Audiobooks by Stephen Crane

The Red Badge of Courage was published in 1895, when its author, an impoverished writer living a bohemian life in New York, was only twenty-three. It immediately became a bestseller, and Stephen Crane became famous. Crane set out to create "a psychological portrayal of fear." Henry Fleming, a Union Army volunteer in the Civil War, thinks "that perhaps in a battle he might run....As far as war was concerned he knew nothing of himself." And he does run in his first battle, full of fear and then remorse. He encounters a grotesquely rotting corpse propped against a tree, and a column of wounded men, one of whom is a friend who dies horribly in front of him. Fleming receives his own "red badge" when a fellow soldier hits him in the head with a gun. "The idea of falling like heroes on ceremonial battlefields," Ford Madox Ford remarked later, "was gone forever." Shelby Foote, author of The Civil The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hardbound editions of important works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoringas its emblem the running torch-bearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inaugurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.

Stephen Crane (Author), Scott Brick (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Red Badge of Courage

Following its initial appearance in serial form, Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage was published as a complete work in 1895 and quickly became the benchmark for modern antiwar literature. In Henry Flemming, Stephen Crane creates a great and realistic study of the mind of an inexperienced soldier trapped in the fury and turmoil of war. Flemming dashes into battle, at first tormented by fear, then bolstered with courage in time for the final confrontation. Although the exact battle is never identified, Crane based this story of a soldier's experiences during the American Civil War on the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville. Many veterans, both Union and Confederate, praised the book's accurate representation of war, and critics consider its stylistic strength the mark of a literary classic. "A classic work of American literature."-New York Times

Stephen Crane (Author), Anthony Heald (Narrator)

Audiobook

Classic American Short Stories

Represented here are 16 short stories by seven great American writers, dating from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Different in atmosphere and writing style, they nevertheless caught the mood and concerns of the day in a way that was distinctly American. Kate Chopin's 'Regret' is a reflective moment in the life of a woman without children, forced to look after children; Bierce's 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' leaves echoes in the imagination; the stories by Crane and London recall the themes of the Civil War and the Klondike for which they are well known. Twain's humor is to the fore in 'The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County' and O. Henry's sharp observation makes his neat tales a joy to listen to. There is even an elegiac description of an eclipse by James Fenimore Cooper, author of The Last of the Mohicans. Read with sensitivity and skill by Garrick Hagon, Liza Ross and William Roberts

Ambrose Bierce, Jack London, James Fenimore Cooper, Kate Chopin, Mark Twain, O. Henry, Stephen Crane (Author), Garrick Hagon, Liza Ross, William Roberts (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Red Badge of Courage - Unabridged

An early classic of American literature, 'The Red Badge of Courage' tells the story of private Henry Fleming, a young soldier in the Union Army, who flees the battlefield and later returns in shame, seeking to redeem himself by receiving a war wound - a “red badge of courage” - in the conflict. Hailed for over a century as one of the finest war novels ever written, Crane’s tale is an early example of American Realism and Naturalism and, despite the author never having seen a battlefield, has been praised for its accurate and chilling portrait of war. The Red Badge of Courage was an immediate sensation and soon became an international bestseller, cementing Crane as a celebrated literary talent at just twenty-four. It has gone on to become one of the most widely read and admired books of early American literature. This unabridged version of the text also includes a brief biography of the author.

Stephen Crane (Author), Christopher M. Walsh (Narrator)

Audiobook

Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage

Henry Fleming had no idea how horrible war really was. Attacks come from all sides, bullets fly, bombs crash. Men everywhere are wounded, bleeding, and dying. Now, Henry's fighting for his life and he's scared. He must make a decision, perhaps the most difficult decision he will ever make in his life: save himself, run from the enemy and desert his friends, or fight, be brave, and risk his life. If he stays to fight, he may die with his regiment. If he runs, he'll have to live with knowing he was a coward. Can Henry find the strength within himself to earn his red badge of courage?

Stephen Crane (Author), Jerry Robbins, Nick Aalerud, The Colonial Radio Players (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Open Boat

Stephen Crane (Author), Richard Rohan (Narrator)

Audiobook

An Audio Bundle: Blood & The War

In Blood, the Civil War, the most dramatic moment in this nation's history, also produced some of our greatest literature. From tragic charges to prison escapes to the desolation wrought on those who stayed behind, Blood is an extraordinary collection of reminiscences, fiction, and excerpts from diaries and letters by an array of soldiers, writers and observers that includes Abraham Lincoln, General George Pickett, Walt Whitman, Ulysses S. Grant and Stephen Crane. In The War, no one knew it was going to be that bad. World War II killed some 60 million people-20 million of them soldiers-and inflicted wounds, bereavement, poverty and suffering on countless others. But such destruction was an impossible to imagine in advance as it was for young pilots-in-training to imagine their coming fiery deaths; or for Jews to foresee their last moments in the gas chambers; or for parents to imagine their children killed by the mortars and bullets and other munitions that factories churned out in such enormous quantities. As impossible, perhaps, as it is for us to imagine a disaster of similar scale in our future. The War presents an unforgettable mosaic of memoirs from soldiers, citizens and historians, detailing the immense tragedy that stretched from the Western Front to the Pacific Theater.

