Stephen Crane

~The Red Badge of Courage," written in 1895 by Stephen Crane (1871-1900), is considered by many literary critics to be one of the greatest of all American novels. This is a book about the Civil War, and one Union soldier's struggle with his inner demons as he prepares for, and fights his first battle.

"Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Other Writings about New York," by Stephen Crane, is part of the "Barnes & Noble Classics"" "series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of "Barnes & Noble Classics" All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. "Barnes & Noble Classics "pulls together a constellation of influences--biographical, historical, and literary--to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. Written before but published after "The Red Badge of Courage," Stephen Crane's "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets" offers a stark image of the underbelly of urban American life at the end of the nineteenth century. Maggie Johnson, a lovely innocent too slight to carry the weight of poverty, dreams of escaping New York's Bowery and the casual cruelty of her alcoholic family. After her younger brother dies, she runs off with Pete, a bartender with pretensions to wealth and culture. But Pete himself is easily seduced by the seemingly sophisticated Nellie, and Maggie finds herself abandoned in the unforgiving metropolis. Publishers feared that Crane's portrait of brutal fathers swilling away their lives in cheap bars, drunken mothers raging at terrified children, and ruined young women walking the streets, would be more than their readers could bear. But Crane's impressionistic style and thematic intensity won the day, and "Maggie"--the author's favorite among his works--helped to shape the writers that followed him and begin the era of literary naturalism. This edition also includes the short novel George's Mother, plus "A Night at the Millionaire's Club," "Opium's Varied Dreams," "When a Man Falls, a Crowd Gathers," and several other of Crane's masterful short stories. Robert Tine is the author of six novels, including "State of Grace and Black Market." He has written for a variety of periodicals and magazines--from the "New York Times" to "Newsweek."

This internationally acclaimed war novel tells the story of the shame a young private of the Union Army feels after fleeing the battlefield amidst the American Civil War. The Red Badge of Courage is a powerful tale of the American Civil War. The book has garnered international acclaim for its realism and psychological depth in telling the story of a young soldier and his reaction to the horrors of war. Enriched Classics enhance your engagement by introducing and explaining the historical and cultural significance of the work, the author's personal history, and what impact this book had on subsequent scholarship. Each book includes discussion questions that help clarify and reinforce major themes and reading recommendations for further research.

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.