The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (1895)

Mixed feelings about this little novel. It is, on the one hand, an astonishing, idiosyncratically poetic piece of writing - no other style approached Crane's at the time of writing I'm sure, though there may have been imitators since. On the other, that style has its inbuilt windiness: a 'five words where one will do' quality. Like most deeply poetic writing, the sacrifice is crystal clarity - all the action seems to take place in a yellowy-greeny "loom" of almost fabular colour. The folksiness of the speech takes this a stage further, but I can't push that forward as a criticism - it seems quite accurate and factual from an outsider's point of view. His coverage of time is extraordinary - the sustained movement through the piece feels like being immersed in something resembling 'real' time, which is not a common experience for a novel-reader, and of course the fact that the experience is of a Civil War battle gives it strong power. His delineation of the emotional world of a young soldier within this atmosphere is stunning - Fleming's push-and-pull of feeling as he both stumbles and preens is memorable to say the least. My copy also includes the short story of Fleming's death, The Veteran: a little 'bitty' as it goes - good ideas not fluxing together in such an impressive way.