Red Badge of Courage

Stephen Crane's American Civil War masterpiece The Red Badge of Courage is one of the greatest of all war novels. Two days of fighting on a woodland battlefield are focused through the excited senses of a raw Union recruit, Henry Fleming. Dreaming of heroism, but shamefully discovering his own mortal fear of danger and death - and of fear itself - he flees from his first encounter with Confederate troops. But when he is drawn back into the battle he wins by accident his 'red badge', the wound that signifies initiation into manhood and possession of courage to join the world of men.