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Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Other Short Fiction, by Stephen Crane
Free Ebook Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Other Short Fiction, by Stephen Crane
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Not yet famous for his Civil War masterpiece, The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane was unable to find a publisher for his brilliant Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, finally printing it himself in 1893.
Condemned and misunderstood during Crane’s lifetime, this starkly realistic story of a pretty child of the Bowery has since been recognized as a landmark work in American fiction.
Now Crane’s great short novel of life in turn-of-the-century New York is published in its original form, along with four of Crane’s best short stories–The Blue Hotel, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky, The Monster, and The Open Boat–stories of such remarkable power and clarity that they stand among the finest short stories ever written by an American.
- Sales Rank: #120118 in Books
- Brand: Bantam Classics
- Published on: 1986-02-01
- Released on: 1986-02-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.87" h x .61" w x 4.18" l, .26 pounds
- Binding: Mass Market Paperback
- 240 pages
Features
From the Back Cover
The first social expose in fiction to render "how the other half lives", Stephen Crane's Maggie is one of the most powerful depictions of the urban poor of its time. As a reviewer stated shortly after the work's appearance in 1893: "Maggie is a study of life in the slums of New York, and of the hopeless struggle of a girl against the horrible conditions of her environment; and so bitter is the struggle, so black the environment, so inevitable is the end, that the reader feels a chill at his heart".
About the Author
Stephen Crane was born, in 1871, in Newark, New Jersey. Raised in a strict Methodist household, he rebelled Openly, developing a strong and lasting attraction to the vices his parents had condemned. He attempted college twice, the second time failing a theme-writing course while writing articles for newspapers such as the New York Tribune. In 1892 Crane moved to the poverty of New York City’s Lower East Side–the Bowery so vividly depicted in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Destitute and depressed after the initial failure of that book, Crane had almost decided to abandon his writing and find a suitable trade when word came to him that William Dean Howells had read Maggie, and admired it, going so far as to compare Crane to Tolstoy.
Elated, Crane continued his work, and in 1894 the serial publication began of The Red Badge of Courage, his acclaimed and widely popular novel of a young soldier’s coming of age in the Civil War. In 1895 he toured the western United Stated and Mexico, and his experiences soon found form in such short stories as The Blue Hotel and The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky. Bound for Cuba in January of 1897, Crane and three companions survived a shipwreck off the Gulf Coast; the ordeal was the basis for his masterful story The Open Boat. He then traveled to Greece as a correspondent and returned to Cuba to report on the Spanish-American War. At twenty-eight, in failing health, Crane traveled from England to Germany to recuperate the healing atmosphere of The Black Forest. He died there while working on a humorous novel, The O’Ruddy, in June of 1900.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
CHAPTER IA VERY LITTLE boy stood upon a heap of gravel for the honor of Rum Alley. He was throwing stones at howling urchins from Devil's Row who were circling madly about the heap and pelting at him.His infantile countenance was livid with fury. His small body was writhing in the delivery of great, crimson oaths."Run, Jimmie, run! Dey'll get yehs," screamed a retreating Rum Alley child."Naw," responded Jimmie with a valiant roar, "dese micks can't make me run."Howls of renewed wrath went up from Devil's Row throats. Tattered gamins on the right made a furious assault on the gravel heap. On their small, convulsed faces there shone the grins of true assassins. As they charged, they threw stones and cursed in shrill chorus.The little champion of Rum Alley stumbled precipitately down the other side. His coat had been torn to shreds in a scuffle, and his hat was gone. He had bruises on twenty parts of his body, and blood was dripping from a cut in his head. His wan features wore a look of a tiny, insane