His regiment has yet to be tested in the fire of battle. Together the soldiers wait while distant guns rumble and the lights of enemy campfires flicker on the hills beyond a darkened river. The young man recalls his childhood dreams of valiant combat. Will he pass the test and return home to tell others of his triumphs on the battlefield? Or will he flee at the first sign of real danger? And what of his fellow soldiers, whose lives are caught up with his once the fighting begins? Will they examine the young man for any sign of real courage - or will he slink away in shame?

The collected short work of an American master, including The Red Badge of Courage and Maggie: A Girl of the Streets.

Stephen Crane died at the age of 28 in Germany. In his short life, he produced stories that are among the most enduring in the history of American ficiton. The Red Badge of Courage manages to capture both the realistic grit and the grand hallucinations of soldiers at war. Maggie: A Girl on the Streets reflects the range of Crane's ability to invest the most tragic and ordinary lives with great insight.

James Colvert writes in the introduction to this volume: "Here we find once again the major elements of Crane's art: the egotism of the hero, the indifference of nature, the irony of the narrator ... Crane is concerned with the moral responsibility of the individual ... (and) moral capability depends upon the ability to see through the illusions wrought by pride and conceit--the ability to see ourselves clearly and truly."

Great Short Works of Stephen Crane Includes: The Red Badge of Courage; Maggie: A Girl of the Streets; The Monster. Stories: An Experiment in Misery; A Mystery of Heroism; An Episode of War; The Upturned Face; The Open Boat; The Pace of Youth; The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky; The Blue Hotel.

ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED

BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP

The story of a young soldier's quest for manhood during the American Civil War.

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Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893) is a novel by American writer Stephen Crane. Self-published by Crane when the author was only 22 years old, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets has since been recognized as the first work of American literary Naturalism. Inspired by his experience as a working reporter in Manhattan, Crane sought to explore the effects of poverty, alcoholism, and abuse on a character whose determination and moral goodness are entirely ill-suited for survival. The story begins with Jimmie Johnson, a young boy whose family lives in squalor in Manhattan's Bowery neighborhood. When he tries to fight a gang of older boys, Jimmie is saved by his best friend Pete, only to go home to parents who-in a drunken rage-frighten and abuse their three young children. The deaths of their father and young brother Tommie place an enormous burden Jimmie, who works as a teamster to support himself and his alcoholic mother. Although Maggie finds work as a seamstress and begins a promising relationship with Jimmie's childhood friend Pete, her life is derailed by her family's resentment and by the hypocrisy of her community. Forced onto the streets, Maggie Johnson must do whatever she can to survive. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is a gritty novel that takes a hard look at the lowest and darkest parts of American society in the age of industry. What it finds is a loss of morality and a need for not only assistance and education, but a complete reassessment of what it means to be human. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Red Badge of Courage (1895) is a vivid psychological account of a young man's experience of fighting in the American Civil War, based on Crane's reading of popular descriptions of battle. The intensity of its narrative and its naturalistic power earned Crane instant success, and led to his spending most of his brief remaining life war reporting. The other stories collected in this volume draw on this experience; `The Open Boat' (1898) was inspired by his fifty hour struggle with waves after his ship was sunk during an expedition to Cuba; `The Monster' (1899) is a bitterly ironic commentary on the ostracization of a doctor for harbouring the servant who was disfigured and lost his sanity rescuing his son. As a rare example of Crane working in a vein of American Gothic, it is particularly striking for its treatment of race and social injustice. `The Blue Hotel' traces the events that lead to a murder at a bar in a small Nebraska town. This edition is the most generously annotated edition of Crane's work, exploring it from a fresh critical perspective and focusing on his place as an experimental writer, his modernist legacy and his social as well as literary revisionism. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'He felt that in this crisis his laws of life were useless. Whatever he had learned of himself was here of no avail. He was an unknown quantity.' Following one soldier's journey from naive recruit to hardened survivor, The Red Badge of Courage is a vivid and powerfully psychological take on the American Civil War. Fighting for the Union army, Henry Fleming is thrown into a bloody war where the harsh realities and horrors of battle quickly become evident. Fearful, occasionally vain, but always viewing the war with honest eyes, Henry eventually comes to thrive as a soldier in combat, and it is with a a new conscience and outlook that he matures into manhood.

Henry Fleming, a private in the Union Army, runs away from the field of war. Afterwards, the shame he feels at this act of cowardice ignites his desire to receive an injury in combat-a "red badge of courage" that will redeem him. Stephen Crane's novel about a young soldier's experiences during the American Civil War is well known for its understated naturalism and its realistic depiction of battle.

The Monster and Other Stories (1899) is a collection of short fiction by American writer Stephen Crane. "The Monster," a novella, was originally published in 1898 in Harper's Magazine and has since been recognized as one of Crane's most important works, a story which critiques the racism prevalent in American society. In 1899, it was published alongside "The Blue Hotel" and "His New Mittens" in The Monster and Other Stories, which was the last work by Crane to be published during his lifetime. In "The Monster," set in the fictional town of Whilomville, an African American coachmen employed by the wealthy Trescott family is horribly disfigured while attempting to save their young son Jimmie from a house fire. Despite his gruesome injuries, Henry Johnson survives, and Dr. Trescott gratefully nurses him back to health and offers him a place to stay on the family property. Meanwhile, the white townspeople, who view Johnson as a monster, vilify the Trescotts for transgressing the unspoken rules of racial segregation. As Johnson attempts to return to some sense of normalcy, he is rejected both by the African American and white communities, and retreats into a lonely, quiet life. "The Blue Hotel" is a story of violence, fate, and hatred, of a place where loneliness reigns among strangers, and where fear is a troublesome friend. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Stephen Crane's The Monster and Other Stories is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.

