The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane had no personal experience of warfare when he wrote this novel, yet he successfully depicts the experiences, the terror, and the bravery of an ordinary soldier in the Civil War. Facing his own cowardice and the gruesome death of a friend, Henry Fleming finds courage and returns to fight with all illusions of the glory of war gone forever.

Related Readings

A Son of the Gods: A Study in the Present Tense—short story by Ambrose Bierce

"A Day" from Hospital Sketches—short story by Louisa May Alcott

Stephen Crane's Historic War Novel Owes a Debt to His Love of Baseball—magazine article by Ed Burns

War Story: Andy McNab—interview by Frontline: The Gulf War

A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown—poem by Walt Whitman

Study Guide (PDF)