demon.On the ground, children from Devil's Row closed in on their antagonist. He crooked his left arm defensively about his head and fought with cursing fury. The little boys ran to and fro, dodging, hurling stones and swearing in barbaric trebles.From a window of an apartment house that upreared its form from amid squat, ignorant stables, there leaned a curious woman. Some laborers, unloading a scow at a dock at the river, paused for a moment and regarded the fight. The engineer of a passive tugboat hung lazily to a railing and watched. Over on the Island, a worm of yellow convicts came from the shadow of a grey ominous building and crawled slowly along the river's bank.A stone had smashed into Jimmie's mouth. Blood was bubbling over his chin and down upon his ragged shirt. Tears made furrows on his dirt-stained cheeks. His thin legs had begun to tremble and turn weak, causing his small body to reel. His roaring curses of the first part of the fight had changed to a blasphemous chatter.In the yells of the whirling mob of Devil's Row children there were notes of joy like songs of triumphant savagery. The little boys seemed to leer gloatingly at the blood upon the other child's face.Down the avenue came boastfully sauntering a lad of sixteen years, although the chronic sneer of an ideal manhood already sat upon his lips. His hat was tipped with an air of challenge over his eye. Between his teeth, a cigar stump was tilted at the angle of defiance. He walked with a certain swing of the shoulders which appalled the timid. He glanced over into the vacant lot in which the little raving boys from Devil's Row seethed about the shrieking and tearful child from Rum Alley."Gee!" he murmured with interest, "A scrap. Gee!"He strode over to the cursing circle, swinging his shoulders in a manner which denoted that he held victory in his fists. He approached at the back of one of the most deeply engaged of the Devil's Row children."Ah, what deh hell," he said, and smote the deeply-engaged one on the back of the head. The little boy fell to the ground and gave a hoarse, tremendous howl. He scrambled to his feet, and perceiving, evidently, the size of his assailant, ran quickly off, shouting alarms. The entire Devil's Row party followed him. They came to a stand a short distance away and yelled taunting oaths at the boy with the chronic sneer. The latter, momentarily, paid no attention to them."What deh hell, Jimmie?" he asked of the small champion.Jimmie wiped his blood-wet features with his sleeve."Well, it was dis way, Pete, see! I was goin' teh lick dat Riley kid and dey all pitched on me."Some Rum Alley children now came forward. The party stood for a moment exchanging vainglorious remarks with Devil's Row. A few stones were thrown at long distances, and words of challenge passed between small warriors. Then the Rum Alley contingent turned slowly in the direction of their home street. They began to give, each to each, distorted versions of the fight. Causes of retreat in particular cases were magnified. Blows dealt in the fight were enlarged to catapultian power, and stones thrown were alleged to have hurtled with infinite accuracy. Valor grew strong again, and the little boys began to swear with great spirit."Ah, we blokies kin lick deh hull damn Row," said a child, swaggering.Little Jimmie was striving to stanch the flow of blood from his cut lips. Scowling, he turned upon the speaker."Ah, where deh hell was yeh when I was doin' all deh fightin'?" he demanded. "Youse kids makes me tired.""Ah, go ahn," replied the other argumentatively.Jimmie replied with heavy contempt. "Ah, youse can't fight, Blue Billie! I kin lick yeh wid one han'.""Ah, go ahn," replied Billie again."Ah," said Jimmie threateningly."Ah," said the other in the same tone.They struck at each other, clinched, and rolled over on the cobble stones."Smash 'im, Jimmie, kick deh damn guts out of 'im," yelled Pete, the lad with the chronic sneer, in tones of delight.The small combatants pounded and kicked, scratched and tore. They began to weep and their curses struggled in their throats with sobs. The other little boys clasped their hands and wriggled their legs in excitement. They formed a bobbing circle about the pair.A tiny spectator was suddenly agitated."Cheese it, Jimmie, cheese it! Here comes yer fader," he yelled.The circle of little boys instantly parted. They drew away and waited in ecstatic awe for that which was about to happen. The two little boys, fighting in the modes of four thousand years ago, did not hear the warning.Up the avenue there plodded slowly