The disputes concerning the nature of the American Civil War have never ceased despite the fact that there has already been an orthodox interpretation. Likewise, the ideas of American Civil War novelists have also been diversified on this issue. Consequently their fictional writings of the war present a diversified and oftentimes conflicting nature. So are the related critical evaluations. Some maintain that the Civil War novels are not only large in quantity, but also good in quality-as least some of them. Others acknowledge their quantity but frown upon their quality. One reason for their questionable quality is that the American Civil War novels have basically followed the 19th-century tradition of the roman c-plus-blood mode of war representation. Besides, none of the literary giants of the 19th century, such as Mark Twain, William Howells and Henry James, has tried their hands at the Civil War fiction. Consequently, scholars like Wilson and Aaron found no great achievements whatsoever in terms of the American Civil War novels, while critics like Lively, Miller, etc. have made ample favorable commentaries on some of the outstanding Civil War authors such as William De Forest, Ambrose Bierce and Stephen Crane, and their works, though they have also admitted the mass of failures of the Civil War novels. It is true that the voices concerning the value of the American Civil War novels are quite divided, but some of the best novels like The Red Badge of Courage and Gone with the Wind have made their way into the American literary canon.
