The Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories by Stephen Crane

The Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories Reviews

• 
  David

  The Red Badge of Courage is one of those essential books in the American literary canon. I had read it while in high school just on my own. When I got to The Citadel my first year of college I had to read it again, which I didn't mind. At West Point I had to read it for the third time, but by then I had become such a rebel that I had become jaded with anything to do with the Civil War--at least temporarily.
  
  By the time decades later I read real histories of that period I no longer felt that way. But many of us who read Red Badge, Stephen Vincent Benét's John Brown's Body, Mitchell's Gone with the Wind (book, movie, and that treacle of a theme song by Max Steiner) was like wandering around a Savannah moss-hung cemetery on an August night.
  
  Red Badge of Courage still stands out. Every young person should read it before they volunteer to serve.
• 
  Kusaimamekirai

  So perhaps I'm an outlier in that I may be the only American on the face of the earth who wasn’t assigned the seemingly loathed, “The Red Badge of Courage”, when I was in high school (I also have never read the ubiquitous in high school reading lists and equally disliked Ethan Frome but that is a story for another review).
  Of course age is a mitigating factor but having read it for the first time in my 40’s, I can see why young people with a limited frame of reference for war would struggle with it while resonating with those of older generations who better understand its horrors.
  It is the story of Henry, or as he occasionally in a 3rd person voice refers to himself, the youth.
  Like most young men in times of war and patriotic fervor, Henry sees the burgeoning Civil War as a chance to establish himself as a hero. He dreams of glory on the battlefield and feats of courage that he hopes will jumpstart his rise to adulthood and respect.
  As the prospect of battle approaches however, Henry begins to doubt himself. Can he really fight? When bullets are flying, will he run away? Henry is astounded by the certainty of purpose he sees in his fellow soldiers. Why is he struggling with these questions while others around him seem to lack his fears about their potential deaths?
  Henry’s questions don’t seem to be about the morality of war, or even the act of self preservation by running away from a battle, rather Henry is preoccupied with shame. The shame in knowing that when the time came to prove you are a man, not to mention support your fellow soldiers, you ran away. In many ways, this shame is worse than death itself in that if you don’t have the respect of those around, you have nothing.
  Crane’s book is a meditation on these questions. On the madness of being willing to die being a prerequisite for respect. On the need to be respected and part of something larger than yourself. On misguided masculinity and a distorted sense of patriotism.
  In a sense, things have not changed much since Crane’s book. War is still viewed by far too many young men as the moment to prove their manhood. To be an object of respect and wonder for those who never served but queue up to thank you for your service.
  These are just a few of the seductive songs of war that have led far too many to their deaths. Crane wrote about them in the Civil War. Novelists writing about World War I, World War II, Vietnam, The Gulf War, Afghanistan, and all the wars before and to come, wrote and will write about them.
  As the great Kurt Vonnegut once wrote in his attempt to understand the madness of war, “So it goes”.
• 
  Lili

  I don’t care about the civil war idk why I read this.
• 
  Jeremy

  Taught The Red Badge of Courage in a course at Regent University (Spring 2020).
• 
  Diane

  Stephen Crane's life was abysmally cut short by the age of 28. What stories he did get out into the world were all rather short and focused on child-like (if not in fact child) characters. His most popular story, the one that put him on the map, is also his most celebrated work. The Red Badge of Courage is at the forefront of this small collection of stories and the most familiar with casual readers. Although the story itself proclaims in the title that it's set in the Civil War, the tale is so ambiguous that it could have been set in any war that still required muskets and horses.
  
  The Red Badge of Courage swirls around the singular character of Henry, also known as the youth. His friends, or those who he encounters, mostly have names but are reduced down to common attributes like "the loud soldier" or "the tall soldier". This technique lends to the mysticism of the story and how it could be set in any war up until the time it was written. Henry is on a quest to become a man and, to him, the best way to do that is to be a part of the war. What unfolds is a psychological tour de force that analyzes the human psyche, the sociology of war, and the ability to cope with stressful situations. The fine line of cowardice and heroism, just like the line between childhood and adulthood, is a wobbly one and Crane, with seemingly effortless regard, pours forth a definition as complex as the human brain.
  
