The Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics)

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.

Other Stories in This Collection:

• The Open Boat (1898): Inspired by Crane's fifty-hour struggle with waves after his ship was sunk during an expedition to Cuba.
• The Monster (1899): A bitterly ironic commentary on the ostracization of a doctor for harboring the servant who was disfigured and lost his sanity rescuing his son. This story is a rare example of Crane working in a vein of American Gothic, 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.

Special Features of This Edition:

This edition is the most generously annotated edition of Crane's work, offering:

• A fresh critical perspective on Crane's writing.
• A focus on his place as an experimental writer, his modernist legacy, and his social and 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.
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• And much more.