a man with sullen eyes. He was carrying a dinner pail and smoking an apple-wood pipe.As he neared the spot where the little boys strove, he regarded them listlessly. But suddenly he roared an oath and advanced upon the rolling fighters."Here, you Jim, git up, now, while I belt yer life out, you damned disorderly brat."He began to kick into the chaotic mass on the ground. The boy Billie felt a heavy boot strike his head. He made a furious effort and disentangled himself from Jimmie. He tottered away, damning.Jimmie arose painfully from the ground and, confronting his father, began to curse him. His parent kicked him. "Come home, now," he cried, "an' stop yer jawin', er I'll lam the everlasting head off yehs."They departed. The man paced placidly along with the apple-wood emblem of serenity between his teeth. The boy followed a dozen feet in the rear. He swore luridly, for he felt that it was degradation for one who aimed to be some vague soldier, or a man of blood with a sort of sublime license, to be taken home by a father.CHAPTER IIEVENTUALLY THEY entered into a dark region where, from a careening building, a dozen gruesome doorways gave up loads of babies to the street and the gutter. A wind of early autumn raised yellow dust from cobbles and swirled it against an hundred windows. Long streamers of garments fluttered from fire-escapes. In all unhandy places there were buckets, brooms, rags and bottles. In the street infants played or fought with other infants or sat stupidly in the way of vehicles. Formidable women, with uncombed hair and disordered dress, gossiped while leaning on railings, or screamed in frantic quarrels. Withered persons, in curious postures of submission to something, sat smoking pipes in obscure corners. A thousand odors of cooking food came forth to the street. The building quivered and creaked from the weight of humanity stamping about in its bowels.A small ragged girl dragged a red, bawling infant along the crowded ways. He was hanging back, baby-like, bracing his wrinkled, bare legs.The little girl cried out: "Ah, Tommie, come ahn. Dere's Jimmie and fader. Don't be a-pullin' me back."She jerked the baby's arm impatiently. He fell on his face, roaring. With a second jerk she pulled him to his feet, and they went on. With the obstinacy of his order, he protested against being dragged in a chosen direction. He made heroic endeavors to keep on his legs, denounce his sister and consume a bit of orange peeling which he chewed between the times of his infantile orations.As the sullen-eyed man, followed by the blood-covered boy, drew near, the little girl burst into reproachful cries. "Ah, Jimmie, youse bin fightin' agin."The urchin swelled disdainfully."Ah, what deh hell, Mag. See?"The little girl upbraided him. "Youse allus fightin', Jimmie, an' yeh knows it puts mudder out when yehs come home half dead, an' it's like we'll all get a poundin'."She began to weep. The babe threw back his head and roared at his prospects."Ah, what deh hell!" cried Jimmie. "Shut up er I'll smack yer mout'. See?"As his sister continued her lamentations, he suddenly swore and struck her. The little girl reeled and, recovering herself, burst into tears and quaveringly cursed him. As she slowly retreated her brother advanced dealing her cuffs. The father heard and turned about."Stop that, Jim, d'yeh hear? Leave yer sister alone on the street. It's like I can never beat any sense into yer damned wooden head."The urchin raised his voice in defiance to his parent and continued his attacks. The babe bawled tremendously, protesting with great violence. During his sister's hasty manÏuvres, he was dragged by the arm.Finally the procession plunged into one of the gruesome doorways. They crawled up dark stairways and along cold, gloomy halls. At last the father pushed open a door and they entered a lighted room in which a large woman was rampant.She stopped in a career from a seething stove to a pan-covered table. As the father and children filed in she peered at them."Eh, what? Been fightin' agin, by Gawd!" She threw herself upon Jimmie. The urchin tried to dart behind the others and in the scuffle the babe, Tommie, was knocked down. He protested with his usual vehemence, because they had bruised his tender shins against a table leg.The mother's massive shoulders heaved with anger. Grasping the urchin by the neck and shoulder she shook him until he rattled. She dragged him to an unholy sink, and, soaking a rag in water, began to scrub his lacerated face with it. Jimmie screamed in pain and tried to twist his shoulders out of