In 1895 Stephen Crane achieved early fame with his powerful, enigmatic portrayal of a raw recruit's experience of war, The Red Badge of courage. Although Crame had never experienced battle, he wrote with rare insight and immediacy of his young protagonist's fluctuating emotions, in a style that had a profound influence on American fiction. This selection includes the 1896 coda to the story, 'The Vetran', and the best of Crane's other fiction: the impressionist masterpiece 'The Open Boat'; The Monster, perhaps the most complex and disturbing all of Crane's works; and 'The Blue Hotel', his greatest western story.
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