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| The Red Badge of Courage (Unabridged) | 
| Author: Stephen Crane
Publisher: audible.com
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
Buy New: $9.43
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Avg. Customer Rating:  21 reviews
Media: Audio Download
ASIN: B000E10YR4
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Book Description
Following its initial appearance in serial form, Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage was published as a complete work in 1895 and quickly became the benchmark for modern anti-war literature. Although the exact battle is never identified, Crane based this story of a soldier's experiences during the American Civil War on the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville. Many veterans, both Union and Confederate, praised the book's accurate representation of war, and critics consider its stylistic strength the mark of a literary classic. This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a little-known section entitled The Veteran, which depicts Henry Fleming as an old man discussing his experiences in the Civil War with his grandson. Additionally, a glossary and reader's notes are provided to help the reader understand the language of 19th century America.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 A very flawed classic--in no wise a masterpiece... August 10, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I reckon Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage will still be present in the national consciousness a hundred years from now. (It will be referenced more than read, however.) For a twenty-two-year-old guy to write a book with that kind of longevity is pretty remarkable...but I'd also reckon that no one will seriously ascribe the designation of "masterpiece" to it even then, perhaps because Stephen Crane WAS so young and unseasoned.
Under the Volcano is a masterpiece. Lolita is a masterpiece. The Red Badge of Courage is a worthy (second echelon) inclusion into American literature, but it is not in any way supernal.
My edition (Washington Square Press) suffered from a dreadful job of proofreading (typos, sentence-repeats, etc.), and Crane's sentences can, at times, be wholly pedestrian. The immaturity is apparent, despite the obvious gifts of the author, and the book is--apart from two passages--rather tedious.
Those two passages are sump'n else, though: The death of Jim Conklin may be the best death scene I've ever read. Crane here achieves transcendence in a way that is nowhere present in the rest of the book. We get a glimpse of Crane's potential: What if he could muster that magic on a more consistent basis? What kind of book might The Red Badge of Courage have been had Crane been ten years older when he wrote it?
The other superior passage relates the charge of the Union soldiers on the second day of battle. Crane captures, distills, and bottles the essence of battle: the confusion, smoke, distorted sensory perception, etc.
That still leaves about one-hundred and fifty pages, however. Those pages aren't bad...but, well, they won't have you burning the midnight oil, either.
But this is still a book that SHOULD be read--moreso if you're an American--and it won't tax your time overmuch to finish it.
Great book. Very interesting. January 4, 2008
The reason I liked this book was because it described the life of a soldier in great detail. The main thing I enjoyed was that it really made me feel like one of the soldiers and described a soldier's life in a way that felt real. There was one thing I didn't like, however. It took too long sometimes to get to the next point, making me wonder, "When will I ever get to the next interesting part?" But the good news is you'll never be too far from the next one. One part I liked was when his friend died, because it reflected on the sorrow many people faced from loss of friends family, and possessions. Overall I really liked the book.
Red Badge of Courage August 20, 2007
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. New Jersey: Transaction
Publishers, 1997.
Review by Miraya Potter
The Red Badge of Courage is a novel about the character of a soldier named Henry during the battle at Chancellorsville in 1863. This novel shows you the emotions of the soldiers families, the heartache of death in a war, and how the soldiers felt and the thought process they went through. At the beginning of the novel it reveals the strong and emotional feelings that Henry's mother felt about him leaving. Her face "was stained with tears" when he left for war. His mother is a very strong character and cared for her son deeply. Another strong character is Wilson. Wilson is one of the main reasons as to why Henry became brave and courageous. Once Henry realized that Wilson had doubts and fears, he felt comfort in knowing that he was not the only one with fear. That moment was a tremendous turning point for Henry. Henry entered the army with romantic feelings about the war, however once he was confronted with the reality of war he became scared. As time passed he began to get more and more used to the ideas of war and soon became a "wild cat" in battle, according to his lieutenant. I would strongly recommend this book because it was excellent at showing the human side and the thought process's of a soldier in the civil war.
 Often assigned to the young, but perhaps better appreciated by the mature July 14, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I remember this book being recommended reading when I was around junior high school age, and I also remember trying it and putting it down more than once.
Now, at a considerably more mature stage in life, and having opted for an audio reading, I have finally gotten to this classic, and I now appreciate why it is a classic.
The heartless and utter pointless gore of battle, and the profligate waste of human potential, are the kinds of things you'll probably encounter in any war novel, and they can be pretty hard to stomach. But Crane's real object in this work is the human mind and spirit, especially human capriciousness, vanity, and the powerful instinct to constantly justify and elevate oneself and one's actions in one's mind. This work is a blow-by-blow study in the human ego, its folly, and its ultimate vacuity. What is probably even harder to take than watching one's comrades drop in agony like flies to no good purpose is recognizing, though a fickle fighter's internal monologue, one's own deeply entrenched patterns of defensiveness, rationalization and self-justification, along with our constant scramble to seize the credit for anything at all, things we constantly indulge in whether objective circumstances warrant them or not.
Herein lies for me the great value of this expose of what we futilely try so hard to do in all we do, down to the most mundane of everyday transactions. For this reason, I recommend this book highly, whatever your age, and regardless of your preconceptions about war novels.
Not a kids' book May 14, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
As a British reader, I just recently read and reviewed this book over on Amazon.co.uk, and I thought I'd have a look at the US reviews for comparison - and immediately realised that this is obviously a "set book" in US schools. I can see the logic - the book is about a young person, it's short and (superficially) exciting, with lots of action, and it has some good moral/ethical themes ripe for class discussion.
Nonetheless, I was not surprised to see a number of negative reviews from kids. I don't think I would have appreciated it as a 13 (or whatever) year old. The writing style (deliberately) reflects the state of mind of the protagonist - confused. This in NOT an "adventure" story, it's a blood-and-guts account of a dirty day in a dirty war. As such, it reminded me very much of some of the recent first-hand accounts of infantrymen in WWII, Korea, Vietnam or even Iraq. It's about the way the mind can obsess on tiny details in the middle of chaos - how sights, smells and sounds become almost hallucinogenic as the mind approaches breaking point. As such, it is astonishing.
But if you want a REAL adventure story (not suitable for the under-13s!) read a biography of Crane himself. Hemingway meets James Dean is the only way to describe it.
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