The Selected Stories of O. Henry

O. Henry, the pen name of William Sydney Porter, is known for his short stories with surprise endings. In this collection you will find the following beloved O. Henry stories: "The Plutonian Fire", "The Princess and the Puma", "By Courier", "The Gift of the Magi", "The Love-Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein", "Mammon and the Archer", "The Memento", "Springtime À La Carte", "The Last Leaf", "The Skylight Room", "The Caliph, Cupid and the Clock", "The Count And The Wedding Guest", "The Romance of a Busy Broker", "The Higher Pragmatism", "While the Auto Waits", "The Social Triangle", "After Twenty Years", "The Green Door", "A Lickpenny Lover", "Lost on Dress Parade", "Transients in Arcadia", "Brickdust Row", "The Furnished Room", "Schools And Schools", "The Defeat of the City", "Madame Bo-Peep, of the Ranches", "From Each According to his Ability", "The Cabellero's Way", "Hygeia at the Solito", "The Higher Abdication", "A Double-Dyed Deceiver", "Friends in San Rosario", "The Hiding of Black Bill", "Jeff Peters as a Personal Magnet", "The Man Higher Up", "The Handbook of Hymen", "Telemachus, Friend", "The Lonesome Road", "A Retrieved Reformation", "The Renaissance at Charleroi", "The Thing's the Play", "Tobin's Palm", "A Newspaper Story", "Proof of the Pudding", and "Confessions Of A Humorist". This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.
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Community Reviews
DEBBIE DOWNER TIME!
The foreword and the afterword cannot help but mention how underappreciated O. Henry is/was. I was convinced these smug critics were completely wrong because I read The Gift of the Magi in high school and never forgot it. I was anticipating a whole book full of The Gift of the Magis. Be careful what you wish for.
Like The Gift of the Magi, almost all of these stories are slightly sweet and slightly silly with a slight "punch" or twist at the end. It's a cute formula for one or two or even five stories. I had a hard time appreciating it for over twenty of them. The punches became a little predictable. The short tales leading up to the punches became a little ho-hum. If O. Henry were the author of my (very lengthy) reading journey, would I have been the punchline?
I'm giving this 3 Stars for having a few gems despite my collective disappointment.
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