the clasp of the huge arms.The babe sat on the floor watching the scene, his face in contortions like that of a woman at a tragedy. The father, with a newly-ladened pipe in his mouth, crouched on a backless chair near the stove. Jimmie's cries annoyed him. He turned about and bellowed at his wife:"Let the damned kid alone for a minute, will yeh, Mary? Yer allus poundin' 'im. When I come nights I can't git no rest 'cause yer allus poundin' a kid. Let up, d'yeh hear? Don't be allus poundin' a kid."The woman's operations on the urchin instantly increased in violence. At last she tossed him to a corner where he limply lay cursing and weeping.The wife put her immense hands on her hips and with a chieftain-like stride approached her husband."Ho," she said, with a great grunt of contempt. "An' what in the devil are you stickin' your nose for?"The babe crawled under the table and, turning, peered out cautiously. The ragged girl retreated and the urchin in the corner drew his legs carefully beneath him.The man puffed his pipe calmly and put his great mudded boots on the back part of the stove."Go teh hell," he murmured, tranquilly.The woman screamed and shook her fists before her husband's eyes. The rough yellow of her face and neck flared suddenly crimson. She began to howl.He puffed imperturbably at his pipe for a time, but finally arose and began to look out at the window into the darkening chaos of back yards."You've been drinkin', Mary," he said. "You'd better let up on the bot', ol' woman, or you'll git done.""You're a liar. I ain't had a drop," she roared in reply.They had a lurid altercation, in which they damned each other's souls with frequence.The babe was staring out from under the table, his small face working in his excitement.The ragged girl went stealthily over to the corner where the urchin lay."Are yehs hurted much, Jimmie?" she whispered timidly."Not a damn bit! See?" growled the little boy."Will I wash deh blood?""Naw!""Will I—""When I catch dat Riley kid I'll break 'is face! Dat's right! See?"He turned his face to the wall as if resolved to grimly bide his time.In the quarrel between husband and wife, the woman was victor. The man grabbed his hat and rushed from the room, apparently determined upon a vengeful drunk. She followed to the door and thundered at him as he made his way down-stairs.She returned and stirred up the room until her children were bobbing about like bubbles."Git outa deh way," she persistently bawled, waving feet with their dishevelled shoes near the heads of her children. She shrouded herself, puffing and snorting, in a cloud of steam at the stove, and eventually extracted a frying-pan full of potatoes that hissed.She flourished it. "Come teh yer suppers, now," she cried with sudden exasperation. "Hurry up, now, er I'll help yeh!"The children scrambled hastily. With prodigious clatter they arranged themselves at table. The babe sat with his feet dangling high from a precarious infant chair and gorged his small stomach. Jimmie forced, with feverish rapidity, the grease-enveloped pieces between his wounded lips. Maggie, with side glances of fear of interruption, ate like a small pursued tigress.The mother sat blinking at them. She delivered reproaches, swallowed potatoes and drank from a yellow-brown bottle. After a time her mood changed and she wept as she carried little Tommie into another room and laid him to sleep with his fists doubled in an old quilt of faded red and green grandeur. Then she came and moaned by the stove. She rocked to and fro upon a chair, shedding tears and crooning miserably to the two children about their "poor mother" and "yer fader, damn 'is soul."The little girl plodded between the table and the chair with a dish-pan on it. She tottered on her small legs beneath burdens of dishes.Jimmie sat nursing his various wounds. He cast furtive glances at his mother. His practised eye perceived her gradually emerge from a muddled mist of sentiment until her brain burned in drunken heat. He sat breathless.Maggie broke a plate.The mother started to her feet as if propelled."Good Gawd," she howled. Her eyes glittered on her child with sudden hatred. The fervent red of her face turned almost to purple. The little boy ran to the halls, shrieking like a monk in an earthquake.He floundered about in darkness until he found the stairs. He stumbled, panic-stricken, to the next floor. An old woman opened a door. A light behind her threw a flare on the urchin's quivering face."Eh, Gawd, child, what is it dis time? Is yer fader beatin' yer mudder, or yer mudder beatin' yer fader?"
