The young Henry Fleming enlists in the Union Army during the American Civil War, harboring dreams of becoming a war hero. When he faces the enemy for the first time, he realizes that the reality of war is far from his fantasies, and the feeling of horror engulfs him. When The Red Badge of Courage was first published in 1894, it distinguished itself from contemporary war narratives by focusing on internal psychological struggles rather than external events—a focus that keeps it captivatingly relevant even today. It has never been out of print and is considered one of the great American novels. STEPHEN CRANE [1871-1900] was an American poet and author. He was a significant voice within American realism, and his debut work, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets [1893], is considered the first piece of American naturalism. He is best known for the classic war novel The Red Badge of Courage.