William Sydney Porter

Heart of the west

Whirligigs

Rolling stones

O. Henry

The Roads of Destiny and Others is a collection of twenty-two of his stories. "Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking" was the first story be to published under the O. Henry name. The title story, "Roads of Destiny," illustrates O. Henry's talent for irony and surprise ending. David Mignot considers packing a bundle and leaving his village of Vernoy, seeking a wider world that might appreciate his poetry. The Left Road, the Right Road, and the Main Road take very different paths, but end at the same destination.

Roads of Destiny and Others

La Ultima hoja

The Gift of the Magi And Other Short Stories O. Henry a.k.a William Sydney Porter "The Gift of the Magi" is a short story, written by O. Henry (a pen name for William Sydney Porter), about a young married couple and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. As a sentimental story with a moral lesson about gift-giving, it has been a popular one for adaptation, especially for presentation at Christmas time. The plot and its "twist ending" are well-known, and the ending is generally considered an example of comic irony. It was allegedly written at Pete's Tavern on Irving Place in New York City. The story was initially published in The New York Sunday World under the title "Gifts of the Magi" on December 10, 1905. It was first published in book form in the O. Henry Anthology The Four Million in April 1906. Mr. James Dillingham Young ("Jim") and his wife, Della, are a couple living in a modest apartment. They have only two possessions between them in which they take pride: Della's beautiful long, flowing hair, almost touching to her knees, and Jim's shiny gold watch, which had belonged to his father and grandfather. On Christmas Eve, with only $1.87 in hand, and desperate to find a gift for Jim, Della sells her hair for $20 to a nearby hairdresser named Madame Sofronie, and eventually finds a platinum pocket watch fob chain for Jim's watch for $21. Satisfied with the perfect gift for Jim, Della runs home and begins to prepare pork chops for dinner.

William Sydney Porter

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