The Red Badge of Courage
Paperback – Unabridged, July 1, 1990
Dover Publications · Paperback · July 1, 1990
First published in 1895, this small masterpiece set the pattern for the treatment of war in modern fiction.
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- Who it’s for
- A compact classic with cultural cachet and enough texture to keep the pages turning.
- Genres
- Civil War Era Historical Fiction, War Fiction, The Classics
- Published
- Dover Publications, July 1, 1990
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Start with this bookAbout this book
First published in 1895, this small masterpiece set the pattern for the treatment of war in modern fiction. The novel is told through the eyes of Henry Fleming, a young soldier caught up in an unnamed Civil War battle who is motivated not by the unselfish heroism of conventional war stories, but by fear, cowardice, and finally, egotism.
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However, in his struggle to find reality amid the nightmarish chaos of war, the young soldier also discovers courage, humility, and perhaps, wisdom. Although Crane had never been in battle before writing The Red Badge of Courage, the book was widely praised by experienced soldiers for its uncanny re-creation of the sights, sounds, and sense of actual combat. Its publication brought Crane immediate international fame and established him as a major American writer. Today, nearly a century later, the book ranks as an enduring landmark of American fiction.
Classic Texture
A compact classic with cultural cachet and enough texture to keep the pages turning.
Come here for
- cultural touchstone status
- layered, sustained reading
Expect
- unabridged paperback edition
- a familiar classic in steady, immersive form
Where it sits
| The Classics | 80% |
|---|---|
| Civil War Era Historical Fiction | 77% |
| War Fiction | 76% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- The Classics
- War Fiction
- 19th-Century American Fiction
- Civil War Era
- Authors
- Stephen Crane, Stanley Appelbaum
- Publisher
- Dover Publications
- Published
- July 1, 1990
- Format
- Paperback
- Reading lane
- The Classics