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"THE CLASSIC AMERICAN TREATMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR"
The Red Badge of Courage "In 'The Red Badge of Courage' [Crane] has surely contrived a masterpiece... I think that his picture of war is more complete than Tolstoi's, more true than Zola's." -Geroge Wyndman, New Review FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of one of the most influential works of American literature.
The Red Badge of Courage, Crane's "most popular work, and the
classic American treatment of the Civil War... interprets military
experience through the perspective of an untried volunteer who receives
his wound-badge while fleeing from a battle but eventually proves
himself by fighting bravely. The book was so convincing that a Union
colonel said he recalled serving with Crane at Antietam. The epic sweep
of the novel arises in part from Crane's ability to convey a common
soldier's rite of passage from fear to confidence. It also arises from
Crane's ability to blend a variety of literary modes, including irony,
the mock-heroic, comedy, and the grotesque. Crane's strikingly original
use of colors, partly inspired by Goethe and already on display in
Maggie, became a trademark, as did his penchant for offbeat insights and
arresting turns of phrase. The autumn 1895 publication of The Red
Badge of Courage in the United States and England brought Crane
international fame as the book went into fourteen printings within the
year" (American National Biography). BAL 4071. |
