Rating: 
Summary: Necesary for any collection
Review: Enormously entertaining and witty. This work is quite skeptical yet realistic and any one with even the smallest collection of books should dare not exclude this. Bierce states the obvious in the most crude terms, providing cause for both laughter and deep thought. For the price of this book, it is definately a steal. Please do not skip!
Rating:
Summary: Essential reading
Review: for any budding humorist or slayer of sacred cows. Bierce punctures pretensions, lampoons customs, and gleefully laughs heartily at the human race and late 19th/early 20th century culture in general. Clever and sublime definitions of everything from birth and youth, to dining, drinking, divorce and death. Occasionally you won't get one or two of the references to the time period this was written, but use the context and try to catch the punchlines of a man who should be more celebrated as an American treasure ranking with Twain.
Rating:
Summary: The funniest, most overlooked writer of the 19th century
Review: For those who enjoy dark, cynical humor - I'm talking about painfully, exquisitely brutal wit, the kind where innocent bystanders can get hit by the shrapnel, this is probably the best book you've never heard of. His use of English as both an artistic medium and a weapon is almost unrivaled, though British greats John Cleese and Douglas Adams often evoke some of his elegance and economy of wording. His writing style often may seem dated to modern readers, and sometimes the references completely pass us by, but the majority of the book is both timeless and of the choicest quality."Magpie - a bird whose thievish disposition suggested to someone that it might be taught to talk."
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious, Intelligent, Something to Share
Review: I first acquired this book about five years ago, after reading Bierce's fictional works. I could not put it down. You don't read this book sequentially, but rather it is a book to leaf through, stopping where you find a word that interests you. With the format of a dictionary, Bierce sets up the look and feel of the official word, which is what we expect from a dictionary. Then, reading the definitions, you at first think, "Bierce is being a wise guy." But after a few more definitions, you realize that Bierce is actually delivering a concise treatise on Western Culture by giving you a shot-by-shot commentary, using as his basis the essential element of any society -- its language. Birece may not have realized it when he wrote the book, but The Devil's Dictionary aligns with some 21st-century literary experimentations with concise presentation, irony, and non-linear exploration. Even reading it non-linearly, however, you soon find you've read every entry in the book. Then, of course, you'll want to start again... My favorites are the definitions pertaining to religion.
Rating:
Summary: This book was great (I should get more creative)
Review: I thought this book was great. Bierce certainly doesn't lie! He told it like it is and made it humorous in the process. What more could you ask for?
Rating:
Summary: Awesomeness
Review: I've read little excerpts of this book in various places through the years, and I always got a good laugh out of it. I finally broke down and bought a copy, and it's become one of my favorite books ever. Ambrose Bierce had an uncanny way of seeing the truth and spitting it out quite venomously. I'd also recommend his short stories. He was just one of a kind. Like someone else noted, he was the only writer of his time to actually fight in the Civil War - and it showed! I'm just glad his wisdom was preserved. It's really too bad he never wrote any novels . . . though I doubt if the world could take it . . .
Rating:
Summary: An all-time classic
Review: It's the funniest book ever written. It's a buck. What are you waiting for?
Rating: 
Summary: Evil Fun at all our Expenses
Review: Picked up a copy of The Devil's Dictionary as a jaded all-black wearing angst-ridden teenager and I never snickered so much with any other book in my life. Bierce has a sharp wit and a cynic's eye and he uses both well in this anything but ordinary dictionary. Not all of the definitions are funny, but the majority of them really take no prisoners and it is very good at pointing out the little things we all still see in this modern day and age -- those little things we think to ourselves but dare not say outloud. The only problem with it is that, true to its time, there are some racist and mysogynistic overtones to some of the definitions [the only reason it didn't get a full five]. But if you can see around these as simple dating of the text to the acerbic, razor sharp wit that permiates the pages of this book you're sure to get a good snicker or two out of it yourself. My personal favourite? The definition for "Saint" [def: "A dead sinner revised and edited"]. Maybe I'm just a cynic myself, but this book always gives me a giggle when I'm in a black mood.
Rating:
Summary: Evil Fun at all our Expenses
Review: Picked up a copy of The Devil's Dictionary as a jaded all-black wearing angst-ridden teenager and I never snickered so much with any other book in my life. Bierce has a sharp wit and a cynic's eye and he uses both well in this anything but ordinary dictionary. Not all of the definitions are funny, but the majority of them really take no prisoners and it is very good at pointing out the little things we all still see in this modern day and age -- those little things we think to ourselves but dare not say outloud. The only problem with it is that, true to its time, there are some racist and mysogynistic overtones to some of the definitions [the only reason it didn't get a full five]. But if you can see around these as simple dating of the text to the acerbic, razor sharp wit that permiates the pages of this book you're sure to get a good snicker or two out of it yourself. My personal favourite? The definition for "Saint" [def: "A dead sinner revised and edited"]. Maybe I'm just a cynic myself, but this book always gives me a giggle when I'm in a black mood.
Rating: 
Summary: Avoid This Incomplete Edition
Review: The Bloomsbury edition illustrated by Ralph Steadman is ABRIDGED. Do not purchase unless you are buying it for the drawings.
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