Showing results by author "Stephen Crane" in All Categories

Eighteen-year-old Henry Fleming is a private in the Union Army's 304th New York Regiment. Having enlisted despite his mother's protest, Henry internally questions if his bravery will hold true in the face of battle. Determining that all hope is lost during his regiment's first skirmish, Henry flees in the midst of a bleak and bloody situation. However, as he reaches the rear of the army, he learns that the Union has actually won the battle.

The product of a brutal father, a drunken mother, and a faithless lover, Maggie's heartbreaking degeneration is described in Crane's distinctive prose. In George's Mother we witness the loving yet selfish relationship between a son and his mother. This second story includes a brief appearance by the title character of the first.

Bored with farm life, and anxious for some excitement, Henry Fleming sets off to join the Union troops fighting the Civil War. An inexperienced fighter, he is anxious to get into battle to prove his patriotism and courage. He swaggers to keep up his spirits waiting for battle, but when suddenly thrust into the slaughter he is overcome with blind fear and runs from the field of battle.

If you've ever felt a primal urge to eradicate a snake that disrupts your evening walk then this short story from acclaimed author Stephen Crane will make sense. The adrenaline and fear many experience comes through loud and clear, "Beware, beware, beware."

The third in a series of American Western short stories compiled by Jon Tuska, and preformed by celebrity readers.

This is a story from the Classic American Short Stories collection.

This is a story from the More Classic American Short Stories collection.

While the title "His New Mittens" doesn't sound like an inspired title, acclaimed author Stephen Crane wrote this classic to help everyone understand - or identify - with the brain of boyhood. The early experiences of anger, pain, shame, and love most of us experienced as children, and escorted us into puberty, that we look back upon as adults.

These are the 13 best known and respected short works of Stephen Crane. George's "Mother and The Monster" are particularly highly regarded but rarely read and almost never listened to. In addition, this audiobook includes "A Dark Brown Dog", "A Great Mistake", "An Experiment in Luxury", "An Experiment in Misery", "An Ominous Baby", "Flanagan", "His New Mittens", "The Five White Mice", "The Knife", "The Men in the Storm", and "The Veteran".

The selections in this collection include classic short stories "Bartelby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville, "The Truth About Pyecraft" by H. G. Wells, "The Angel Child" by Stephen Crane, "A Journey" by Edith Wharton, "Phyllis and Rosamond" by Vriginia Woolf, and "The Flight of Betsey Lane" by Sarah Orne Jewett.

Here are eight stories from master American writers of the 19th century. They vary from sinister tales by Ambrose Bierce - why is that window boarded up? - and a reflective moment in the life of a woman without children, but forced to look after children, to classic short stories by O. Henry and Stephen Crane. There is even an elegiac description of an eclipse by James Fenimore Cooper, author of The Last of the Mohicans.

When George hears his mother is sick, he comes home immediately despite looking uncool to his rowdy friends, and soothes his mother. He shows his deep caring for her which moves her as well. Critics have spoken about George's being a drunk, an alcoholic, and the like. But that is not core to the story because George keeps his job for a long time; when he loses it, much of that is because he has been led into thinking work is not cool, to use the modern term.

"Flanagan" is a story not dissimilar from "The Open Boat", except that the captain dies in "Flanagan" but not in the "Open Boat". Flanagan is hired to take a ship, aptly named the Foundling, down to Cuba to run guns and people into that country. He does so in a rickety old boat and does a good job. A gun boat finds them and barrels at them at top speed. Rather than just running, the natural instinct, Flanagan turns his ship towards the small gun boat, an unexpected chess move....

"The Knife" is a story about temptation, a near betrayal, and then a recovery. A cycle of danger and redemption, told with Crane's ironic touch. A black man with a penchant for fun jokes with the White owner of a watermelon patch. They both enjoy the racial stereotyping image of the black man being entranced by watermelons. Well, Peter Washington has a moment of such entrancement. He tells his friend Alek Williams and they work themselves into a fit of envy about those watermelons....

An interesting story about how a boy goes to school with new mittens his mother wants him to protect. To do so he cannot join in a snowball fight with his friends with parents less scrupulous about clothing and the like. The boy ultimately gives in, gets in trouble with his mother, is made to eat alone, attempts to run away much but only makes it to their cold shed.He then gathers his forces to leave for California - wherever that might be.

The Red Badge of Courage was Stephen Crane's best known novel. It was one of his two great ones, the other being the underrated Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, which was also a ground-breaking work, taking up the subject of women's plights in industrial society as Red Badge takes up men's plight in wartime.

"The Men in the Storm" is a warm story by Stephen Crane relating to the struggles of homeless men against the cold, the elements, and hunger, while trying to keep a certain level of human dignity and optimism.

An Experiment in Luxury is the book end of all this as a young man visits his rich friend and his millionaire family. It is a conventional scene where the young man's friend, son of the household, encourages him to speak only conventionally to his mother or he will get on her bad side. We see her preoccupied with her worries and the husband/millionaire taking his mind off of it all by playing with a kitten.

"The Open Boat" is considered Stephen Crane's finest work and one of the great short stories of all time. The story begins with four men in an open boat, subject to the vagaries of the sea after their ship went down. The Captain, though injured, retains control over the boat and its occupants by force of habit and uncanny skills. In this trial, he proves his worth, putting his men first, guiding them at every step of the way.

"An Episode of War", which is quite short, is an unexpected Stephen Crane jewel. Crane is best known for three short stories, "The Open Boa"t, thought by many to be the best short story ever written, "The Blue Hotel", and "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky". "An Episode of War" is perhaps the best known of the other ten Crane stories.