User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
I feel almost guilty about how much I disliked this book. I know it's an important piece of literature, that it changed the way people viewed war, it's an American classic, etc. etc. But I could NOT stand it. I thought it was boring and I didn't really care what happened to the main character. I was totally distracted by how the author called him "the youth" instead of his name and I had to have my brother-in-law explain to me what the point of it was since I just couldn't tell. Maybe my tastes will mature someday, but I wouldn't count on it.
Rating: really liked it
The Battle of Chancellorsville in northern Virginia 1863 is one of the bloodiest 24,000 casualties of the war between the states, the focus of this novel. Henry Fleming a naive restless farm boy not yet a man from New York State, goes off to fight during the American Civil War. Against the tearful pleading of his widowed mother not to, Henry out of patriotism or boredom wants to join the Union Army. Many months pass of training and marching before Fleming gets into action. Some of his friends, boys he grew up with are in the 304th regiment with him. Camp life is very harsh living mostly in dirty tents little food and nothing to do, unsanitary living conditions, the constant marching to different sites; the veterans call the newcomers "Fresh Fish". Wondering if he'll be brave or a coward in the conflict dominates his thoughts, finally the youth sees the ugly war. The charging yelling mobs of rebels from out of the woods brings fear to his very soul and Fleming caring little about glory, his friends or the regiment runs away , runs like the little boy he really is only just wants to survive...Meeting many wounded soldiers in the back of the line. Some who will not live long, including his close friend who Fleming watches fall mortally down on the ground, they ask him uncomfortable questions where was he hit ?...Leaving them as fast an unobtrusively as possible, wandering around aimlessly Henry heads for a nearby forest trying to get away from the savage war. The sounds of brutal battle are muted by the trees only a short distance from the struggle, as if all the world was a peaceful quiet place, a sanctuary for him to calm his shaky nerves. But Henry can't get far from reality, a Union soldier propped up against a tree stares with his dead eyes at the miserable deserter. An insect crawling over his ghastly face, Henry decides to get back to his regiment yet ironically is hit in the head, with a rifle butt by a vicious man fleeing in a blue uniform, Fleming was in the way, causing blood to flow freely...
His desired " Red Badge of Courage"... Arriving home helped by an unknown soldier nobody had noticed his cowardliness they thought he was dead, bandaged his "war wound". Next day another scrimmage Fleming feels different, comradeship with his fellow soldiers close as brothers now Henry never experienced such emotions before, even leads the charge has he become a man ?
Rating: really liked it
2.5 starsIntellectual Thomas thinks this story changed people's perception of war and made them think about the individual psychological processes involved in combat. He thinks that this book had a nice flow of thought that concluded with the narrator learning to be less whiny.
Thomas Thomas - the college-student Thomas that has almost no free time to read for fun, and therefore only wants to read satisfying books - feels that
The Red Badge of Courage was super frustrating in that its author, Stephen Crane, clearly had never gone to war before writing this book. Thus, the novel's imagery and overall characterization of the narrator came across as juvenile and simplistic.
Thomas Thomas regrets that he has nothing novel to contribute about
The Red Badge of Courage, and he apologizes for using the third person to entertain himself enough to complete this review.
Rating: really liked it
It was not well to drive men into final corners; at those moments they could all develop teeth and claws.
I read (well, was assigned to read) the complete Stephen Crane library for a project in high school. But that was over 30 years ago. My main memory of Crane’s works is that they can be divided generally into two categories: man struggling in the face of an indifferent universe, and man struggling in the face of a hostile universe.
The Red Badge of Courage tells the story of Henry Fleming, a young recruit who’s gearing up for his first battle in the Union army. Over the next two days he flees, then returns, then fights, and by the end is raising the flag and leading his regiment in victory. On one level, it’s a traditional hero’s journey that had been told for thousands of years. But that traditional arc is subverted throughout this story. Most of the ‘action’ takes place in Henry’s mind, so we see him in all of his flaws. He is hopelessly naïve at the beginning of the book. At his first taste of battle, his cowardice causes him not only to flee, but later to abandon an injured comrade. The fighting itself is presented as chaotic, with the characters and the reader generally in the dark about how the battle is progressing. Finally, the soldiers don’t talk about grand causes or motivations for fighting—like preserving the Union or ending slavery—they simply fight for each other.