Most helpful customer reviews
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
Maggie: Beaten From The Start
By Martin Asiner
For those who read the full title of MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS, it is forgivable if they assume that Stephen Crane's novel is a sensationalistic tale of a fallen woman. Sensational it may be in parts, but it is far closer to the flood of naturalism that was dominating American literature in 1893. Naturalistic writing was marked by a belief that human beings were at the mercy of a brute and unfeeling nature that rigged the deck against anyone who dared to attempt to rise above his station. The usual result was the crushing defeat or death of that person. Crane had done extensive reading of European authors who led the way with their own naturalistic writings. In MAGGIE, Crane wrote of a good girl who wanted no more than to find the right guy to love, but everyone in her environment, even her own family, worked in tandem not only to stop her from achieving her goal but to demolish her in the process.
Maggie lives in the slum section of New York. Her dreams to better her life are much more modest than the heroines of any novel by Edith Wharton. Lily Bart of Wharton's HOUSE OF MIRTH was poor like Maggie but Lily sought to mingle with money and to marry into it. Maggie's dream was no more than to find love, and when her brother brought home his friend Pete, she thought she found it. Pete was handsome and what today we would call a "player." He dates Maggie for a while, raising her hopes of marriage, but after living with her, he tires of her and dumps her. Maggie's family is outraged, not so much at Pete for being a cad, which he certainly was, but at her for violating the Puritanical rules that forbad such a relation. Her family itself was not a paragon of virtue. Her mother and father drank heavily and alternately abused or ignored Maggie and her brother, who himself had impregnated several women and then dodged them when they showed up at Maggie's apartment demanding that he own up to his responsibilities. Maggie's sin, such as it is, pales into insignificance by comparison. Her family will not accept her back so she is left to wander the streets as a prostitute. The ending is predictable; Maggie jumps into the East River and drowns. In the literary world of naturalism, Crane had to create a hostile universe and people it with uncaring characters whose only function was to show that this universe truly was a hideous place to live. Once readers finish the novel, they are often stunned with the imbalance in the scales of cosmic justice, suggesting that Crane's vision of a brute nature may never go completely out of fashion.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
What could have been?
By I. Jaime
Let me first state that I do not own this specific edition of Maggie, and that I am only reviewing the actual story of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. I wasn't going to review this book since it is not the one that I own; however, after reading a previous review I decided that I had to review it.
First, this book is pretty much about what everyone said it is about. It is about a family living in the slums of turn-of-the-century New York. The protagonist of the book is a young girl named Maggie, whom is full of dreams and aspirations, unlike her loser relatives. Her main dream is to meet a good man and fall in love with him and start a family, to live happily ever after. However, the fellow that she chooses to fall in love with is a loser whom ends up leaving Maggie. Her family, not yet satisfied with all the harm that they caused Maggie during her childhood, disowns Maggie and drives her to her doom. I won't spoil the ending, but let's just say that it doesn't end well for Maggie. It is extremely sad and disappointing to realize what Maggie could've been so much more. She was a beautiful and moral girl. Instead, she ends in tragedy.
Now, the previous reviewer stated that this book cannot be a classic because it is too short. I wasn't aware that there is a length requirements for classics. Also, the outdated slang and cussing is outdated because the story takes place in turn-of-the-century New York. I personally felt that this slang added greatly to the feel of the story.
You, the reader, should be the judge on the quality of this novel. Do not let poor reviews detract you from picking it up and giving it a good read. I am confident that if you focus on what Maggie could have been, it will make it easier for you to enjoy the story.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Heads up...this version is not the complete story
By ErasmusLives
Just to let folks know--this version has passages that have been altered, shortened, or entirely removed from the original, and the ending is considerably changed. If you want Crane's work as it was originally published--and the ending that is both heartbreakingly bleak and visually evocative of her descent into the depths, definately buy another version. I recommend the Penguin Classics edition.
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