  In addition to the main story, three other stories are included. One is The Veteran, which is an anecdotal tale of Henry after his time in the Civil War, having grown old and wizened by age. The next is The Open Boat which is based off of Crane's own involvement with a sinking ship and his long journey back to shore on nothing short of a dinghy and a few other men. The Red Badge of Courage and The Open Boat could be read side by side as Crane's writing is quite similar. The toil of hardship is the main climax of the story and is spread throughout the pages in true to life quantities. The third story is entitled The Monster and is, by far, the most poignant tale of racism that Crane ever got the opportunity to tell. The last story, a bit of a drag for me, is The Blue Hotel. Once more, Crane uses his experiences when he was caught in Nebraska during a blizzard to analyze the psyche of human dignity. The Blue Hotel seems out of place with the other stories and it, perhaps, would have been better to include, instead, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets.
  
  The collection is quite stunning, but one must walk into the stories with a much different mindset than usual. Crane very rarely has a fixed writing style that is typical of an introduction, a climax, and a conclusion. Instead, the climax (the conflict) seems present throughout and it oftentimes does not get resolved. This inability to close a story is what makes Crane's writing so unique, but also difficult to handle. Readers want a conclusion and being forlorn without it will often chalk the story up to a "hanging" ending. Crane, however, seems to use life as a main propellent for his stories and life very rarely concludes perfectly with moral ascension and meaning. Once this is understood the stories become easier to handle.
• 
  Elizabeth

  The introduction to this collection compared Stephen Crane to Conrad and did a whole lot of talking about literary impressionism. This both gave me unfair expectations (I'm a Conrad lover) and, likely, put me off (I've never quite understood the concept of literary impressionism, though I know it is something that Conrad is similarly-often equated with). Given that I didn't love any of this book's selections nearly as much as the Conrad I've read, I'm going to assume it's due to a heavy dose of literary impressionism (which I don't understand). That said, I can accurately detail a number of other things that put me off what was otherwise a largely beautiful story that, at moments, felt like a fairly evocative portrait of war (though I've never been to war, though nor had Crane). Things that bothered me: dialect. I have difficulty reading it. I wish this weren't the case, but I get distracted by all of the apostrophes and spend inordinate amounts of brain power trying to imagine just how the author wanted the characters to sound, to the extent I don't ever register what it is they are saying. War: I have difficulty reading about it. My eyes gloss over the instant a battle starts being described. Try as I might, I could care less about the details of the war front. I'm endlessly fascinated with war policies, or its effects on the homefront, or the psychology of war, but put guns (or muskets as the case may be) into characters' hands and you've lost me. So, maybe it wasn't the impressionism at all, but rather the heavy dose of these elements that saturated Crane's stories that resulted in my not liking them very much. All of this criticism rendered, I would never dissuade someone from reading these stories, particularly if they don't share my hang-ups. The parts that didn't contain dialog and weren't about fighting were lovely. They were just few and far between.
• 
  Mmars

  Finished Red Badge (****)& short story "Veteran." Just like to say that this Pengin Classics is a nice little edition. Great for secondary/college school purposes. Included, after the introduction is a bibliography inteded for further research. (Adult sources)
  
  I usually read the introduction before diving into the book, but decided to jump right in to Red Badge. It is followed by "The Veteran," a quick story about the narrator, Henry, as an old man on the day of his death.
  
  Since this is such a standard classic, there is probably little to add to the canon. One thing that struck me, however. Crane is a word-lover's feast. I went to the dictionary a couple times not because the context of the word was important, but that I was curious what a word meant. I hadn't known he was also a poet until several years ago, and it shows in his fiction writing.
  
