Stephen Crane

Young Henry Fleming had always dreamed of performing heroic deeds in battle. But as a raw recruit in the American Civil War, Henry experiences both fear and self-doubt. Will war make him a coward, or a hero?

The Red Badge of Courage and Selected Short Fiction, 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:

New introductions commissioned from

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How far would a father go to keep his daughter from marrying the wrong man? Rufus Coleman, the respected editor of the New York Eclipse, plans to marry Marjory Wainwright. Yet to her father, Professor Wainwright, Rufus is still the wastrel that he thought him to be as a student in college. To thwart the marriage the professor drags Marjory off with him and a group of students on a summer tour of Greece. Suddenly war erupts between Turkey and Greece!...

The engine bellowed its way up the slanting, winding valley. Grey crags, and trees with roots fastened cleverly to the steeps looked down at the struggles of the black monster. When the train finally released its passengers they burst forth with the enthusiasm of escaping convicts. A great bustle ensued on the platform of the little mountain station. The idlers and philosophers from the village were present to examine the consignment of people from...

Though he died tragically at the tender age of 28, Stephen Crane left an indelible mark on American literature, helping to forge a new style of naturalism that relied heavily on vivid descriptions and conveying a sense of immediacy. These war stories, based on Crane's own experiences as a wartime correspondent and penned as he was losing his battle with the illness that would take his life, highlight the unique skills that set the author apart

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Excerpt: "A Tale intended to be after the fact. Being the experience of four men from the sunk steamer "Commodore". None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them. These waves were of the hue of slate, save for the tops, which were of foaming white, and all of the men knew the colors of the sea. The horizon narrowed and widened, and dipped and rose, and at all times its edge...

Crane's complete novels are accompanied by his poetry and, arranged by place and time, his short stories, sketches and newspaper articles.

"In tones alternately sardonic and rueful, Stephen Crane's poems, although small in scale, address immense problems of cosmic justice and the purpose of human life. They are not quite like anything else in American poetry : uncompromisingly harsh, gnomic, deliberately anti-poetic, and shot through with unforgettable phrases and perceptions. Christopher Benfey's edition collects all Crane's poems and provides an introduction illuminating their biographical...