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Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

by Stephen Crane (1871–1900)

  • Free to read
  • 2 hours to read
  • 19 chapters
  • Reading level: 6th grade

"Maggie: A Girl of the Streets" by Stephen Crane is a novella published in 1893. Set in New York's Bowery district, it follows young Maggie Johnson as she struggles to escape grinding poverty and her brutal, alcoholic family. When a seemingly refined bartender named Pete offers hope for a better life, Maggie pursues the relationship—only to face abandonment and condemnation from those around her. This stark work of literary realism explores determinism, hypocrisy, and the inescapable cycle of urban poverty.

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  • New York (N.Y.)
  • Psychological fiction
  • Poor families
  • Poor women
  • Prostitutes
  • Suicide victims
  • Slums

Read the opening

Chapter I

A 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.

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Contents

  1. Chapter I
  2. Chapter II
  3. Chapter III
  4. Chapter IV
  5. Chapter V
  6. Chapter VI
  7. Chapter VII
  8. Chapter VIII
  9. Chapter IX
  10. Chapter X
  11. Chapter XI
  12. Chapter XII
  13. Chapter XIII
  14. Chapter XIV
  15. Chapter XV
  16. Chapter XVI
  17. Chapter XVII
  18. Chapter XVIII
  19. Chapter XIX

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About this edition

This free edition of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #447, released 1996-02-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Novels, American Literature.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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