Maggie Johnson grows up in a Rum Alley tenement in lower Manhattan, among a drunken mother, a brawling brother Jimmie and endless street fights. She hopes for escape through Pete, a swaggering bartender, but her family and neighbours turn on her once he has had his way, and the city offers her nowhere to go.
Crane’s first book, published at his own expense in 1893 under a pseudonym, and a raw early classic of American naturalism. Download the free EPUB.