During his tragically short life, Stephen Crane gained fame as a vividly distinctive writer. His stories of evolving American society are unflinchingly realistic and shrewdly ironic. ‘Maggie: A Girl of the Streets’ tells of Maggie’s seduction and downfall into prostitution amid the harsh world of the Bronx, where life is a battlefield.The other tales offer a diversity of insights into social hypocrisy, child psychology, and the wild violence of the frontiersmen. Such violence is ruthlessly depicted in ‘The Blue Hotel’. This collection of stories is replete with lively dialogue, ominous atmospheres, dry humour and graphic incidents.Praised by Joseph Conrad and Ernest Hemingway, Stephen Crane’s memorable tales have become enduringly influential.