Monster and Other Stories by Stephen Crane and Published By Dover Thrift Editions is a collection of three short stories by Stephen Crane. This collection includes “Monster”, “The Blue Hotel”, and “His New Mittens.”

I admit, I never read Red Badge of Courage even though I should have at least twice through first twelve years of schooling. The book never came up in my college studies and graduate school as required reading, but I was interested in it although I had too much required reading to get through first. After reading Monster, I have even more reason to read Red Badge of Courage. Crane was an excellent writer.

These three stories focus on human actions and reactions. “Monster” is particularly interesting as it deals with a black man, Hank, who saves his employer’s son from a fire, but in the process becomes horribly disfigured. The employer, a doctor, does what he can for Hank, and supports him. The reactions of the town people play a central role in the story and how they deal with a physically and mentally disfigured man in their town. It makes the reader think also about race and if that made any difference in the story. “The Blue Hotel” is another story that reads like good fiction, but it has an underlying plot of how random actions lead to a certain outcome. “His New Mittens” appears to be a child’s story filled with the emotions and logic of a child. From peer pressure to embarrassment and from resentment to belonging. A very well told story with much more to it than the title and opening seem to portray.

This collection gives the reader three great stories they probably never read or for that matter heard of. To most people, Crane would seem to be the “one hit wonder” writer of Red Badge of Courage. This collection shows that there is much more depth to the writer than just a war story writer. Very much worth the read. ( )

Whenever I need to feed illiterate, I read stories from the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. I'd like to think that earlier writers just really liked their thesauri, or maybe in the past people just really liked those Improve Your Vocabulary quizzes, but still, my goodness are there a lot of words I don't know.

The Monster and Other Stories, fitting into that last nineteenth/early twentieth century category has words I don't know. It has the word dude used in a non-surfer way. It has some insidious racism that was probably actually considered as progressive non-racist at the time. It has three stories, one of which I completely forgot after reading it (The Blue Hotel) and I had to open up my kobo last night because I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was. It's a somewhat odd choice for the sandwich filling of this trio of stories. The first (The Monster) and the last (His New Mittens) are set in the same town, are about family, are about children and adults and family and expectations, while The Blue Hotel is all men, all adults, in a hotel out on the plain (Nebraska I think. I suppose I could look it up.). All three stories are like whirlpools though, or tornadoes, or something that spins and spins: we start in close and expand out, more and more people entering the narrative, then spiral back in. It's the natural way that Crane does this, this spiraling, that makes these stories. The initial and final simplicity of them is deceptive; there is a lot happening in each one (even the one I forgot).

But it is a bit dated. And it's very American in that way that it can't seem to envisage anything but what's important here being important. And it took me forever to read the eighty-six pages. But then I got to say Mineola a bunch of times though, since that's where Dover, the publisher, is located. Mineola. Min-eeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ola. Mini-OH-la. It seems like the name of a place where a Stephen Crane story should be located.

I will try to steal Stephen Crane's spiraling out for my own stories. A good piece of writing to help me improve my own.

The Monster and Other Stories by Stephen Crane went on sale February 18, 2015.

I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )

I received a free kindle copy of The Monster and Other Stories by Stephen Crane, published by Dover Publishing from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

I gave this book of stories five stars. It's a classic. The Monster is the primary story & has dated language & social mores, but still stands the test of time. For a dose of mild horror, I recommend it. ( )

Full review to come! ( )