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Title: The Red Badge of Courage
Author: Stephen Crane
Narrator: Anthony Heald
Format: Unabridged
Length: 4 hrs and 43 mins
Language: English
Release date: 05-27-08
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 606 votes
Genres: Classics, American Literature
Publisher's Summary:
Although the exact battle is never identified, Crane based this story of a soldier's experiences during the American Civil War on the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville. Many veterans, both Union and Confederate, praised the book's accurate representation of war, and critics consider its stylistic strength the mark of a literary classic.
Critic Reviews:
"A classic work of American literature." (The New York Times)
Members Reviews:
A Powerful, Moving Classic
I had read The Red Badge of Courage on the page twice before. It's an extraordinarily powerful novel. Crane packs more psychological truth and insight into this short work than most writers do in novels four times its length.
I was, however, unprepared for the new power that Anthony Heald's performance brought to the book. It is an incredibly rich performance, nuanced, taught, full of raw emotion where appropriate. It truly felt as if I was reading the book for the first time.
The Wounded have a Red Badge of Courage
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, is the tale of a single union soldiers thoughts as he chooses to go to war, his mind upon entering the service, his fears before his first battle, his hubris and then panic before engagement with the enemy, his discombobulation during the first and latter battles, his cowardice, his rehabilitation (to some extent), his maturation thereupon and his achievements in latter and final battles. We go through all these sequential mental states listening to the mind of our young soldier, Henry Fleming, the youth, as told through a third party describing for us the youths mental thinking's. The analysis is nothing less than extraordinary.
The book is often set reading in middle school teachings. It provides insightful understanding of the difficulty of marching onto a battlefield. The book may be very true to life. What is peculiar though is that the author is reported to have said the following concerning the fact that he was never in battle and was born six years after the Civil War ended: "Of course, I have never been in a battle, but I believe that I got my sense of the rage of conflict on the football field, or else fighting is a hereditary instinct, and I wrote intuitively; for the Cranes were a family of fighters in the old days". Wikipedia, last visited August 15, 2015, at n. 23 therein.
Notwithstanding Cranes situation in life, the study is magnificent, and representative of a very likely mental process shared by many before entering battle. The Red Badge of Courage should not be overlooked as an essential read.
Final Corners filled with Teeth and Claws
It was not well to drive men into final corners; at those moments they could all develop teeth and claws.
Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage
Probably 3.5 stars. Bonus points for the fact that Crane elevated war novels to a more modern level, but doesn't quite measure up quite to Conrad, Tolstoy or Remarque. Maybe 4 stars as a novel and 3 stars as a war novel.
Historical fiction and learning entertainment only...
Great story to hear the thoughts of people in battle. The good, the bad, and the indifferent.
But, for me, a struggle to get through, even though I enjoy historical fiction...
Classic
I have been trying to read this story since it was assigned to me for a book report over 30 years ago.