A.J. Liebling, Abraham Lincoln, Adeline Grey, Cornelius Ryan, David Kenyon Webster, George Pickett, George T. Stevens, James J. Fahey, Janet Flanner, John Mcelroy, Lewis H. Carlson., Lt. Colonel W.W. Blackford, Paul Fussell, Sarah Morgan Dawson, Stephen Crane, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Ulysses S. Grant, Walt Whitman, William Manchester, William T. Sherman (Author), Barrett Whitener, Christopher Graybill, Colleen Delany., Delores King Williams, Grover Gardner, Terrence Aselford (Narrator)

Audiobook

George's Mother: A Stephen Crane Story

George's Mother George's Mother is a moving story about a mother, the little old woman, and her son, George. They are in the same tenement as the Johnsons of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, but have a much dearer relationship. George's Mother is at the center of it all as a warm loving mother, worried about her son. When George hears his mother is sick, he comes home immediately despite looking uncool to his rowdy friends, and soothes his mother. He shows his deep caring for her which moves her as well. Critics have spoken about George's being a drunk, an alcoholic, and the like. But that is not core to the story because George keeps his job for a long time; when he loses it, much of that is because he has been led into thinking work is not cool, to use the modern term. He drinks, he carouses, but unlike the characters in Maggie A Girl of the Streets, George stays home quietly many nights with his mother and reads the paper. This is not a story to be subjected to buttonholing "isms." Crane has created a live world of round characters to quote EM Forster. George sees Maggie and has a magical set of moments dreaming of her as the perfect woman, but nothing happens except George sees another man take her out. And that was that. As with many such moments in Crane, a moment was missed. If Maggie and George had gotten together, they probably would have survived quite nicely and had a better outcome with Maggie living and George having company, as well as his mother having a woman she could relate to coming from the same tenement. This novel is much talked about but little read. You should listen to it. The novel, as with may Crane short stories, may come off better in the listening than in the reading. Another Crane triumph. As with all Simply audio books, we provide a commentary in an afterword for those interested.

Stephen Crane (Author), Deaver Brown, Harvard AB & MBA (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Red Badge of Courage

When young Henry Fleming joins the Union army, he dreams of becoming a great hero. But after running in terror from battle, he must face his cowardice and fight bravely to win back his self-respect. Filled with vivid battle scenes, The Red Badge of Courage is considered a masterpiece of literature about war.

Stephen Crane (Author), Saddleback Educational Publishing (Narrator)

Audiobook

Deep Blue: Stories of Shipwreck, Sunken Treasure and Survival

For those who dare, things often go wrong under the sea. Such tragedies, spurred by the booming interest in the Titanic and the Andrea Doria, have been the focus of tremendous literature form the world's finest authors. Deep Blue offers compelling tales of shipwrecks and salvage, submarine adventure and free diving, nautical survival and cannibalism.

Farley Mowat, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Philbrick, Patrick O'brian, Philip Ashton, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rockwell Kent, Stephen Crane (Author), Barrett Whitener, Nick Sampson, Richard Rohan, Terence Aselford (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Pace of Youth: The Classic Short Story

Though best known for The Red Badge of Courage, his classic novel of men at war, Stephen Crane produced a wealth of other stories that stand among the most acclaimed and enduring in the history of American fiction. This adaptation of Crane’s classic short story “The Pace of Youth” was produced with wonderful sound effects and music by veteran radio theater producer Joe Bevilacqua, who is joined in the fine cast by William Melillo, Cathi Tully, Peter Cummings, and Leslie Spital.

Stephen Crane (Author), A Full Cast, Bill Melillo, Cathleen Tully, Joe Bevilacqua, Leslie Spital, Peter Cummings (Narrator)

Audiobook

An Episode of War

An army lieutenant concentrates on rationing out his company's supply of coffee, meticulously dividing the brown squares before him, when a shot rings out. The enlisted men, startled by the noise, suddenly see blood saturating their lieutenant's sleeve. In pain, the wounded officer sways, winces in disbelief, mutely surveys the forest, and tries instinctively and clumsily to sheathe the sword that he has been using to count out the coffee packets. His mind swirls with mysterious revelations about existence and the meaning of life. As his dumbstruck, sympathetic troops...

Stephen Crane (Author), Christopher Graybill (Narrator)

Audiobook