  Wow! Just finished the next two stories, "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" and "The Blue Hotel." Now I know why he has gained great acclaim. These two stories, in chapters, were spellbinders. In Blue Hotel (*****), he creates full characters in several strokes, flawlessly. In the Bride (*****) he writes tension with the same effortless sparcity. Less verbocity in the short stories (perhaps short novellas would be a beter term,) but that simplicity makes them all the more powerful.
  
  Open Boat (****)
• 
  Vivian

  3 stars is a bit too generous, let's give it a 2.5~ this is another book for APLAC~ the first few chapters were honestly rough; this book is related to our realism unit and there are so many excessive arbitrary details that are unnecessary, and it's bad enough that it's about the civil war like cmon english teachers, whatcha doing to us??
  
  i learned that its easier to get through a boring & confusing book like this by annotating each page; not only does it make you seem like an avid reader but it actually turns you into a good one and you actually end up understanding the book :)
  
  fav quote: "His loud mouth against these things had been lost as the storm ceased. He would no more stand upon places high & false, and denounce the distant planets. He behold that he was tiny but inconsequent to the sun. In the space-wide whirl of events no grain like him would be lost."
  
  
• 
  Monta

  Another classic I should have read long before but didn't. It's quite short. Although I didn't enjoy it a ton--it certainly couldn't be called entertaining--I'm glad I've now read it. War is a sad thing. I really thought the protagonist was going to die at the end, and it was a pleasant surprise to find he didn't. Three stars because it just wasn't that interesting.
• 
  Carlos Olivo-Valverde

  RESEÑA
  – La roja insignia del valor (1895)
  – Autor: Stephen Crane
  Valoración: 3/5
  – Traducción (Juan Aparicio-Belmonte): 4/5
  – Género: novela bélica
  – Estilo: realismo / impresionismo
  – Obras similares: Historias de soldados y civiles de Ambrose Bierce
  
  Stephene Crane tuvo que haber sido un tío curioso. Escribió su obra más conocida, The red Badge of Courage, un auténtico best-seller, con solo 28 años y sin bagaje como lector, pues había leído a Homero, a Tolstoy y poco más. Fascinó a Joseph Conrad por su peculiar personalidad e inventiva como escritor; pero su más próximo referente, Ambrose Bierce, lo consideraba un pésimo escritor. Murió joven de tuberculosis como algunos grandes de la literatura (Keats, Stevenson). Paul Auster le dedicó un libro en 2021.
  
  •La roja insignia del valor es una novela corta que tiene como protagonista a un muchacho casi adolescente, que lleno de ideas homéricas sobre la guerra, se une al ejército yanki durante la Guerra Federal de los EEUU. La acción transcurre enteramente durante dos o tres días en el campo de batalla.
  •
  La narrativa de Crane se caracteriza, en primer lugar, por el impresionismo literario con que describe la evolución mental del protagonista (de la euforia a la duda y de la deserción a la redención a través del valor). Y en segundo lugar por el realismo crudo y demitificador con que pinta el comportamiento de los hombres en batalla.
  •
  Su lectura me ha provocado valoraciones encontradas. En algunas descripciones de la naturaleza que envuelve la batalla se manifiesta el brillante discípulo de Tolstoy. Construye los personajes y sus relaciones mutuas con inteligencia, y acierta al poner en sus bocas el inglés dialectal local (intraducible).
  •
  Pero por otra parte no se corta a la hora de usar clichés simplones sobre el valor, la hombría y el heroismo propios de una novela barata. Quizás este lenguaje apelaba a un lector que no soy yo: un lector estadounidense que aun tenía reciente los hechos y estados de ánimo de su guerra civil.
  •
  En todo caso, ¡puedo decir que me ha gustado leerla!
• 
  Julia

