lovmelovmycats reviewed The Red Badge of Courage by Crane
Review of 'The red badge of courage' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
The characters' feelings and behaviors were all very believable. And the main character's self-talk and perceptions and bewilderment were sympathetic and heartbreaking.
The Romantic preoccupation with Nature might have been incongruous, except for that it helped reinforce the setting as firmly Victorian. Seemed appropriate for a Civil War story. It also seemed to me a very flowery language, and since I've recently been reading Romantic poets the audiobook felt like one long epic poem to me. Well, maybe not epic. Its scope was more humble. No characters here of pivotal importance in the war. But grand, anyway. Its subject was more like human nature than human politics/society/history.
I couldn't find on goodreads the audiobook version I listened to. It was good. Really well-chosen music accompanied several scenes for a few seconds at the beginnings or endings of some tracks. Also the reader was good, except that I thought the accents …
The characters' feelings and behaviors were all very believable. And the main character's self-talk and perceptions and bewilderment were sympathetic and heartbreaking.
The Romantic preoccupation with Nature might have been incongruous, except for that it helped reinforce the setting as firmly Victorian. Seemed appropriate for a Civil War story. It also seemed to me a very flowery language, and since I've recently been reading Romantic poets the audiobook felt like one long epic poem to me. Well, maybe not epic. Its scope was more humble. No characters here of pivotal importance in the war. But grand, anyway. Its subject was more like human nature than human politics/society/history.
I couldn't find on goodreads the audiobook version I listened to. It was good. Really well-chosen music accompanied several scenes for a few seconds at the beginnings or endings of some tracks. Also the reader was good, except that I thought the accents he chose for his characters were ridiculous. His own accent was some neutral, modern thing. But he made the characters, who were from NY, sound like Virginians, with soft Southern drawls. Because of their old-timey expressions, probably.
