With an Introduction and Notes by Lionel Kelly‎,‎ University of Reading‎.‎ Also included are two short stories‎:‎ The Veteran * The Open Book The Red Badge of Courage is one of the greatest war novels of all time‎.‎ It reports on the American Civil War through the eyes of Henry Fleming‎,‎ an ordinary farm boy turned soldier‎.‎ It evokes the chaos and the dull clatter of war‎:‎ the acrid smoke‎,‎ the incessant rumours of coming battles‎,‎ the filth and cold‎,‎ the numbing monotony‎,‎ the unworldly wailing of the dying‎.‎ Like an impressionist painter‎,‎ Crane also captures the strange beauty of war‎:‎ the brilliant red flags against a blue sky‎,‎ steel bayonets flashing in the morning sun as soldiers step off into battle‎.‎ In the midst of this chaotic outer world‎,‎ he creates an intricate inner world as he takes us inside the head of Henry Fleming‎.‎ Stephen Crane is now recognised as one of a handful of daring innovators who helped shape modern American fiction‎.‎