100 Selected Stories [Wordsworth Classics]
by O. Henry
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A collection of 100 of author''s finest stories; it describes life south of the Rio Grande and chronicles the activities and concerns of ''the four million'' ordinary citizens who inhabited turn-of-the-century New York.Tags
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Having reached page 350, I’ve had enough and am giving up. It isn’t that O. Henry is a bad writer, that the stories aren’t well crafted, or that I object to long books in principle. This collection is simply too lengthy. One hundred short stories absolutely bury the reader. It is very difficult to make it through a book of more than 700 pages with no continuity, only a series of fragments. I am not generally a fan of short stories anyway, with the huge exception of those by Borges. I was given this book as a present, so felt I had to give it a good try. I have, and it has been quite rewarding, but persisting seems like it would be masochistic.
O. Henry’s stories mostly take place in urban milieus, especially New York, around the show more time that the 19th century became the 20th. He has an eye for peculiar incidents and interactions, which illustrate how society adapted to unprecedented urbanisation and economic transformation. In particular, I noticed the stories often show how urban spaces provide new opportunities for women whilst also condemning and sometimes endangering them for taking advantage of such opportunities. The differences between experiences of poverty for men and women, as well as single and married women, are adroitly shown. In other words, there is a lot of depressing sexism, including some frankly unpalatable romance and one very unpleasant story that glorifies domestic violence. I wouldn’t say that I found O. Henry’s stories funny as such, although he had some excellent turns of phrase. His wordplay is quite distinctive: ‘Several of us met over spaghetti and Dutchess County chianti, and swallowed indignation with the slippery forkfuls.’ He also expanded my vocabulary with words like ‘eleemosynary' (charitable) and ‘cosmopolite’ (citizen of the world).
As little postcards from a vanished past, the stories are for the most part charming and well-drawn. Their quality and tone remains remarkably consistent. They are so brief and so many, though, that the reader is left with little to cling to. If you’re collecting stories that are on average seven pages in length, I really think that thirty or forty would more than suffice for a book. I respect O. Henry’s productivity, though. Very impressive. show less
O. Henry’s stories mostly take place in urban milieus, especially New York, around the show more time that the 19th century became the 20th. He has an eye for peculiar incidents and interactions, which illustrate how society adapted to unprecedented urbanisation and economic transformation. In particular, I noticed the stories often show how urban spaces provide new opportunities for women whilst also condemning and sometimes endangering them for taking advantage of such opportunities. The differences between experiences of poverty for men and women, as well as single and married women, are adroitly shown. In other words, there is a lot of depressing sexism, including some frankly unpalatable romance and one very unpleasant story that glorifies domestic violence. I wouldn’t say that I found O. Henry’s stories funny as such, although he had some excellent turns of phrase. His wordplay is quite distinctive: ‘Several of us met over spaghetti and Dutchess County chianti, and swallowed indignation with the slippery forkfuls.’ He also expanded my vocabulary with words like ‘eleemosynary' (charitable) and ‘cosmopolite’ (citizen of the world).
As little postcards from a vanished past, the stories are for the most part charming and well-drawn. Their quality and tone remains remarkably consistent. They are so brief and so many, though, that the reader is left with little to cling to. If you’re collecting stories that are on average seven pages in length, I really think that thirty or forty would more than suffice for a book. I respect O. Henry’s productivity, though. Very impressive. show less
What can you say about O. Henry? Definitely, that at one time, he was the master of short fiction, bringing back things like hubris and irony.
This collection contains 100 short stories written by him. While entertaining in their own right, reading them back to back to back to back gives one the impression that one has read the story before, and not because he reuses plot elements, but because he keeps springing a "surprise" ending on the reader. Of course, after enough surprise endings, the reader comes to expect them, and then suddenly, it becomes a chore to read the other 98 stories.
It's a good book if you're looking to venture into the field of short fiction (though not the only book you should get). Also, it's good if you're a fan a show more short fiction and don't mind taking a long time to read a thick book like this. If you're a power-reader like me, though, get ready for some very slow times of reading. show less
This collection contains 100 short stories written by him. While entertaining in their own right, reading them back to back to back to back gives one the impression that one has read the story before, and not because he reuses plot elements, but because he keeps springing a "surprise" ending on the reader. Of course, after enough surprise endings, the reader comes to expect them, and then suddenly, it becomes a chore to read the other 98 stories.
It's a good book if you're looking to venture into the field of short fiction (though not the only book you should get). Also, it's good if you're a fan a show more short fiction and don't mind taking a long time to read a thick book like this. If you're a power-reader like me, though, get ready for some very slow times of reading. show less
You canread any of these stories and be assured that he is the best short story writer.