  Henry is a fresh, green soldier during the Civil War. This short work of fiction details his first few engagements as part of the Union army, following him through moments of sheer terror and panic, confidence, distress, hopefulness and, ultimately, pride. I selected this title as part of a long-term goal to read four traditional "classics" each year. Overall, it was okay, though I have to admit I likely enjoyed the accompanying unrelated short stores in this edition more than the titular work itself. At the very least I now know what "the red badge of courage" actually refers to.
• 
  Saleh MoonWalker

  Onvan : The Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories - Nevisande : Stephen Crane - ISBN : 0143039350 - ISBN13 : 9780143039358 - Dar 288 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2006
• 
  Angela

  I’m a bit torn writing this review. Whilst “The Red Badge” is significant for it’s accurate portrayal of a young recruits mental struggles, despair and redemption while fighting, (the first non- romantic account of life at war it seems) the battle descriptions are tedious.
  
  They may be accurate but not as gripping to read in 2020 as in 1885. It was either the test of time, or my own lack of patience, that left me struggling.
  
  “The Veteran” was a romantic post scrip to the other story and seems to have been written as kind of a character follow-up and again, I could have skipped it.
  
  Surprisingly it was the other stories including The Monster and The Blue Hotel that we’re early gothic morality stories tinged with the bizarre.
  
  If I read it again, I would skip over The Red Badge and read the others.
  
  
• 
  Richard Epstein

  There is a class of books which owe much of their fame to their brevity and therefore usefulness in the classroom. I call them The Assignables. The most famous are (or used to be) Silas Marner, Ethan Frome, The Old Man and the Sea, and The Red Badge of Courage. I can imagine someone reading TRBOC voluntarily, not having been assigned it, simply for pleasure. Imagine making that statement about Ethan Frome.
  
  There are other books teachers might have elevated to this status. The Unvanquished. Washington Square. The Crying of Lot 49. But no. Ethan bloody Frome.
• 
  Clarissa

  "But he said, in substance, to himself that if the earth and the moon were about to clash, many persons would doubtless plan to get upon the roofs to witness the collision."
• 
  Daniel

  Wars do strange things to different people.
• 
  RK Byers

  Crane has a tendency to make points that are better than his stories but his stories ain't bad either.
• 
  Laine

  Beautifully written but.... a boys’ guide to the horrors, confusion, and utter stupidity of war. Why haven’t we learned any lessons yet?
• 
  Al

  The Red Badge of Courage is the story of Henry Fleming, a teenager who enlists with the Union Army in the hopes of fulfilling his dreams of glory.
  
  Shortly after enlisting, the reality of his decision sets in. He experiences tedious waiting, not immediate glory. The more he waits for battle, the more doubt and fear creep into his mind. When he finally engages in his first battle, he blindly fires into the battle haze, never seeing his enemy. As the next enemy assault approaches, Henry's fears of death overwhelm him, and he runs from the field.
  
  Henry continues his retreat for some time, even after he overhears that his regiment repelled the enemy. When he finally slows and rests, he hears the sound of a renewed battle and, ironically, he returns to the battle from which he has fled. He comes upon many wounded men returning from the front to get medical assistance. One of these wounded soldiers, identified as "a tattered soldier," befriends Henry and begins a conversation with him; however, when the tattered soldier asks Henry where he is wounded, Henry evades the question by leaving him and drifting into the crowd of soldiers.
  
  As Henry continues walking with the wounded, he sees a veteran soldier of his company, Jim Conklin, who is mortally wounded. Henry follows Jim, and, eventually, the tattered soldier joins them. When Jim suddenly collapses and dies, Henry is devastated. The tattered soldier again asks Henry about his wound. Again, Henry can't explain that he has no wound, so he leaves the disoriented, wounded, tattered soldier stumbling in the field.
  
