The Little Regiment and Other Stories (Dover Thrift Editions)

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Summary: A Collection Of Entertaining U.S. Civil War Tales
Review: This Review refers to the paperback edition of "The Little Regiment" and Other Civil War Stories (Dover Thrift Editions), by Stephen Crane.

"The Little Regiment" and Other Civil War Stories is a small collection of Civil War tales by the masterful storyteller Stephen Crane. This particular collection contains; "A Mystery of Heroism", "A Gray Sleeve", "Three Miraculous Soldiers", "The Little Regiment", "The Veteran", "An Indiana Campaign", and "An Episode of War". Each story describes the plights of soldiers or ex-soldiers in a manner that few other authors have been able to portray. Preceding the selection is a short biography of the gifted author.

Crane's short stories are surprisingly true to the Civil War, despite his being born after the subject. Through his literary work, Crane provides a window into the life of the soldier - a detail dismissed in the majority of literature due to the centering on generals or famous leaders.

The literary style Crane presents is said, by some, to be confusing, especially due to his naming a certain person and then neglecting to call that person by their name later in the story (i.e. if an author starts a conversation in a book naming a soldier as "John" and then later refers to him as "the soldier"). However, this form of writing conveys a sense that the soldier is any soldier and that the name has no particular influence on how the soldier acts or reacts, therefore defining not a single soldier, but rather the general soldier - every soldier. Crane also presents environments not from a visual perspective, but rather from the perspective that a human consciousness would be in possession of.

The work of Stephen Crane is rather remarkable and deserves to be read in centuries to come. Despite the quality of his work, however, the book is composed of rather cheap materials. It is suggested that the reader purchase this collection only if they have the intention of reading the book a relatively few times, and that if the reader looks to have a book that will last a while to get a copy of his tales in a better quality paper. To conclude, the stories will make a great addition to any library although it would be best to get a print of higher quality paper composition.