Written today, I’m sure Henry would have been presented as even more disillusioned, and the fighting even gorier and move hectic. Still,
The Red Badge of Courage was way ahead of its time. It’s the forerunner of the modern American war novel (and movie). And, I’m happy to say, was better than I remembered. Recommended.
Rating: really liked it
This book made my heart race and made me hear gunfire.
I think Crane manages to create the perfect visceral novel. Sure there is symbolism if you want it, but at its core this book is about experience.
Like a delicate flower, this book is easily ruined by too much prodding attention. Just read it, take it in, let yourself get dragged into the story and imagery. Don't think, don't read it closely to prepare for a paper or discussion, just experience it.
I would never teach this book in a class. I would just mention it as one of my favorites and possibly leave a few copies around.
Rating: really liked it
Most novels about war are broad, sweeping stories that try to capture the big picture of what happened. But what's it like for the individual? What were they thinking, feeling, and experiencing? That's what Stephen Crane brings to life in this book. He shows the fine line between courage and cowardice that exists in everyone. An American classic that has never been out of print.
Revised December 2017.
Rating: really liked it
The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane
The Red Badge of Courage is a war novel by American author Stephen Crane (1871–1900). Taking place during the American Civil War, the story is about a young private of the Union Army, Henry Fleming, who flees from the field of battle. Overcome with shame, he longs for a wound, a "red badge of courage," to counteract his cowardice. When his regiment once again faces the enemy, Henry acts as standard-bearer, who carries a flag.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سال 1998 میلادی
عنوان: نشان سرخ دلیری؛ نویسنده: استیفن کرین؛ مترجم: غفور آلبا؛ مشخصات نشر: تهران، 1335، در 245 ص
عنوان: نشان سرخ دلیری (متن کوتاه شده)؛ نویسنده: استیفن کرین؛ مترجم: جعفر مدرس صادقی؛ مشخصات نشر: تهران، نشر مرکز، 1374، در 157 ص
نشان سرخ دلیری رمانی رئالیستی و جنگی است که به اعتقاد صاحب نظران نقطه ی اوج خلاقیت، و شاهکار بی نظیر استیفن کرین است، ماندگاری و شهرت آن گواه مدعاست، از عجایب روزگار این که در جایی خواندم، استیفن کرین، در زمان نگارش کتاب، هیچ جنگی به چشم خود ندیده بود. مطالعه ی جنگ و صلح تولستوی و دیدن عکس هایی از جنگ داخلی امریکا و نیروی تخیل قوی نویسنده کافی بوده گویا، کتاب یکی از بهترین رمان های رئالیستی جنگی دنیاست. ا. شربیانی
Rating: really liked it
An odd bookOne of my partners in investigations was a retired general. Erudite, wise, knowledgeable about many things, he hated this little book. Called it a celebration of cowardice. I can see his point but in the end the youth, Henry I believe he was called, is redeemed, though I never warmed to him. My objection to the book centers upon Crane's use of strange descriptions and odd metaphors. I highlighted some of those. I also found it overly verbose in many passages. Still it seems to contain some truths about soldiers in combat. Two and a half stars rounded up to three.
Rating: really liked it
I found it disappointing that The Red Badge of Courage, an American classic, was dull, had poor pacing, and lackluster characterization. There might be historical value in this novel, written by Stephen Crane who was born nearly five years after America’s civil war ended, but there is little to enjoy. The novel does focus on the psyche of the protagonist – more so then on the war itself, but I found myself not caring. I didn’t care for the characters nor did I care about the battles or the war. I told myself that I would give the novel a fair review only by reading it in its entirety, which led me to gloss over the last few chapters as to end the torture.
