{"id":3416,"date":"2016-10-29T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-29T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=3416"},"modified":"2025-09-07T00:01:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T22:01:05","slug":"das-offene-boot-und-andere-erzaehlungen-stephen-crane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2016\/10\/the-open-boat-and-other-stories-stephen-crane\/","title":{"rendered":"The Open Boat and Other Stories \u2022 Stephen Crane"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

When a new title appears in the mare Classics series<\/a> that I value so highly, I can hardly resist. Even if I don\u2019t know the author \u2014 or perhaps especially then, since the mare Classics also include quite a few very big names. So Stephen Crane must be a true insider\u2019s tip, and whether that\u2019s really the case, you\u2019ll find out in this post.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Stephen Crane died of tuberculosis at just 28, yet in his adventurous life he seems to have been quite productive. He became known for the novel The Red Badge of Courage<\/em> (1895), which vividly depicts the experiences of a soldier in the American Civil War. In 1898 Crane settled in southern England, where he came into contact with Henry James and other literary greats.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"The<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In early 1897 he set out on a journey to Cuba \u2014 aboard a filibuster, a \u201cprivateer\u201d vessel that covertly carried arms to support Cuba\u2019s independence movement against Spanish colonial rule. During the voyage, he suffered shipwreck with the Commodore<\/em> and drifted for some time in a small lifeboat. That account, and a report of the Commodore<\/em>\u2019s sinking, make up the first two stories in this book. Another story covers an entire filibuster run, showing how the weapons were finally delivered and the hardships the crew endured.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"The<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Overall, the collection is quite varied. There are short pieces \u2014 for example about New York\u2019s little pleasure island, Coney Island \u2014 a ghost story about a woman said to appear again and again on a beach, a scene outside a winter homeless shelter, and a comical tale of a Laurel-and-Hardy-like duo who get swept away from a bathing platform. Lastly, there\u2019s also a story about the Greco\u2013Turkish War of 1897, which Crane witnessed as a war correspondent.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

My feelings about the individual stories are somewhat mixed. On the one hand, I liked the variety and found his manner of writing entertaining. On the other, some pieces felt more like observational fragments of a given situation, with only slight narrative weight \u2014 more like brief film scenes that never quite belonged to a full film. Others, by contrast, felt much more complete, such as the opening shipwreck tales. Often the linguistic qualities couldn\u2019t compensate for the lack of substance; I frequently missed a punchline or a final twist. So the book didn\u2019t grip me the way some other novella collections have.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"The<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Literarily, Crane is counted among the Realists and Naturalists, and that\u2019s clearly evident in his texts. He describes events soberly and neutrally, refrains from judging or over-explaining, and simply presents the situation. He usually writes about ordinary people facing a harsh life or a trial. Stylistically the prose is pleasant and fluid: clear, short sentences and scene-setting descriptions that quickly immerse you in the tableaux he sketches.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The book was once again edited and translated by Lucien Deprijck<\/a> \u2014 a sure mark of quality. I\u2019ve already read two books<\/a> by this translator that I still remember very fondly. In the afterword he offers an informative overview of the author and his work.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"The<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Visually, the book fits seamlessly into my mare Classics collection. Housed once more in a handsome slipcase, the linen-bound volume feels high-quality and carefully produced. The palette of grays and blues looks elegant, set off perfectly by the red \u2014 almost orange \u2014 ribbon bookmark. In short: it\u2019s a joy to hold in your hands, just as I\u2019ve come to expect from all the volumes in the mare Classics line.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Conclusion:<\/strong> With Stephen Crane\u2019s stories, mare has added another distinctly maritime volume to its classics series. Ranging from gripping shipwreck narratives to vignette-like descriptions of various places and situations, the book provides solid entertainment in pleasantly readable prose. For me, however, too many of the individual stories were unspectacular, offering too little that was new or outstanding. The quality of the production and the translation, on the other hand, is once again convincing, so you get an engaging, beautifully made book \u2014 just not quite on the level of the major highlights among the mare Classics, such as A Life<\/a> by Guy de Maupassant or Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure<\/a> by Arthur Conan Doyle.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Book information:<\/strong> The Open Boat and Other Stories<\/em> \u2022 Stephen Crane \u2022 mare Verlag \u2022 240 pages \u2022 ISBN 9783866482630<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a new title appears in the mare Classics series that I value so highly, I can hardly resist. Even if I don\u2019t know the author \u2014 or perhaps especially then, since the mare Classics also include quite a few very big names. So Stephen Crane must be a true insider\u2019s tip, and whether that\u2019s … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Open Boat and Other Stories \u2022 Stephen Crane”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"Das offene Boot und andere Erz\u00e4hlungen \u2022 Stephen Crane - lesestunden","description":"Wenn in der von mir sehr gesch\u00e4tzten Klassiker Reihe vom mare Verlag ein neues Buch erscheint, dann kann ich da eigentlich nicht widerstehen. Auch wenn mir der"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,20],"tags":[115],"class_list":["post-3416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classics","category-reviews","tag-stephen-crane"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/das_offene_boot_beitrag_2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}