A review by p_t_b
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

2.0

not a fan of this book. obviously some of its perceived shortcomings reside in the dated style (also good lord too many adjectives). it took me the better part of a week to get through 220 pages, which normally would take me half that long. it makes sense that the repetition, the facelessness of battle is part of the point, but i feel like the same repetition could have been achieved with about 50% the word count. also didn't like that henry outwardly redeems himself in the end. i understand why this book was successful commercially and why it became a kind of instant classic (it's vaguely patriotic, but with enough flecks of doubt to satisfy the wary). but reading it gave me a headache. i was kind of rooting for henry to die in the end, not going to lie. in terms of literary merit, this book was written 25 years *after* Crime and Punishment, and definitely loses to that book like seventeen different ways. there is definitely more here than i want to give credit for -- henry's red badge of courage actually comes from being slugged in the head by a fellow union soldier outside of battle, and he lies about what the wound is. there is something to say about the "mule drivers"/"mud diggers" theme, and the pronouncement of failure after the brief feeling of success. but in general i didn't really enjoy reading this. not that all books must be enjoyed, but this wasn't even the satisfying kind of non-enjoyment, like you get from an artsy film or from exercising. they definitely should not make high school kids read this, it will drive them howling from loving literature.