Stephen Crane

Bored with farm life and anxious for excitement, Henry Fleming joins the Union troops fighting the Civil War to prove his patriotism and courage; but when suddenly thrust into the slaughter, he is overcome with blind fear and runs from battle. In an effort to redeem himself, he later begins to fight and, in the heat of battle, seizes the regiment's colors in a daring charge that proves him truly courageous.

Originally published pseudonymously in 1893, "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets" follows the tragic tale of Maggie and her life in the harsh streets and tenements of the New York City Bowery district. Initially rejected by publishers for being viewed as too brutal and accurate in its descriptions of poverty and female sexuality, Stephen Crane published the work at his own expense. Following the success of Crane's novel "The Red Badge of Courage," this...

How far would a father go to keep his daughter from marrying the wrong man? Rufus Coleman, the respected editor of the New York Eclipse, plans to marry Marjory Wainwright. Yet to her father, Professor Wainwright, Rufus is still the wastrel that he thought him to be as a student in college. To thwart the marriage the professor drags Marjory off with him and a group of students on a summer tour of Greece. Suddenly war erupts between Turkey and Greece!...

Hailed as one of American literature's most influential works, The Red Badge of Courage has a young recruit facing the trials and cruelties of war. Stephen Crane's 1895 novel is set in the American Civil War. Private Henry Fleming flees from battle and his battalion, considering all lost. Stumbling upon injured soldiers, he feels the shame of deserting and of not possessing the "red badge of courage", the wounds of war. But later when Henry

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Excerpt: "A Tale intended to be after the fact. Being the experience of four men from the sunk steamer "Commodore". None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them. These waves were of the hue of slate, save for the tops, which were of foaming white, and all of the men knew the colors of the sea. The horizon narrowed and widened, and dipped and rose, and at all times its edge...

Stephen Crane's "War Is Kind" is an anti-war poem. Using heavy irony, the poem pretends to praise war's virtues while actually showing war's horrors—including the death of a soldier, the sorrow of his loved ones, and the bloody battlefield on which he died.

Story of three men, the Swede, the Cowboy, and the Easterner, who stay at the blue Palace Hotel in rural Nebraska, with tragic results.

Though best known for The Red Badge of Courage, his classic novel of men at war, in his tragically brief life and career Stephen Crane produced a wealth of stories-among them "The Monster," "The Upturned Face," "The Open Boat," and the title story-that stand among the most acclaimed and enduring in the history of American fiction. This superb volume collects stories of unique power and variety in which impressionistic, hallucinatory, and realistic...

The engine bellowed its way up the slanting, winding valley. Grey crags, and trees with roots fastened cleverly to the steeps looked down at the struggles of the black monster. When the train finally released its passengers they burst forth with the enthusiasm of escaping convicts. A great bustle ensued on the platform of the little mountain station. The idlers and philosophers from the village were present to examine the consignment of people from...

Three visitors find shelter from a blizzard at Pat Scully's hotel: a nervous New Yorker known as the Swede, a rambunctious Westerner named Bill, and a reserved Easterner called Mr. Blanc. The Swede becomes increasingly drunk, defensive, and reckless. He is later murdered at the bar.