I debated giving two stars as there was one scene that I noted as compelling – the scene where Henry Fleming watches Jim Conklin struggle to continue marching while Jim is dying of wounds from the battle. This was a moment where Henry experiences firsthand that war is hell. However, one powerful scene cannot resurrect this lifeless corpse of a book. I pity the High School student that is assigned this book and question the teacher that does the assigning.
Rating: really liked it
Read this book right before I went into the Army; helped me focus and understand that courage can take different forms at different times. If you know a young man/woman entering the military may I suggest this book for them - they will thank you.
Rating: really liked it
40th book of 2022.
Stephen Crane lived to just 28 years old and is most famous for this novella,
The Red Badge of Courage, which was published in 1895. It follows Henry Fleming, a young soldier fighting with the Union during the American Civil War. There are quite a few low ratings for this on GR and I went in with some scepticism (though my scepticism is never far away on any read), but found myself overjoyed by the sharpness of Crane's writing. He's like top form Hemingway; but, like Hemingway, the writing is pared down, slow, meticulous in precision, which I can imagine makes it dull for some readers. Here's just a giant list of sentences I've underlined to prove my point.
'But awake he had regarded battles as crimson blotches on the pages of the past.'
'In the eastern sky there was a yellow patch like a rug laid for the feet of the coming sun'
'The liquid stillness of the night enveloping him made him feel vast pity for himself.'
'After a time the brigade was halted in the cathedral light of a forest.'
'For some moments he could not flee, no more than a little finger can commit a revolution from a hand.'
'The clouds were tinged an earthlike yellow in the sunrays and in the shadow were a sorry blue.'
'He thought of the magnificent pathos of his dead body.'
The forest still bore its burden of clamor. From off under the trees came the rolling clatter of the musketry. Each distant thicket seemed a strange porcupine with quills of flame. A cloud of dark smoke, as from smoldering ruins, went up toward the sun now bright and gay in the blue, enameled sky.'
My favourite bits reminded me of
War and Peace though, the strange realness of the war that Crane captures. Fleming, when about to skirmish at one point in the novel, suddenly has the irrational fear that his gun isn't loaded. I was reminded of the scene where Rostov throws his weapon at some French soldiers rather than firing it. Above all, a great anti-war novel. Fleming runs from one of the major skirmishes in the battle and tries to measure his manliness, his patriotism, his very self, by this event. It can be a slow read, and despite all the war, it is a slow read, very introspective, but beautifully written and modern-feeling. Now I feel inclined to get Auster's 800 pages biography.
Once the line encountered the body of a dead soldier. He lay upon his back staring at the sky. He was dressed in an awkward suit of yellowish brown. The youth could see that the soles of his shoes were worn to the thinness of writing paper, and from a great rent in one of the dead foot projected piteously. And it was as if fate had betrayed the soldier. In death it exposed to his enemies that poverty which in life he had perhaps concealed from his friends.
Regarding death thus out the corner of his eye, he conceived it to be nothing but rest, and he was filled with a momentary astonishment that he should have made an extraordinary commotion over the mere matter of getting killed. He would die; he would go to some place where he would be understood.
Rating: really liked it
When Henry Flemming set off to join the war, he perhaps did not have a clear picture of what lay before him, what his decision meant. Like every other young man (across the divide of time and circumstance) he envisions his return as a hero - an achieved man. but does he pause to consider the damn hardship of the battlefield? Perhaps not! At some point he actually runs, but his conscience torments him. A series of happenings (accidental- i think) push him back to track, and there he tries to prove his manhood.
I find that the power of this war novel is not really in the story, but in how it is rendered. Crane's prose (though at some point overly descriptive) is to the large extend exquisite. So also his portrayals of the internal conflict of this youth.
The Language is beautiful, and makes this, a not so simple and straightforward novel, a worthy read.
