The Red Badge of Courage AND Maggie-A Girl of the Streets

The Red Badge of Courage 'would become the godfather of all American war novels, and an inspiration for writers as diverse as Ernest Hemingway and JD Salinger ... the laconic realism of his prose, the fierce investigation of the soldier's psyche, and his impressionistic use of colour and detail convinced many readers that Crane was a veteran turned novelist." - Robert McCrum

"Unquestionably the most realistic novel about the American Civil War" -- Stanley Wertheim

"If there were in existence any books of a similar character, one could start confidently by saying that it was the best of its kind. But it has no fellows. It is a book outside of all classification." - Harold Frederic

"A powerful, severe, and harshly comic portrayal of Irish immigrant life in lower New York" -- Alfred Kazin (of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets)

The Red Badge of Courage is set during the American Civil War and follows a young private in the Union Army, Henry Fleming. It offers us a penetrating insight into the young soldier's mind and examines his psychological state as he grapples with the fear of being wounded, the shame of running from battle, and the desire to redeem himself by receiving "the red badge of courage"-a wound. In the space of a few days, Henry Fleming gains decades of maturity. In the final battle, unarmed and acting as a flag-bearer, he leads his men with true courage. Although Stephen Crane was born after the Civil War and had never experienced war at first-hand, most readers believed that his realistic narrative was a veteran's account of the Civil War.

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, Crane's naturalistic novel, tells the story of Maggie, a virtuous, beautiful but impoverished girl living in the Bowery district of Manhattan at the end of the nineteenth century. She tries to make her way in the world as a worker in a garment factory but is ultimately destroyed by the pressures of her world-an abusive alcoholic mother, a lover who deserts her, and her family who evicts her because of the gossip sparked by the unforgiving sexual mores of the period. Her options diminishing, Maggie, in desperation, becomes a streetwalker, and ultimately drowns herself. Since Crane's stark realism shocked would-be publishers and readers, he initially published Maggie: A Girl of the Streets under a pseudonym and at his own expense. It is now regarded as an important contribution to American literature.

This special edition collects Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane's best-known work, and Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, his first major work, regarded as risqué and overly realistic while he was alive.

Stephen Crane (1871 - 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His short life was marked by the tragic deaths of his parents and siblings, illness in childhood and later life, and by remarkable literary creativity. He is remembered for his highly original novels, The Red Badge of Courage and Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, and for his frequently anthologized short stories which are among the most skilfully crafted in American literature. He is recognized today as one of the most innovative writers of his generation.