The Red Badge of Courage
CRITIQUE | QUOTES | THE TEXT | AT THE MOVIES
First edition, 1898First publication
1895
Literary form
Novel
Genres
Literary
Writing language
English
Author's country
United States
Length
Approx. 46,000 words
Notable lines
The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting. As the landscape changed from brown to green, the army awakened, and began to tremble with eagerness at the noise of rumors.
— First lines
At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way. He conceived persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy. He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage.
The greater part of the untested men appeared quiet and absorbed. They were going to look at war, the red animal—war, the blood-swollen god. And they were deeply engrossed in this march.
The youth stared. Surely, he thought, this impossible thing was not about to happen. He waited as if he expected the enemy to suddenly stop, apologize, and retire bowing. It was all a mistake.
He had been to touch the great death, and found that, after all, it was but the great death. He was a man.
The sultry nightmare was in the past. He had been an animal blistered and sweating in the heat and pain of war. He turned now with a lover's thirst to images of tranquil skies, fresh meadows, cool brooks — an existence of soft and eternal peace.
Over the river a golden ray of sun came through the hosts of leaden rain clouds.
— Last lines
CRITIQUE | QUOTES | THE TEXT | AT THE MOVIES
