The Open Boat and Other Stories (Dover Thrift Editions)

The short stories of Stephen Crane are among the most prized in American literature, admired for their terse, vivid prose style and hard-edged realism in depicting character and milieu.This volume presents four of Crane's most famous short works. 'The Open Boat' is based on a harrowing incident in the author's life - the 1897 sinking of the Cuban-bound steamer Commodore, on which he was a passenger. The backgrounds of the suspenseful 'The Blue Hotel' and 'The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky' reflect Crane's early travels in Mexico and the American Southwest. The novella 'Maggie - A Girl of the Streets', a galvanizing portrait of life in the slums of New York City, is the work that launched Crane's literary career and prrovided the model for the American novel of social realism .