Cool line:
He turned now with a lover's thirst to images of tranquil skies, fresh meadows, cool brooks - an existence of soft and eternal peace.
Rating: really liked it
Tolstoi made the writing of Stephen Crane on the Civil War seem like the brilliant imagining of a sick boy who had never seen war but had only read the battles and chronicles and seen the Brandy photographs that I had read and seen at my grandparents’ house.
—Ernest Hemingway
I think Hemingway’s quote sums up the book pretty well.
The Red Badge of Courage was written when Crane had never seen battle; it is the product of a young man’s imagination (he was only in his early twenties), trying to vividly capture the experience of war. As a result, the story has elements of both realism and impressionism; it alternates in a space between dream and reality, seeming by turns prosaic and surreal.
It is a decidedly well done piece of writing, though I can’t see it evoking much feeling in modern readers. The prose is stylish and forceful; the dialogue is consistently good; the portrayal of the protagonist’s emotional state is done with skill. Still, all told, it does feel a bit more like a writing exercise than a piece of literature. I can imagine the young Crane setting himself the challenge of mentally constructing a battle as vividly as possible, feverishly writing down his daydreams. For such a young man, the writing is done with considerable polish and verve; it’s a shame he died so early.
If you listen carefully, you can hear aspects of both Hemingway and Steinbeck presaged in this work. At the time, writing battles this way—as a phantasmagoric sequence of images—wasn’t really done; and since its publication, the book has had a tremendous influence. I think one of the reasons a modern reader will feel numb to its charms is that this book had a huge influence on the modern war movie. As in so many cinematic battles, the political and strategic aspects are deemphasized completely, leaving only the soldier with his gun, his guts, and bullets whirring all around him. It’s a shame Crane didn’t live longer; this is no masterpiece, but it shows enormous potential.
Rating: really liked it
So, hey. There's this guy. His name's Henry, but that's not really important. He really wanted to join the army, cuz, well, that's what all the cool kids were doing. So he did. And hey, who doesn't wanna blow shit up? I know I'd wanna blow shit up. Everybody loves blowing shit up.
Anyway, so yeah. That happened. They all sat around for a while, and then there was this one fight, and then there was this other fight, and some stuff happened. Nothing to get excited about. And oh yeah, after that there was this other thing.
And now, I'm gonna describe the way the MAGNIFICENT SUNBEAMS HIT THIS BEAUTIFUL SHARD OF DECAYING, MAGGOT-INFESTED TREE BARK IN GLORIOUSLY POETIC DETAIL. Y'know. Because this is a good book, and they do that kind of thing in those.
...Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.
I hate this book. I really do. Maybe I missed something, but I found no emotion, dimension, or depth in it whatsoever. And maybe that makes me ignorant, but hey, so be it. I had to force my way through this droning, monotonous mess just so I could then be made to write a paper on how supposedly brilliant/amazing I thought it was.
I guess I can respect it for what it is, but personally, I'm just thankful that it was a quick read.
Rating: really liked it
Born in 1871, Stephen Crane grew up listening to the war stories of the many Civil War veterans who were then still living. (Being steeped in these accounts would allow him to depict the battlefield experience, in this novella, with what many veterans at the time of its publication hailed as vivid, and even unprecedented, realism.) Like many young males in his generation, at one psychological level he tended to be fascinated by these accounts and to hold these men up as role models. Living as he did in a time when the bloodiest war in U.S. history had been succeeded by what many thought would be a time of perpetual peace, he often wondered --though he only expressed these questionings rarely, to close friends-- whether his untried masculine courage would be equal to that standard. (Some years after writing this book, he had the chance to test his constancy under fire as a war correspondent in Greece, and wasn't disappointed.) This visceral feeling co-existed on a different level with the very real anti-war sentiment he expresses in his sarcastically-titled poem "War Is Kind" (https://www.owleyes.org/text/war-is/r... ).
