Monster and Other Stories

About this book

From the celebrated author of the Red Badge of Courage comes this final collection of stories released in Crane's lifetime. These stories often dwell upon how a single moment can cause life to comes crashing down around someone, how one decision can shape an entire community's perception, how one statement can affect the lives of everyone around them. From commentaries on human nature such as the title story's touching and tragic tale of a doctor who risks his family being ostracized in town for harboring a man who was hideously disfigured while saving his son from a raging inferno to the raucous gallows humor of "Twelve O' Clock" and "Moonlight on the Snow", these stories show a master storyteller whose skill was growing ever greater before his life was tragically cut short by tuberculosis at the age of 28. (Summary by Ben Tucker)