow Wallpaper
- By: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- Narrated by: Jo Myddleton
- Length: 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Instructed to abandon her intellectual life and avoid stimulating company, she sinks into a still-deeper depression invisible to her husband, who believes he knows what is best for her. Alone in the yellow-wallpapered nursery of a rented house, she descends into madness.
-
-
A Visceral Reaction
- By Em on 05-02-12
-
Young Goodman Brown
- By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Narrated by: B.J. Harrison
- Length: 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How long would you walk, if the Devil sauntered up to you of an evening, and journeyed alongside of you? Young Goodman Brown is led by the Devil to a midnight ritual, where fire, blood, and water change his opinions of the nature of humanity.
-
-
Perfect
- By Andrew H. on 09-21-17
-
The Devil and Tom Walker
- By: Washington Irving
- Narrated by: John Michaels
- Length: 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Devil and Tom Walker is a classic short story by Washington Irving. When you make a deal with the devil you have to shake his hand. At the time Tom made his deal, it seemed like a good idea, but as Tom aged and death approached, he became very pious and even carried two Bibles with him. But a deal is a deal as Tom would discover.
-
The Most Dangerous Game
- By: Richard Connell
- Narrated by: B.J. Harrison
- Length: 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A mysterious island, shrouded in fear, evil, and darkness. Here the amoral General Zaroff hunts. And what, you ask, is the most dangerous game? It is the manner and substance of his nightly killings.
-
-
A TRUE COSMOPOLITE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 08-02-16
By: Richard Connell
-
Collected Stories of William Faulkner
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer, Susan Denaker, Scott Brick, and others
- Length: 31 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This magisterial collection of short works by Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner reminds listeners of his ability to compress his epic vision into narratives as hard and wounding as bullets. Among the 42 selections in this audiobook are such classics as "A Bear Hunt", "A Rose for Emily", "Two Soldiers", and "The Brooch".
-
-
Audiobook Table of Contents (by Chapter)
- By John McKinney on 09-27-20
By: William Faulkner
-
The Things They Carried
- By: Tim O'Brien
- Narrated by: Bryan Cranston
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hailed by The New York Times as "a marvel of storytelling", The Things They Carried’s portrayal of the boots-on-the-ground experience of soldiers in the Vietnam War is a landmark in war writing. Now, three-time Emmy Award winner-Bryan Cranston, star of the hit TV series Breaking Bad, delivers an electrifying performance that walks the book’s hallucinatory line between reality and fiction and highlights the emotional power of the spoken word.
-
-
Heavy Load
- By Mel on 10-28-13
By: Tim O'Brien
-
The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection
- By: Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrated by: Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone brilliantly interpret twenty of Edgar Allan Poe's most chilling stories and poems - an unforgettably intense listening experience!
-
-
Excellent performance, poor formatting.
- By tom on 10-24-11
By: Edgar Allan Poe
-
The Story of an Hour
- By: Kate Chopin
- Narrated by: Cathy Dobson
- Length: 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kate Chopin's brilliant short story about an hour in the life of a young wife. When news arrives that Louise's husband has been killed in a railroad accident, her family and friends are careful to break it to her gently, knowing that she has a heart condition. Louise locks herself in her room for an hour, during which she realizes that this bereavement is the start of a new life of freedom and independence. But a much greater shock awaits her when she leaves her room and goes downstairs....
-
-
A brilliant little story
- By Areader on 10-05-14
By: Kate Chopin
-
The Scarlet Letter
- By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Narrated by: Kate Petrie
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most important novels in classic literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter tackles the subject of adultery, with the notorious Hester Prynne at the forefront of the scandal in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In the beginning of the novel, Hester is serving time in prison for having a child out of wedlock and is forced to wear a scarlet A on her clothing at all times, so she cannot run from her sin no matter where she goes.
-
-
missing the introductory???
- By Savannah on 05-20-20
-
Desiree's Baby
- Short Stories
- By: Kate Chopin
- Narrated by: Susie Berneis
- Length: 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Désirée’s Baby, the adopted daughter of a wealthy prewar French Creole couple is courted by the son of another wealthy, respected French Creole family. After they marry, their child is born with dark skin and believed to have African ancestry, a problem for a prewar white family. Accused of dishonesty by her husband, the mother, Désirée, and her child walk off into the bayou, never to be seen again. But when the father finds a letter from his mother to his father which reveals an explosive fact about his own ancestry, he learns a sobering truth.
By: Kate Chopin
-
A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
- By: Flannery O'Connor
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The collection that established O’Connor’s reputation as one of the American masters of the short story. The volume contains the celebrated title story, a tale of the murderous fugitive "The Misfit", as well as “The Displaced Person” and eight other stories.
-
-
It contains the following stories:
- By Erica Smith on 11-09-23
-
The Cask of Amontillado
- By: Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrated by: B.J. Harrison
- Length: 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The bloody-minded Montresor leads the pompous Fortunato deep into the catacombs, seeking the famed Amontillado wine. Here we have one of Poe’s most terrifying, and most “beloved” tales. Revenge and pomposity commingle beneath the river’s bed, leading to a delightfully sinister conclusion.
-
-
A classic for a good reason
- By Victoria on 08-06-18
By: Edgar Allan Poe
-
The Crucible
- By: Arthur Miller
- Narrated by: Stacy Keach, Richard Dreyfuss, Ed Begley Jr., and others
- Length: 1 hr and 58 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the rigid theocracy of Salem, Massachusetts, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town. In a searing portrait of a community engulfed by panic—with ruthless prosecutors, and neighbors eager to testify against neighbor—The Crucible famously mirrors the anti-Communist hysteria that held the United States in its grip in the 1950’s.
-
-
Abridged Version
- By Michael G. Stoffel on 05-07-12
By: Arthur Miller
-
A Pair of Silk Stockings
- By: Kate Chopin
- Narrated by: Arielle DeLisle
- Length: 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kate Chopin is a widely considered a forerunner to the feminist authors of the twentieth century. Focusing on themes of race andgender, her short stories largely center on life in rural Louisiana. In "A Pair of Silk Stockings," a young woman unexpected finds herself with fifteen dollars.Inspired by her newfound wealth, she ignores her natural impulses and indulgesin a day of luxurious abandon. A wistful rumination on loss and the illusion ofcontrol, "A Pair of Silk Stockings" is Chopin at her absolute best.
By: Kate Chopin
What listeners say about An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- laura
- 05-23-20
I learned of this tale on the History Channel
The story of the author is equally as good.
Very interesting for it's time. Forward thinking
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ben scotti
- 01-17-20
Interesting and Clever
A good and simple story with a very clever and surprising twist. Made for a great episode in the original Twilight Zone series.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Shane
- 08-06-20
This has stuck with me since highschool.
First off, the narrator did a great job. It kinda sounded like Death, himself, was narrating. His voice is deep, but not real deep, smooth but also has just a hint of rasp(?). Very good job.
Secondly, this story has stuck with me since I originally read it in highschool (that's about 15 years now).(A bit of a SPOILER! warning) I'm sure (although, not really) that Boardwalk Empire took this story as inspiration when it came to the end of Richard Harrow's story. That ending got me again, man. I only wish it were longer.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cheryl Racine
- 02-27-18
Great story, poor narration!
Is there anything you would change about this book?
Narrator sounded like a robot! I had to stop, I would like a refund...there must be another reader available to tell this emotional story.
What was one of the most memorable moments of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge?
Turning off the narrator which sounded like a computer generated voice! Horrible.
What didn’t you like about John Michaels’s performance?
Everything.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!