The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (1895)

                A friend of mine who had read the Red Badge in high school or earlier said “oh the boy was just a coward” this is exactly what I find about great books having been read too early in life; it is so easy to miss the point without any of life behind you and carry that missed point with you. It is not a story about a coward; it is about young person's desire for greatness and the fear, shame, and redemption of one particular soldier. I am a sucker for redemption stories having gone thru my own decent and return.

I have not come by an estate sale hardcover but did find this 1960 soft cover that is still usable.

The young man is like most in that his mind flits back and forth between self aggrandizement and self loathing in the blink of an eye. He went off to war with out much of a thought quickly began ruminating about running from the fight. After bizarre encounters with the wounded and death Henry makes his way back to his troop to face the inevitable haranguing (in his own mind) of peers. Sometimes we just wish we could shut off the internal dialog; Henry clearly can't.
By the end Henry sees himself not as the center of the world but as a cogg in the machine. At the same he feels himself a man, becoming self relient.

One has to remind oneself that Crane was 24 years old when TRBoC was published in 1895, and that he died at age 29. Acclaimed in its day TRBoC spoke to readers around the world.