Following its initial appearance in serial form, Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage was published as a complete work in 1895 and quickly became the benchmark for modern antiwar literature. In Henry Flemming, Stephen Crane creates a great and realistic study of the mind of an inexperienced soldier trapped in the fury and turmoil of war. Flemming dashes into battle, at first tormented by fear, then bolstered with courage in time for the final confrontation. 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.
"There was no real literature of our Civil War...until Stephen Crane wrote The Red Badge of Courage."
Ernest Hemingway
"One should be forever slow in charging an author with genius, but it must be confessed that The Red Badge of Courage is open to the suspicion of having greater power and originality that can be girdled by the name of talent."
New York Press
"Anthony Heald does a superb job performing Stephen Crane's 1895 book, which has been called the first modern novel about war. The novel tells the story of Henry Fleming, but at times scenes employ a montage of brief comments by fellow soldiers to suggest the feelings of the infantry as a whole. Heald is especially good at rendering these snippets and interjections without a loss of clarity. His e
