The official Blurb
This is a short novel published in 1895 and based vaguely on the battle of Chancellorsville of the American Civil War. Unlike other works on the subject, Crane’s novel does not concentrate on the big picture or the glory of war but on the psychology of one of its soldiers.
My Review
This is a classic story set during the American Civil War. It follows a young man as he joins up and moves up towards the battle. It really does justice to the pre-war nerves that young men have always felt before combat.
As the story moves forward we follow the man as he moves through fear and running away up to the point where he finds his own courage and learns to live with it.
The recording is from librivox and is read by a number of differn't people. This can sometimes be problematic when there are multiple people reading the lines of different characters. In this case it actually works very well as the story is predominently a narration and so the different voices work well to actually keep the interest up for the ear.
So we have a good story set in interesting times. Well written and well read. Although it's a war story it's not really about the war or the fighting, it's about the people and their feelings.
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 6/9
Get it from Librivox
Here is the first chapter.
