Active Service is a classic adventure novel by Stephen Crane. MARJORY walked pensively along the hall. In the cool shadows made by the palms on the window ledge, her face wore the expression of thoughtful melancholy expected on the faces of the devotees who pace in cloistered gloom. She halted before a door at the end of the hall and laid her hand on the knob. She stood hesitating, her head bowed. It was evident that this mission was to require great fortitude.

During an unnamed battle, 18-year-old private Henry Fleming survives what he considers to be a lost cause by escaping into a nearby wood, deserting his battalion. He finds a group of injured men in which one of the group, the "Tattered Soldier," asks Henry, who's often referred to as "The Youth," where he's wounded. Henry, embarrassed that he's whole, wanders thru the forest. He ultimately decides that running was the best thing, & that he's a small part of the army responsible for saving himself. When he learns that his battalion had won the battle, Henry feels guilty. As a result, he...

"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. Crane's personal account of the shipwreck and the men's...

The Monster is an 1898 novella by American author Stephen Crane (1871-1900). The story takes place in the small, fictional town of Whilomville, New York. An African-American coachman named Henry Johnson, who is employed by the town's physician, Dr. Trescott, becomes horribly disfigured after he saves Trescott's son from a fire. When Henry is branded a "monster" by the town's residents, Trescott vows to shelter and care for him, resulting in his family's exclusion from the community. The novella reflects upon the 19th-century social divide and ethnic tensions in America. The fictional town of...

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is an 1893 novella by American author Stephen Crane (1871-1900). 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. After the success of 1895's The Red Badge of Courage, Maggie was reissued in 1896 with considerable changes and...

The Red Badge of Courage is a war novel that was written by Stephen Crane. The book is set during the American Civil War and tells the story of Henry Fleming, a private in the Union Army who flees from a battle. Overcome by his shame, Henry hopes to get wounded to counter his prior cowardice. The Red Badge of Courage is especially notable for its use of realism and for the fact that Crane had no military experience at the time he wrote this book. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is a short novel that tells the story of a young woman who is driven to unfortunate circumstances. Due to its themes...

The Red Badge of Courage is a war novel that was written by Stephen Crane. The book is set during the American Civil War and tells the story of Henry Fleming, a private in the Union Army who flees from a battle. Overcome by his shame, Henry hopes to get wounded to counter his prior cowardice. The Red Badge of Courage is especially notable for its use of realism and for the fact that Crane had no military experience at the time he wrote this book. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is a short novel that tells the story of a young woman who is driven to unfortunate circumstances. Due to its themes...