Product Description

This Signet Classic edition, published complete from the original manuscripts, includes The Open Boat, The Blue Hotel, The Upturned Face, and The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #213329 in Books
• Published on: 1997-02-01
• Released on: 2004-03-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

Classic novel of the Civil War
Stephen Crane's classic novel, "The Red Badge of Courage" is as much about what goes on in the mind of a young soldier as it is about the military action taking place. Henry Fleming goes off to fight, having overblown illusions of a spectacular, mythical epic rather than of the reality of a horrible, brutal war. What he had hoped would be a grand, romantic sendoff by his mother fell short of his expectations. When he gets involved in his first battle, Chancellorsville (which historically was a crushing defeat for the north) he has fears that he might get scared and run. These fears are realized and the novel deals with his efforts to hide his act of cowardice from the rest of his regiment and, to redeem himself. He is a afraid of every question asked of him and distrusts the meaning of statements that are made since he knows what he did and is concerned that his fellows do too. For example, when he talks about the earlier events of the battle, a fellow soldier replies that he is talking as if he fought it by himself. It was an offhanded comment but, to Henry, it took on great significance as he wondered what the soldier meant. Did he in fact know that Henry cut and ran and was, in fact making a pointed statement? Ultimately, the question is whether Henry can become a hero and achieve redemption.

Crane was a very young man when he wrote this novel but, he had mature insights into what makes the human psyche tick. Also, he had a good undrstanding of the battle at Chancellorsville and what went on at the minds of soldiers in the battle. For example, Fleming's regiment was holding off a frontal attack by Lee's troops not realizing that this frontal attack was only a feint. In fact, the real battle was, perhaps, a mile away as troops led by Stonewall Jackson was rolling up General Otis's troops on the left flank. Those in the middle, at times, thought that they were winning the battle because they were focused on what was happening where they were. In a historical perspective, we knew of the disasterous results which were unfolding but, the soldiers in the novel (at a time when there was no communications equipment) saw things on the micro level.

Thye Red Badge of Courage is an American classic and, although I have an interest in the Civil War, I recommend this for all readers who appreciate great literature.

The Psychology of a Young Soldier
The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane was a journalist and covered wars in Mexico, Cuba, and Greece. His life was cut short by tuberculosis, the major killer from the mid 19th to the mid 20th centuries (caused by poverty and poor diets). This is his most famous novel. It tells of the thoughts and actions of Henry Fleming, who leaves his widowed mother to enlist in the war. Crane does not mention the economics of enlisting in the Volunteers. The story is generic so it could apply to many battles, and describes the events to the reader. Tales of battle are found in literature from the Iliad to the Song of Roland, but have been displaced in modern times by detective and spy novels, and their analog on television and films.

This novel is impressionistic, it does not go into details much. A writer is less likely to be caught in errors that way. Some say Crane based this book on the stories he heard as a boy, or maybe from the many newspapers and books he read after the war. Young Henry wonders if he will skedaddle in combat. His fear comes true; but his regiment was scattered after the attack and then regathered. Henry got hit on the head, a bleeding wound (the red badge of courage), but rejoined his unit and continues to fight in the next battle. The moral is that failure can be redeemed in the future.

The timing of the publication may have helped to make it popular. Many of the veterans of the Civil War were beginning to die out, and a novel about a 30-year old war would have interested readers. 1893 saw the worst depression in American history (until the Great Depression). The story of a man who falters then succeeds afterwards would provide symbolic comfort for the many suffering from the economic setback. I wonder if Henry's accidental wound was due to Crane's cynicism? In that era more soldiers died from sickness and disease than from combat. In today's world, farming is still the most dangerous occupation.