Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Other Tales of New York (Penguin Classics)

In 1893, most readers were unwilling to accept the unconventional theme in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Today, Maggie is esteemed as an American classic, the first of a powerful group of works in which Crane explored the underside of urban life and portrayed the ways in which the rise of the metropolis altered not just the human environment but human nature itself. 239 pages.