Selected Stories

Author O. Henry has become iconic, associated in people's minds with the idea of a trick ending in short stories, so much that he has had a preeminent award in short story writing named after him.

He also lived most of his short life in Texas.

For these reasons, I was curious enough about him to choose a book of his short stories for my Classics Club list.

I listened to an audio of much of the book. I also read many of the most well-known stories again, including “The Last Leaf” and “The Gift of the Magi.”

My takeaway? O. Henry was a master of the short story, taking the reader instantly deep into the lives of characters in only a few pages. He, like no other, saw the sometimes humorous-often disconcerting-always true paradoxes of life and he peopled his stories with folks characterized by these paradoxes, and he related his tales brimming with these paradoxes.

  ‘'Silent, grim, colossal, the big city has ever stood against its revilers. They call it hard as iron; they say that no pulse of pity beats in its bosom; they compare its streets with lonely forests and deserts of lava. But beneath the hard crust of the lobster is found a delectable and luscious food. Perhaps a different simile would have been wiser. Still, nobody should take offence. We would call no one a lobster without good and sufficient claws.''
O.Henry created stories about misfits. Ex-cons, middle-class girls, frustrated tycoons, people in the margin of society and affluent citizens whose life is just too disappointing. Above all, his stories compose an ode to New York, the Metropolis, the Giant, the Shelter and the Punisher of its citizens. 
It would be impossible to name every favourite story in this collection but the stories I returned were:
The Gift of the Magi - The classic Christmas story of unconditional and unlimited love. A Cosmopolite in a Cafe - A literary map of the soul of the USA. Springtime a la Carte- A lovelorn couple is united because of a typewritten card. The Furnished Room - A beautiful ghost story dedicated to the world of Theatre. The Trimmed Lamp - The contrasting ambitions of two girls reward the one and teach a lesson to the other. The Last Leaf- In the most moving story of all, the kindness of a neighbour brings a young woman back to life. The Third Ingredient - Sometimes, when all seems lost and impossible, the coincidences of Life - or is it Fate? - conspire to make your wish come true. The Door of Unrest - A haunting take on the legend of the Wandering Jew. The Marionettes - A despicable patient is no match for a wise Greek doctor. The Dream - In his last, unfinished work O.Henry creates a hallucination in which a man dreams of a crime he did not commit and the death penalty he did not deserve.