Henry Fleming, a raw Union Army recruit in the American Civil War, is anxious to confirm his patriotism and manhood?to earn his ?badge of courage.? But his dreams of heroism and invulnerability are soon shattered when he flees the Confederate enemy during his baptism of fire and then witnesses the horrible death of a friend. Plunged unwillingly into the nightmare of war, Fleming survives by sheer luck and instinct. This edition of Stephen Crane's poignant classic is supplemented by five of his acclaimed short stories as well as selected poetry, offering the full range of this great American author's extraordinary talent.

With two parts and seventeen stories, Stephen Crane's The Open Boat and Other Stories is an eclectic collection that stuns with its use of naturalism and angst. In the first part, titled Minor Conflicts, Crane shares eight works of short fiction. Among these is The Bride Comes to the Yellow Sky, a tense drama that explores themes of change with the portrayal of a Texas marshal who is saved from gunfight by his bride. Death and the Child follows a journalist who, after becoming sympathetic to the Greeks as he acts as a correspondent for the war, decides to join them in their fight. Also featured in part one of The Open Boat and Other Stories is the title work. The Open Boat follows the emotional journey of four men who have survived a shipwreck as they wrestle with the realization that nature is apathetic to their fate. Titled Midnight Sketches, the second part of The Open Boat and Other Stories pays special attention to the class struggles of American Society. An Experiment in Misery features the wrenching story of a young man who wanders the streets of New York, enduring taunts and cruelty as he searches for affordable food and living accommodations. Similarly, An Ominous Baby is a brief, symbolic tale of socioeconomics as it follows a young child exploring a rich neighborhood, becoming fixated on a rich kid's toy. With themes of romance and coming-of-age, The Pace of Youth depicts a young couple who, despite the disapproval of the girl's father, decides to indulge in their love and elope. With dramatic and wrenching prose, Stephen Crane's The Open Boat and Other Stories examines universal topics and themes that are still relevant to contemporary society. While depicting a vivid variety of settings, including both exotic and American landscapes, and with the depiction of complex protagonists ranging from innocent children, to journalist-turned soldiers, The Open Boat and Other Stories celebrates and features some of Stephen Crane's best work. Now presented in an easy-to-read font and redesigned with an eye-catching cover, this edition of The Open Boat and Other Stories by Stephen Crane is catered to a modern audience.

With two parts and seventeen stories, Stephen Crane's The Open Boat and Other Stories is an eclectic collection that stuns with its use of naturalism and angst. In the first part, titled Minor Conflicts, Crane shares eight works of short fiction. Among these is The Bride Comes to the Yellow Sky, a tense drama that explores themes of change with the portrayal of a Texas marshal who is saved from gunfight by his bride. Death and the Child follows a journalist who, after becoming sympathetic to the Greeks as he acts as a correspondent for the war, decides to join them in their fight. Also featured in part one of The Open Boat and Other Stories is the title work. The Open Boat follows the emotional journey of four men who have survived a shipwreck as they wrestle with the realization that nature is apathetic to their fate. Titled Midnight Sketches, the second part of The Open Boat and Other Stories pays special attention to the class struggles of American Society. An Experiment in Misery features the wrenching story of a young man who wanders the streets of New York, enduring taunts and cruelty as he searches for affordable food and living accommodations. Similarly, An Ominous Baby is a brief, symbolic tale of socioeconomics as it follows a young child exploring a rich neighborhood, becoming fixated on a rich kid's toy. With themes of romance and coming-of-age, The Pace of Youth depicts a young couple who, despite the disapproval of the girl's father, decides to indulge in their love and elope. With dramatic and wrenching prose, Stephen Crane's The Open Boat and Other Stories examines universal topics and themes that are still relevant to contemporary society. While depicting a vivid variety of settings, including both exotic and American landscapes, and with the depiction of complex protagonists ranging from innocent children, to journalist-turned soldiers, The Open Boat and Other Stories celebrates and features some of Stephen Crane's best work. Now presented in an easy-to-read font and redesigned with an eye-catching cover, this edition of The Open Boat and Other Stories by Stephen Crane is catered to a modern audience.

This unflinching portrayal of the squalor and brutality of New York life produced a scandal when it was published in 1893. Crane's novel tells the story of Maggie Johnson a young woman who, seduced by her brother's friend and then disowned by her family, turns to prostitution. More than the tale of a young woman's tragic fall, this is a powerful exploration of the destructive forces underlying urban society and human nature.

Also included here is 'George's Mother', along with eleven other tales and sketches of New York written between 1892 and 1896.

First published in 1895, America's greatest novel  of the Civil War was written before 21-year-old  Stephen Crane had "smelled even the powder of a  sham battle." But this powerful psychological  study of a young soldier's struggle with the  horrors, both within and without, that war strikes the  reader with its undeniable realism and with its  masterful descriptions of the moment-by-moment riot  of emotions felt by me under fire. Ernest  Hemingway called the novel an American classic, and  Crane's genius is as much apparent in his sharp,  colorful prose as in his ironic portrayal of an episode  of war so intense, so immediate, so real that the  terror of battle becomes our own ... in a  masterpiece so unique that many believe modern American  fiction began with Stephen Crane.