  Henry anguishes over his lack of courage, but he can't overcome the guilt and self-hatred that stop him from returning to his regiment. He hears the noise of a battle and sees reinforcement troops heading toward the front. As he watches, the battle turns against the Union forces, and many of the men begin to retreat. Henry gets caught up in their retreat. He tries to stop a retreating soldier to find out what is happening; however, the soldier only wants to get away, so he hits Henry over the head with his rifle, leaving Henry with a serious head wound. He is dazed by the blow and wanders back through the woods. Henry is then befriended by a cheery soldier who returns him to his regiment.
  
  Henry fears being ridiculed by his comrades on his return, but when he enters his camp, two soldiers, Wilson and Simpson, see his injury and immediately begin ministering to him. They assume that Henry was hurt in battle; however, Simpson asks Henry about his whereabouts, and Henry can't answer.
  
  As the regiment prepares to move out, Wilson asks Henry to return a packet of letters that he gave Henry before the first battle. (Wilson feared that he was going to die in battle, and he wanted Henry to give the letters to his family.) Henry realizes that Wilson was also afraid of battle, and Henry is overjoyed to think that he now has power, and a weapon, to use to hold over somebody else's head. This knowledge gives Henry courage and restores his confidence.
  
  Henry converts his fear of the enemy into anger and becomes a leader, fighting boldly at the side of his lieutenant. Henry becomes such a confident, assertive, aggressive soldier that, ironically, he becomes a fighting machine himself. Henry resolves his guilt over abandoning the tattered soldier by deciding to use the memory of this selfish, uncaring act to keep himself humble — to control any egotism he feels because of his now strong fighting ability.
  
  When Henry's regiment is chosen to charge the enemy, Henry leads the charge with the lieutenant, and, eventually, he even assumes the role of color bearer for the regiment after the color sergeant is killed.
  
  Henry's transformation from a fearful, lost, doubting youth, to a courageous, confident, duty-bound soldier is the essence of the novel. It is the story of the growth of a young man from innocence to maturity.
• 
  Chris

  I must admit, it was the “other stories” in this compilation that blew my socks off and helped me see the beauty and succinctness of SC’s prose. Maybe I’m off base, but his style evokes the warm feelings and awe I have reading Steinbeck or Cormac McCarthy. With the absolute minimum budget of words he conjures vivid scenes where emotions, smells, and sights are not so much as described as telepathically beamed into your brain. After reading a few paragraphs of some of the short stories you’ll find yourself paging back to see how he could have possibly painted the scene as vividly as you interpreted it. The poetry at the end was also hard hitting. I’ll visit passages from this book again. And when you ask yourself why would I go and spend time in classics with so many other options…this barrel presents as a shotgun to the face…it demands your full attention. :-)
• 
  Eva

  Interesting about the madness of war, mainly a psychological story, written 1895, how a young boy enlists in the American Civil War, with his head full of heroic fantasies, and his subsequent changing feelings, how to cope with the atrosities, but also the interaction between fellow soldiers.
  
  Very interesting is Stephen Cranes frequent use of colour, giving life to the landscape as well as symbolically, evoking feelings and an almost cinematic view of the events in and out of the battle.
• 
  Frederick

  Extremely sad that this talented writer had to die so young; imagine just how much potential for even greater works we could have had but as it is we have this very well-written and enjoyable read. This anti-war novel while to me not quite as good as Remarche's "All Quiet On the Western Front" is still very good and the short stories after I greatly enjoyed too.
• 
  Ian

  There is a lot of antipathy to Crane's novellas and stories which I suspect is because they are too often inflicted on school children because of their class-friendly brevity. Well, they work for me, and his headlining hit aside it is 'The Open Boat' that always surprises me on a re-read.
• 
  Chanel Baron

  I’m surprised we didn’t read this in school, but the writing was beautiful. It portrayed war like a devouring flag football game where your enemies are faceless and the objective escapes you
• 
  Jon Anderson

  Good
• 
  Anne

  Safe to say it's not my thing 🤷‍♀️