Selected Stories of O. Henry

Introduction

O. Henry's stories are famous for the 'O. Henry ending': at the last moment the story takes a sudden turn, unexpected yet entirely fitting, that makes the reader smile through tears. In 'The Gift of the Magi', on Christmas Eve, a poor young couple each want to buy the other a present: the wife cuts off and sells her beautiful hair, of which she is so proud, to buy a chain for her husband's gold watch, while the husband sells his watch to buy her a set of fine combs. In 'The Last Leaf', a young woman painter ill with pneumonia believes she will die when the last leaf falls from the ivy outside her window; the leaf never falls through wind and rain, for an old, down-and-out painter downstairs has painted it on the wall in the storm, catching his death in doing so. Here too are 'The Cop and the Anthem', 'After Twenty Years', 'The Furnished Room' and other famous stories.