Great Short Works of Stephen Crane (Perennial Classic) [Paperback]

Stephen Crane (Author)

Book Description

Series: Perennial Classic | Publication Date: August 7, 1942

The stories and novels representing Stephen Crane's art at its finest. Includes The Red Badge of Courage, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, The Monster, The Blue Hotel, and other short stories.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The stories and novels representing Stephen Crane's art at its finest. Includes The Red Badge of Courage, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, The Monster, The Blue Hotel, and other short stories.

About the Author

Stephen Crane was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1871. He died in Germany on June 5, 1900.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Perennial; Revised edition (August 7, 1942)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060830328
• ISBN-13: 978-0060830328
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,072,382 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Very Best of Stephen Crane, January 16, 2002

By 

Jerry Clyde Phillips (Sutton, Vermont) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great Short Works of Stephen Crane (Perennial Classic) (Paperback)

Anybody who has graduated from an American high school, or taken an introductory course in American literature at the college level, has been exposed to The Red Badge of Courage. This story of cowardice, courage, and self discovery is often ranked with the hallmarks of American literature. However, after this story has been read and discussed, all too often the author of this work is soon forgotten. This is unfortunate. Crane produced an amazing amount of work, some equal to or superior to The Red Badge, but very few contemporary readers are aware of these writings. This collection of short works and stories group together the very best of Crane's work and hopefully will help bring him to the attention of a new generation of readers.

Although Crane wrote some of the best descriptions of warfare ever written, not to mention other forms of action from gunfights to the power of sea and fire, his main interest was always concerned with how the individual reacts to the various challenges posed by a flatly indifferent universe. His characters invariably react with the egotistical assurance that they are in control of their destiny only to be knocked flat by life's viscisitudes. The character that can strip away his illusions finds redemption; those that don't are simply condemned to repeat the patern over and over again.

Two stories in particular deserve renewed attention. The Blue Hotel and The Monster rank with the very finest short stories ever written by an American. Both deal with false impressions and how these fallacies eventually lead to the ruin of the characters who hold them. In the two stories, one dealing with 19th century romantic notions of the American west, and the other with the unseemly side of American small town life, Crane combines realistic dialogue with his wonderful descriptive powers to create a world of his own making, one in which assumptions and prejudices are ever bit as powerful as decent behavior and civil responsibility.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stephen Crane as Impressionist, January 9, 2002

By 

Douglas LaRose (Santa Barbara, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great Short Works of Stephen Crane (Perennial Classic) (Paperback)

"The battle flag in the distance jerked about madly. It seemed to be struggling to free itself from an agony. The billowing smoke was filled with horizontal flashes." (Crane, TRBOC).

If you were to mix Monet with the Civil War you would have "The Red Badge of Courage," penned by one of America's finest writers, Stephen Crane. His sense of hues and the dripping colors of the sky come together to paint some of the most beautiful literature humanly possible.

Stephen Crane is, above all, an Impressionist. His writing is strongly suggestive of the culmination of myriad viewpoints and perspectives. Scenes are not depicted from a distance, but rather from isolated instances on the battlefield. Esoteric symbols are utilized to bombard the reader with a certain cosmopolitan consciousness.

"The Red Badge of Courage," however, is not my favorite of Crane's works, but "The Open Boat." This short story is the monument to Crane's genius, the triumph of his language and arbitrary mode of experience, it is like viewing a story from many assorted "first person(s)."

Words could not explain my love of "The Open Boat."

Read Crane, love Crane, regardless of your High School preconceptions.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky, Stephen crane, December 13, 2001

By 

Stephanie Frank (Meerbusch, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great Short Works of Stephen Crane (Perennial Classic) (Paperback)

The short story "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky," by Stephen Crane is a short western story written around 1890. It concerns the effort of the town marshal, Jack Potter, bringing his new bride to the "frontier" town of Yellow Sky, Texas, at the time when the Old West was slowly being civilized.

While you are reading through the book, and waiting for something to happen, you are lead to the climax. At this turning point, the stereotypical gunfight between Jack Potter and his enemy Scratchy Wilson, the drunken troublemaker from Yellow Sky, was averted. Potter told Scratchy he didn't have a gun with him bacause he married now. Upon hearing this, Scratchy came to the realization he doesn't want to fight him anymore.
The averted gunfight, a main feature of the western story, makes you, as the reader, think all such gunplay is a thing of the past. This is, in fact, Crane's description of the "end of an era." Scratchy realizes through potter's change in behavior, which is now more mature, that a new way of life has started.

"The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" is a short story one can read in twenty minutes. When the reader returns to the story, he or she realizes, it is a short story with thoughts and meanings to be ieferred beyond the actual words. It may seem simple - even boring to read, but the message is meaningful.

As a student whose first language is German, I struggled with the vocabulary but came to realize the significance of the situation once I had finished reading. Therefore it is a good story, due to Crane's depiction of the western civilization.