Henry is a fresh, green soldier during the Civil War. This short work of fiction details his first few engagements as part of the Union army, following him through moments of sheer terror and panic, confidence, distress, hopefulness and, ultimately, pride. I selected this title as part of a long-term goal to read four traditional "classics" each year. Overall, it was okay, though I have to admit I likely enjoyed the accompanying unrelated short stores in this edition more than the titular work itself. At the very least I now know what "the red badge of courage" actually refers to. ( )

I LOVE some of the creepier poetry in here, especially the one about the guy in the desert eating his own heart because "it is good, because it is my heart, and because it is my own." (Hope I quoted that correctly.)

Yeah, I wasn't all that impressed with this book. I never really connected with the protagonist, probably because Stephen Crane insists on referring to him as "the youth", even when other characters in the story call him "Henry Fleming". The phonetically rendered accents were also very distracting, and it took me a while to figure out which side he was actually fighting on because they don't say it outright, at least not in the parts that I read. I did enjoy some passages and found others particularly well-written, such as the part where Henry finds the corpse up against a tree, and this quote which I rather liked, as I read this book during a bitter transit strike in my city and felt it apropos:

"In his great anxiety [Henry's] heart was continually clamoring at what he considered the intolerable slowness of the generals. They seemed content to perch tranquilly on the river bank, and leave him bowed down by the weight of a great problem. He wanted it settled forthwith. He could not long bear such a load, he said. Sometimes his anger at the commanders reached an acute stage, and he grumbled about the camp like a veteran."

But other than that, I didn't really enjoy this book. However, you never know... some day I will try again, maybe after swotting up on some Civil War history...or unearthing the Wishbone episode?! ( )