The Best Short Stories of O. Henry

by O. Henry

Book Overview

The more than 600 stories written by O. Henry provided an embarrassment of riches for the compilers of this volume. The final selection of the thirty-eight stories in this collection offers for the reader's delight those tales honored almost unanimously by anthologists and those that represent, in variety and balance, the best work of America's favorite storyteller. They are tales in his most mellow, humorous, and ironic moods. They give the full...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679601228
• ISBN13: 9780679601227
• Release Date: March 1994
• Publisher: Modern Library
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.1" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Forgotten Pleasures

Patrick here: I'd forgotten how tasty O Henry is. I've dropped the book in front of my wife a half-dozen times. Heh. Just after she bought it for me!

A great compilation

I love this book! It even got my 12 year old son's attention. It's great if you don't feel like you have enough time to read a whole novel. A short story here and there is a good fix! The old-time typewriter font is cool too.

a great collection

O. Henry's short stories are tiny masterpieces. Each story takes literally only minutes to read (they're an average 6 - 12 pages long), but they are brilliant in plot and character development, each with an unexpected twist of some sort at the end, and each different from the other. The stories are set in New York City at the dawn of the 20th century, so there is much that is slighly unfamiliar, especially some of the language (who knows what a "masher" is, anyway?). This aside, I found myself laughing out loud more than once, and frequently shaking my head at the entertaining and masterful way in which each story unfolded. A recommended read.

I hate it so much !

Yes ! I hate this book so much ! I'll never fogive myself for picking it up !? This is an evil book - it made me vanish from the fields of internet for days . My cat hated it even more - how many times , during this few days , I forget to feed him . My girlfriend probably wants to burn it - I had to send her my picture ... she forgot , how I look like. This book made me lie to all my friends ! I am so sorry , I lied to you , my dear friends : I wasn't writing ... I was reading O'Henry's masterpiece !!! If you want to loose your family and friends ; If you want to burn you house all the way to the ground ; if you need exscuse to brake up with you girlfriend - a must read for you !

Master of the ironic twist.

A collection of 100 or more short stories by O. Henry? My mouth waters already! It's hard to imagine any literary treat that can be enjoyed in small doses more pleasurable than this. I have spent over a year savouring these stories, reading them one by one, tasting his delightful choice of words, digesting his fascinating story-lines, and the warm satisfying afterglow that comes after a typical twist at the end. O. Henry began writing short stories as a prison inmate, and he quickly fine tuned his skills behind the bars and developed into an excellent storyteller. Born William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), he produced 270 stories under the pseudonym O. Henry. His stories are superbly outstanding in at least four ways, each illustrated with five of my personal favorites. Firstly, his brilliant use of language. These stories were written in the first half of the twentieth century, and O. Henry's use of language easily surpasses that of most contemporary writers. Not only does he have an extensive vocabulary, but his writing abounds with similes and metaphors that breathe sparkling life and depth into his stories, marred only by the occasional "Lordy". "Ulysses and the Dogman" is a fine example of his skills with a language, metaphorically portraying dog owners as victims of Circe, in a hopeless enchantment to their leashed pets. Also exemplary is "Madame Bo-Peep of the Ranches" where a ranch manager has a heart fenced by barbwire just like the ranch on which he lives, and yet the twist at the ending suggests that perhaps we were completely mistaken. "A Comedy in Rubber" uses wonderfully elevated language to farcically portray a class of people today known as ambulance chasers. And "Sisters of the Golden Circle" revolves around the profound bond that exists between two married women who are strangers but yet sisters "of the plain gold band." "An Unfinished Story" employs profound metaphors of angelic hosts to tell the tragic story of poor Dulcie's struggle for survival. Secondly, his unique insight into the social conditions of his time. O. Henry has a great understanding of the trials of the lower class, and he frequently pictures the lives of ordinary people of early twentieth century America with warm and sympathetic colours. His characters are frequently the overlooked: the struggling shop girl, the unsuccessful artist, the impoverished. Admittedly, some of his images can be hard to comprehend for modern readers, and the distance that time has placed between us and O. Henry's beloved New York means that some of his verbal pictures will be harder to understand and identify with. But his genuine sympathy for the oppressed cannot be missed. "The Gift of the Magi" is the signature O. Henry story, probably his most famous tale which recounts a poor young couple who both give up a prized possession in order to purchase a gift for one another - but ironically a gift intended to complement the other's prized possession that they have just