The Red Badge of Courage

Előszó

Introduction
The Red Badge of Courage was published in 1895 and is indisputably the novel for which Stephen Crane is best remembered and which established him as a major writer. A short but deeply intense and highly vivid book, it tells of the horrifying experiences of a young soldier on the field of battle, widely thought to be Chancellorsville (1862), during the American Civil War, and has a valid claim to be regarded as the first modern war novel. Crane was born six years after the American Civil war ended, and part of the brilliance of his writing is that he managed to convey, as few others have managed to do before or since, the realistic sensations of war - the sheer terror, the blind fear, the overwhelming aggression and the proximity of death on a modern battlefield, for he was presaging the even worse horrors of the World Wars of the twentieth century. The story is told through the eyes of 'the youth', Henry Fleming, who starts out with romantic notions of the chivalry of war but comes to see and experience war from the standpoint of the 'poor bloody infantry'. From experiencing the brutal facts of death - he sees his friend Jim Conklin die - Henry Fleming flees, seeks sanctuary in a secluded spot in the forest, rejoins his comrades and in the battle the next day becomes, temporarily at least, a hero. Ironically, he earns the 'red badge' of his wound from a soldier on his own side. The Red Badge of Courage is, as the author wished it to be, a classic study in the psychology of fear.
Stephen Crane was born in Newark, New Jersey on 1st November 1871. He was the fourteenth son of a Methodist minister. Crane soon rebelled against his religious upbringing and, after only a brief Vissza