The Red Badge of Courage

The novel follows Henry Fleming, often called simply the youth, a farm boy who joined the army against his mother's wishes, imagining great deeds like those in ancient epics. His regiment spends weeks in camp waiting for orders while rumors fly. Henry worries endlessly about whether he will run when the shooting starts, and he envies the confident talk of other soldiers, like the tall soldier, Jim Conklin, and the loud young soldier, Wilson.

In his first engagement Henry fights well, but when the enemy charges a second time, he panics and runs into the woods. Ashamed, he joins a column of wounded men walking to the rear, where a tattered soldier keeps asking where he is hurt. He witnesses a painful loss and is struck on the head in the chaos of a retreat, which gives him a wound that others mistake for a battle injury. Returning to his regiment, he finds a new determination, and in the following fighting he charges forward and seizes the flag. Crane describes battle through Henry's confused senses, with smoke, noise and sudden color.

Brief and intense, best read slowly. About 240 pages in the Puffin Classics edition.