Published in 1894-95, this short classic is his literary exploration of these concerns and doubts. In a real way, protagonist Henry Fleming is a kind of surrogate for Crane himself, and at one level this can be seen as a coming-of-age story. (We're not told Henry's age, but I'd picture him as 18-20.) In general, I'm not a fan of Civil War fiction, and especially not of fiction focused on the fighting itself.
Red Badge definitely does have the grimness and gore that I don't like in this milieu. But it's atypical, certainly groundbreaking and perhaps unique, in its approach. Our story consists entirely of the lead-up to one particular battle, the battle, and its immediate aftermath, all seen just from Henry's own limited perspective. We're not told what battle it is (Chancellorsville is a guess some critics read into it), and from Henry's blinkered viewpoint, we have no handle on the broad course of the battle as a whole, or even on who won it. No specifics, such as general's names, are ever given. Nor is the focus at all on debating the moral and political merits of the contending sides in the war. The author's whole concentration is on putting us inside Henry's head to live with him through his perceptions and feelings --which change, shift, and oscillate wildly-- of the combat experience in all its terror, pathos, frenzy, self-condemnation or self-approval, and more. In that, Crane succeeds very well. And the question Henry carries into battle is the same question the author asked of himself: when actually confronted with bullets being shot at him to kill, will he stand his ground or run?
This is my third, final and definitive read of this book (though the second was back in the 90s, as a homeschooling parent, and the first back in the mists of my youth). In large part, it was a quest to understand, from a close reading of the text itself, exactly what messages if any that Crane is seeking to convey here. That quest was partly inspired by my doubts about Raymond St John's single-paragraph stab at
Red Badge criticism in American Literature For Christian Schools. However, I have to say that I think the latter is correct (even if his language is jaundiced and dismissive) that Crane sees both apparent cowardice and apparent heroism, in the average person, as being greatly influenced by circumstances and "natural instincts of survival and pride" --which, obviously, conflict with each other-- rather than reasoned responses to ideological appeals or expressions of absolutely settled traits of character. (Courage hasn't yet had a chance to become a settled habit of character for a person who's never before been exposed to mortal danger!) He's also highly perceptive in bringing to life our very human propensity for trying to make ourselves look good to our own perception, an enterprise in which most of us are quite practiced. In Realist fashion, his basic purpose is more descriptive than didactic; he's not passing judgment on the way average humans might tend to react under the intense pressures of a combat situation (which is a lot different from an abstract discussion of principles and virtues over tea and cookies!), just depicting what some of those reactions might be.
Univ. of Connecticut English professor R. W. Stallman (who was quite a Crane fan, and wrote perhaps the definitive biography of the author, Stephen Crane: A Biography, although I haven't read it), helpfully compares Crane's prose technique here to the artistic technique of the French Impressionist painters, whose work he notes that Crane was familiar with: many small. disjointed and perhaps blurry details and impressions are blended together into a total unified picture that works as a whole. The writing is not what I'd see as "stream of consciousness" --it's more unified and coherent than that-- but it's definitely focused on Henry's moment-by-moment consciousness. Sentences can be broken; there's a lot of use of unusual similies and metaphors (which at least one reviewer complained about), and Crane apparently coins words at times. Because the original serialized version of the novel differs from the subsequent book publications, and some of those differ from each other, reconstruction of the text is challenging, and that can be reflected in more than a few bracketed passages, which can be distracting. The carnage of battle is also grim and grisly. This is not a smooth or feel-good read. While I'd admit that Crane's psychological perception and stylistic achievement here deserve four or five stars, a more modest three is a more accurate reflection of my personal level of actual liking for the work.
Note: I actually read this in The Red Badge of Courage and Selected Stories, which I own a copy of (I've read some but not all of the included short stories, and here have only read and reviewed the novel itself). This has a helpful and spoiler-free three-and-1/2 page Foreword by Stallman, a single-page biography of the author, a dozen pages of textual footnotes which I didn't read, and a two-page select bibliography of writings by Crane and books and articles about him, the latter current through 1980 (and which includes Stallmans' book).
