The Red Badge of Courage & Other Stories

by Stephen Crane

This edition also includes the short stories The Veteran and The Open Book.

The Red Badge of Courage is one of the greatest war novels of all time. It reports on the American Civil War through the eyes of Henry Fleming, an ordinary farm boy turned soldier. It evokes the chaos and the dull clatter of war: the acrid smoke, the incessant rumours of coming battles, the filth and cold, the numbing monotony, the unworldly wailing of the dying.
Like an impressionist painter, Crane also captures the strange beauty of war: the brilliant red flags against a blue sky, steel bayonets flashing in the morning sun as soldiers step off into battle. In the midst of this chaotic outer world, he creates an intricate inner world as he takes us inside the head of Henry Fleming.

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

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1895

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

[Emi Yoshida]

So the red badge of courage means a bleeding wound or a scar if you're lucky enough to survive. Seen through the eyes of Henry Fleming, a teenaged soldier in the Union Army, war is traumatic, filthy, inhuman. I won't be sharing or recommending this to my kids; I think Watership Down has better lessons about warfare.

Despite all the yearning for admiration from girls at school, and a woman's touch or heart or nurturing skills on the battlefield, there is this:

A dog, a woman, an' a walnut tree,
Th' more yeh beat 'em, th' better they be

Reading this (and also Ernest Hemingway's short story Soldier's Home about a WWI vet who overhears battle lies and then tells them himself, despite the way it makes him feel bad) really gives good perspective to early vets' keeping quiet about their wartime experiences and feelings. I just wish this kind of realistic horror had served to curtail further combat.

[Malcolm Meli]

This is a 3.5 for me - it's a very interesting read, portraying the reality, pell-mell of war. The Red Badge of Courage means being wounded in combat, which is a physical proof of your bravery, hence the name. The story follows a farm boy called Henry, though often referred to the story as 'the youth' - could be intentional so that young readers might place themselves in the protagonist's shoes - who eagerly signs up for war. However, we see a change during the first battle that he encounters, because suddenly he wants to go back to his home, away from the falling inferno and all that chaos. Thus, he goes for safety, and he tries to convince himself that his retreat was tactical and not at all shameful. However, the shame returns when the youth sees others wearing the Red Badge of Courage.

I will not go on about the story, yet to sum it up, it's a short read with a lot of thinking from the narrator.

The other two stories in this book were i) THE VETERAN, and ii) THE OPEN BOAT

I'll be honest, I cared little for THE OPEN BOAT, though the writing was good, I just felt it was off-topic to what I was reading and anti-climactic. It entails about a stranded rowing boat - and it's 20 pages of that, but it gets VERY VERY deep.

On the other hand, THE VETERAN was an interesting short few page story about an old Henry, who if you recall is the youth from The Red Badge of Courage, who sort of shares his story with the locals of his town. We get to see that Henry fights a couple more battles, though when a fire breaks out suddenly nearby, Old Henry's face sort of relapses - and the reader sees the fear in the eyes, that the horrors of war, no matter how buried deep, never truly leave a soldier.

[Swampgoblin]

Interestingly sparse writing style for the time period that made it very easy to read. A little... simplistic, if I'm honest, but good enough.

[Noah Patrick Ott]

The Red Badge of Courage & Other Stories has got to be one of the greatest war novels in American history and the best war novel that I have so far read. While most war novels and historical fiction novels have done a fantastic job of describing war and fighting and bloodshed, this masterpiece and its talented writer fulfilled the task of describing the thoughts and emotions brought on by the war and the fighting and the bloodshed through the eyes of a low-ranking soldier in one of the bloodiest wars in American history.

I also admire the acts of courage and patriotism described in this novel as it reminded me of what it truly means to fight for your country and to fight for what you know is right. The character of Henry Fleming not only represents the average American who voluntarily fights in a war, but also the average American who fights for his country regardless of what will become of them by the end of the battle. He reminds us that the real battle we face in our lives is the battle for strength and courage in the eyes of death and defeat.

"The Veteran" and "The Open Boat" were also fantastic pieces of Crane literature and I was glad to not only experience more of Stephen Crane's work, but also more of his bright talent.

That being said, I urge you all to try reading these three amazing pieces of early American literature, especially the first one. It will not be a regrettable decision.

[Jessica]

This is my ISBN number, but my cover is different. I couldn't find my cover.

I tried reading this one on my own several years ago and couldn't get past the first chapter. It was hard to read this time also, but I did make it halfway through. The Civil War is normally a very interesting topic for me, but the way this was written made it hard for me to get into.

I read that Crane was the first to write about a war from the everyday soldier's perspective. As in, soldiers march a lot and lead a boring existence occasionally interrupted by glorious fighting. We watch Henry march a lot, and complain a lot about the generals who don't seem to know anything. We actually spend a lot of time in Henry's head, reading about his fear of running away when the actual fighting starts. I'm sure many soldiers have had this issue before, and I would be scared too if I was in a war, but after awhile it starts getting annoying to read the same thing over and over. Sometimes it's really interesting to be inside a character's head and get his/her read on everything and sometimes (Saturday) it's just too much.

Crane writes in a detached way, at least in my opinion, so I didn't feel super connected to Henry. Also confusing was the fact that we don't find out Henry's name for awhile, and we are supposed to get that he is called "the youth" before we learn his name. Interesting side note: my book has 2 other Crane stories in it, one of which, "The Veteran", is about Henry as an old man. Maybe because it was really short, or better told, but I actually liked the short story more than the novel.

[Kathryn]

This is fantastic. Surprised I even understood what was going on in a war story, let alone actually appreciate it. This also has magnificent poetry. Imagery, man. Not just for sonnets. :P

Recommended by Yours Truly. <3

[Stewart Cotterill]

A beautifully written book which puts the reader right in the middle of the American Civil War. The gunsmoke is almost in your nostrils and the fear of battle is palpable.

Very enjoyable.

[Chiefdonkey Bradey]

Jim-dandy swallowed whole by a ravening beast