The Bride Comes To Yellow Sky And The Open Boat

by Stephen Crane

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, American

72 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 1897

About the author

Stephen Crane (1871-1900) was an American novelist, poet and journalist, best known for the novel, The Red Badge of Courage. That work introduced the reading world to Crane's striking prose, a mix of impressionism, naturalism and symbolism. He died at age 28 in Badenweiler, Baden, Germany.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[George Ilsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen Crane came up in conversation the other day — did you know he died age 28?

The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky
Crane's short story "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" was at my fingertips so I thought I'd give it a try (I confess never being able to read The Red Badge of Courage which used to be, perhaps still is, foisted upon schoolchildren).

What an expected delight "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" turns out to be! Layers of sly humour and social observations; everyone judging one another as a newly married couple, not young, travels across Texas by deluxe train from their wedding in San Antonio to the groom's home in Yellow Sky. Only when the groom thinks of what is waiting for him, the reaction of friends who will find his wedding to be a surprise, are we given the groom's name, Potter. The bride is never named.

Set the mythical American west, a land of shootouts and mostly men, the story is populated by characters and omniscient details not often present in such frontier tales. The first sentence of the third act starts like this:

A man in a maroon-coloured flannel shirt, which had been purchased for purposes of decoration, and made principally by some Jewish women on the East Side of New York, rounded a corner and ...

The Open Boat
Just listened to an audio version of "The Open Boat" so I don't really feel that I've read this work. My ability to absorb information through listening is limited, especially if not taking notes. When reading, I like to pause and reread and dwell on passages that are particularly fine (or puzzling). Still, some of the power of this story penetrated through my tendency to daydream and managed to hold my fickle wandering attention. The ending especially is gripping.

Crane himself was on his way to Cuba when his ship sank and he spent 30 hours in a small, open boat with three others. The "correspondent" in this story is heavily autobiographical, and in this story, the correspondent (Crane's stand-in) says it was the finest moment of his life—meaning, the most heavily charged, the point where fate and destiny spin in the air like a flipped coin, and the vibrant matter of life or death is at hand.

Now that I've encountered both of these stories, I'm bumping up to 5 stars. Poor old Stephen Crane. Died too young.

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to read The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky for one of my current classes. The other story, The Open Boat, was read earlier this year, for a different class, which you can find my very short and to the point review of it here.

To be frank, I felt the same about The Bride as I did with The Open Boat. A shame, really, as I hoped the former would be on the same level as The Blue Hotel.

[Farnaz Farid · Rating 3 out of 5]

یه داستان خیلی کوتاه
موضوعش خیلی معمولی بود و روزمره
اما خوندنش خالی از لطف نیست

الیته به علت کوتاه بودنش شخصیت پردازی خاصی نداشت .

ترجمه: متوسط
امتیازم ۲/۵



۴۲

[Capsguy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It really is such a pity that Crane was never given the opportunity to develop and mature his writing. These are two stories worth checking out.

[Scott Whitney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have come to love the story of "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" for its subtle humor and the characterization which keeps the story moving. There are many characters developed more than they needed to be for the story, but the story has become richer for the roundness of the characters we find in it. I can visualize the characters.

the "Open Boat" is a new story to me and I enjoyed reading the text coming from a mind which is on the edge of losing touch with reality and seeing how the character's thoughts deteriorate during the course of the story.

[Mloy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story was pretty simple and characters were nothing spectacular, but the conclusion was pretty awesome!
***SPOILER ALERT*** In a way, Wilson was just a child.... a fairly dangerous one but he acted like a kid in the end. It was like when he found out Potter was married, all of a sudden Potter was an adult and Wilson couldn't play cowboys with him anymore. What a surprisingly odd, but gratifying turn of events.

[Lyric · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Bride Comes To Yellow Sky" is a great little story that I read for a university class. It is interesting how differently men behave when a woman is present. This story suggests that women represent culture and "civil" society.

[Latie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Corny yet mildly amusing.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love me some late nineteenth century Naturalism. Two of my favorite short stories right here. It's such a shame that Crane died at 28.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

American Literature II is a class that I am currently taking. During this class we are required to read novels, poems, and short stories that we might not have ever read otherwise. Some are good and some are bad; however, all are legendary and useful for the overall growth of literature everywhere.

[Ixcia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uhhhh…. I can’t remember anything, i believe it just talks about the marriage of the town sheriff, and how he kept the wedding hidden..(don’t trust me on this) 1 star for me trying to remember what it’s about

[Laura Martínez · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-written Western classic where basically nothing happens.

[Morgan Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I greatly enjoyed this story. As a nurse it reminds me of dealing with some of my frequent patients and I chuckle everytime!