-The Red Badge of Courage- is a war novel by American author Stephen Crane. Taking place during the American Civil War, the story is about a young private of the Union Army, Henry Fleming, who flees from the field of battle. Overcome with shame, he longs for a wound, a -red badge of courage,- to counteract his cowardice. When his regiment once again faces the enemy, Henry acts as standard-bearer.

-Maggie: A Girl of the Streets- is an 1893 novella by American author Stephen Crane. The story centers on Maggie, a young girl from the Bowery who is driven to unfortunate circumstances by poverty and solitude. The work was considered risque by publishers because of its literary realism and strong themes. Crane - who was 22 years old at the time - financed the book's publication himself, although the original 1893 edition was printed under the pseudonym Johnston Smith.

First published in 1897, -The Open Boat- is a short story by American author Stephen Crane. It was based on Crane's experience of surviving a shipwreck off the coast of Florida earlier that year while traveling to Cuba to work as a newspaper correspondent. Crane was stranded at sea for thirty hours when his ship, the SS Commodore, sank after hitting a sandbar. He and three other men were forced to navigate their way to shore in a small boat; one of the men, an oiler named Billie Higgins, drowned after the boat overturned. Crane's personal account of the shipwreck and the men's survival,...

The story opens with Jimmie, at this point a young boy, trying by himself to fight a gang of boys from an opposing neighborhood. He is saved by his friend, Pete, and comes home to his sister Maggie, his toddling brother Tommie, his brutal and drunken father and mother, Mary Johnson. The parents terrify the children until they are shuddering in the corner... Nellie, a "woman of brilliance and audacity" convinces Pete to leave Maggie, whom she calls "a little pale thing with no spirit." Thus abandoned, Maggie tries to return home but is rejected by her mother and scorned by the entire tenement....

A very little boy stood upon a heap of gravel for the honor of Rum Alley. He was throwing stones at howling urchins from Devil's Row who were circling madly about the heap and pelting at him. His infantile countenance was livid with fury. His small body was writhing in the delivery of great, crimson oaths. -Run, Jimmie, run Dey'll get yehs, - screamed a retreating Rum Alley child. -Naw, - responded Jimmie with a valiant roar, -dese micks can't make me run.- Howls of renewed wrath went up from Devil's Row throats. Tattered gamins on the right made a furious assault on the gravel heap. On...

This story looks into the dark underworld of poverty, examining how it grinds human beings under its cruel heel. Think: drunkards, fistfights, prostitutes, and death. It's like the original reality television-minus all the scripts and private jets-as we watch our main girl Maggie's life go from rotten to wretched to, well, non-existent. She's doomed from the beginning, thanks to the poverty she's been born into. Ugh. With its tough-love approach, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets offers a crash course in American Naturalism, Realism, and Impressionism. So bring your own Kleenex, read at your own...

This book covers just two days of a heated battle between the Union and Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War. The novel traces the emotional trajectory of one young recruit, Henry, as he strains to cope with all of the feelings and behaviors of which he is guilty.

-The Open Boat- is a short story by American author Stephen Crane (1871-1900). First published in 1897, it was based on Crane's experience of surviving a shipwreck off the coast of Florida earlier that year while traveling to Cuba to work as a newspaper correspondent. Crane was stranded at sea for thirty hours when his ship, the SS Commodore, sank after hitting a sandbar. He and three other men were forced to navigate their way to shore in a small boat; one of the men, an oiler named Billie Higgins, drowned after the boat overturned. A volume titled The Open Boat and Other Tales of Adventure...

- The Monster (1898) is the story of an African-American coachman who is branded a 'monster'after being hideously disfigured whilst saving his master's son from a fire. It explores the themes of prejudice, fear and isolation in small town America. - The Blue Hotel (1898) is a fascinating Expressionist tale about a man who gets into trouble after staying at a hotel. - His New Mittens (1899) is the heartwarming story of a boy's attempt to run away from home after his mother forbids him from playing snowballs with his new mittens.