THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE

Author: STEPHEN CRANE
Publisher: PENGUIN
Publication Date: 1994-12-01
Features: Two days of fighting on a woodland battlefield are focused through the excited senses of a raw Union recruit, Henry Fleming. Dreaming of heroism, but shamefully discovering his own mortal fear of danger and death—and of fear itself—he flees from his first encounter with Confederate troops. But when he is drawn back into the battle, he wins by accident his 'red badge,' the wound that signifies initiation into manhood and possession of courage to join the world of men. The Red Badge of Courage conveys with intense immediacy the sensations, colours, fever, and chaos of battle. It concentrates on the experience of an individual soldier, and it is one of the few novels written before the century that meets our modern sense of the realities of mass warfare.
Author Bio: STEPHEN CRANE (1871-1900). Novelist, short-story writer, and poet, Stephen Crane is now best remembered for his brilliant and disturbing account of one man's initiation into the horror of war. Born in New Jersey in 1871, Stephen Crane was the youngest of fourteen children of a Methodist bishop. He spent most of his youth in upstate New York but at an early age turned away from his devout roots in favor of baseball, pool, and poker. Educated first at Claverack College, he went on to complete one year at Lafayette College and then another at Syracuse University. While at Syracuse, he is thought to have started work on his first book, Maggie, A Girl of the Streets. The Red Badge of Courage is one of the greatest novels ever written about war and its psychological effects. The fact that Crane had never experienced a battle before writing the book makes it an amazing feat of imagination. Readers may also find the following books of interest: Maurice Bassan (ed.), Stephen Crane: A Collection of Critical Essays (1967); Christopher Benfey, The Double Life of Stephen Crane (1992); John Berryman, Stephen Crane (1950); Edwin Cady, Stephen Crane (1953); R. W. Stallman, Stephen Crane: A Biography (1973); and R. M. Weatherford, Stephen Crane: The Critical Heritage (1973).