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Author Information
705+ Works 18,458 Members
O. Henry is the pen name of William Sidney Porter, who was born on September 11, 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Porter was a licensed pharmacist and worked on a sheep ranch in Texas. He was a draftsman for the General Land Office and a teller for the First National Bank of Texas. He was convicted of embezzlement and eventually served five show more years in prison. While in prison, he began writing short stories under his pseudonym and eventually wrote over 300. As O. Henry, Porter is one of America's best known writers, and his stories, such as "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Ransom of Red Chief", are still taught in schools. In 1918, the O. Henry Awards, an annual anthology of short stories, was established in his honor. Porter died on June 5, 1910. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- 100 Selected Stories [Wordsworth Classics]
- Original title
- 100 Selected Stories
- Original publication date
- 1995
- People/Characters
- James Dillingham Young; Della Young; Bill Driscoll; Sam Howard; Ebenezer Dorset; Red Chief (show all 11); Soapy; Jimmy Valentine; Ben Price; Annabel Adams; Ralph D. Spencer
- Important places
- Elmore, Arkansas, USA; Hartford College; Illinois, USA; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; New York, New York, USA; Riker's Island (show all 8); Summit, Alabama, USA; Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
- Important events
- Christmas
- Disambiguation notice
- Contents:
- Introduction
- Further Reading
- Contents
- 100 Selected Stories
- The Gift of the Magi
- A Cosmopolite in a Café
- Between Rounds
- The Skylight Room
- A Ser... (show all)vice of Love
- The Coming-Out of Maggie
- The Cop and the Anthem
- Memoirs of a Yellow Dog
- The Love-Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein
- Mammon and the Archer
- Springtime à la Carte
- From the Cabby's Seat
- An Unfinished Story
- Sisters of the Golden Circle
- The Romance of a Busy Broker
- The Furnished Room
- The Brief Debut of Tildy
- Hearts and Crosses
- Telemachus, Friend
- The Handbook of Hymen
- The Trimmed Lamp
- The Pendulum
- The Assessor of Success
- The Buyer from Cactus City
- The Badge of Policeman O'Roon
- Brickdust Row
- The Making of a New Yorker
- Vanity and Some Sables
- The Social Triangle
- The Lost Blend
- A Harlem Tragedy
- 'The Guilty Party'
- The Last Leaf
- The Count and the Wedding Guest
- The Tale of a Tainted Tenner
- Jeff Peters as a Personal Magnet
- The Hand that Riles the World
- The Exact Science of Matrimony
- Conscience in Art
- The Man Higher Up
- A Tempered Wind
- Hostages to Momus
- The Ethics of Pig
- Strictly Business
- The Day Resurgent
- The Fifth Wheel
- The Poet and the Peasant
- The Thing's the Play
- A Ramble in Aphasia
- A Municipal Report
- Compliments of the Season
- Proof of the Pudding
- Past One at Rooney's
- 'The Rose of Dixie'
- The Third Ingredient
- Thimble, Thimble
- Buried Treasure
- The Moment of Victory
- The Head-Hunter
- The Last of the Troubadours
- The Sleuths
- Witches' Loaves
- Holding up a Train
- Ulysses and the Dogman
- At Arms with Morpheus
- A Ghost of a Chance
- Jimmy Hayes and Muriel
- The Door of Unrest
- The Duplicity of Hargraves
- Let me Feel Your Pulse
- Law and Order
- The Transformation of Martin Burney
- Roads of Destiny
- The Guardian of the Accolade
- The Enchanted Profile
- 'Next to Reading Matter'
- A Double-Dyed Deceiver
- The Passing of Black Eagle
- A Retrieved Reformation
- The Halberdier of the Little Rheinschloss
- Two Renegades
- A Lickpenny Lover
- Dougherty's Eye-opener
- 'Little Speck in Garnered Fruit'
- While the Auto Waits
- A Comedy in Rubber
- One Thousand Dollars
- The Shocks of Doom
- Nemesis and the Candy Man
- The Memento
- The Hypotheses of Failure
- Calloway's Code
- 'Girl'
- A Technical Error
- A Blackjack Bargainer
- Madame Bo-Peep, of the Ranches
- A Ruler of Men
- The Atavism of John Tom Little Bear
- The Marionettes
- The Dream
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 813.52 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English 1900-1999 1900-1945
- LCC
- LB1050.45 .W535 — Education Theory and practice of education Theory and practice of education Teaching (Principles and practice) Reading (General)
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 523
- Popularity
- 57,385
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.83)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 5
