Cabbages and Kings
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:06:25:02 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
This work is O. Henry's first published volume and is considered to be his only novel. The plot is composed of several short stories, which were inspired by the author's six-month stay in Honduras in the late 1890s.
"The incidents embracing as they do, a variety of subjects, hang loosely together, so loosely in fact, that at times one finds no apparent connection between them at all, and yet in the end one sees how each is intimately related to the other. ...Written by a less able hand than O. Henry's the book might have been a sad jumble, perhaps comprehensible to none but the Walrus--but as it is, one finds a joy in its every obscurity." -- The New York Times Book Review, Dec. 17, 1904)
Great mysteries are ofen meta-mysteries. For over a century this novel has masqueraded as a collection of loosely connected short stories. Looking backwards through a prism (now a commonplace critical contortion) Cabbages and Kings foreshadows many shadings: "At Swim-Two-Birds", "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote", "Tyrants Destroyed", "The Continuity of Parks".
Five Beloved Stories
Read by Phil Chenevert
Running Time:1:16:26 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
O. Henry wrote over 600 short stories. Naturally I have my personal top 20 stories that just seem to stand out because of their form, writing style and ability to convey real personalities in a very few words. From these 20 I've chosen five that seem outstanding examples of the short story art form. Stories like The Gift of the Magi; The Cop and the Anthem; Man about Town; A Cosmopolite in a Cafe and Mammon and the Archer. So this is a collection of just five O.Henry stories that many people, including me, have loved and remembered over the years.
Heart of the West
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:08:26:09 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
A collection of short stories by the legendary O. Henry.
01 - Hearts And Crosses
02 - The Ransom Of Mack
03 - Telemachus, Friend
04 - The Handbook Of Hymen
05 - The Pimienta Pancakes
06 - Seats Of The Haughty
07 - Hygeia At The Solito
08 - An Afternoon Miracle
09 - The Higher Abdication
10 - Cupid A La Carte
11 - The Caballero's Way
12 - The Sphinx Apple
13 - The Missing Chord
14 - A Call Loan
15 - The Princess And The Puma
16 - The Indian Summer Of Dry Valley Johnson
17 - Christmas By Injunction
18 - A Chaparral Prince
19 - The Reformation Of Calliope
O. Henry Encore
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:07:07:56 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
These 45 early stories, sketches and poems by the famed O. Henry, nearly all published under the pseudonym of the "Post Man", were discovered in the files of the Houston Post, 1895-1896, by Mary Sunlocks Harrell while she was conducting research in 1934-35 for her M.A. degree at the University of Texas. These writings were published just before O. Henry, or Will Porter as he was known at that time, fled to Honduras in July of 1896 after being charged with embezzlement.
Preface & Introduction
A Night Errant
In Mezzotint
The Dissipated Jeweler
How Willie Saved Father
The Mirage on the Frio
A Tragedy
Sufficient Provocation
The Bruised Reed
Paderewski’s Hair
A Mystery of Many Centuries
A Strange Case
Simmon’s Saturday Night
An Unknown Romance
Jack the Giant Killer
The Pint Flask
An Odd Character
A Houston Romance
The Legend of San Jacinto
Binkley’s Practical School of Journalism
A New Microbe
Vereton Villa
Whiskey Did It
Nothing New Under the Sun
Led Astray
A Story for Men
How She Got in the Swim
The Barber Talks
Barbershop Adventure
Did You See the Circus?
Thanksgiving Remarks
When the Train Comes In
Christmas Eve
New Year’s Eve
Watchman, What of the Night?
Newspaper Poets
Topical Verse
Cape Jessamines
The Cricket
My Broncho
The Modern Venus
Celestial Sounds
The Snow
Her Choice
“Little Things, but Ain’t They Whizzers?”
Last Fall of the Alamo
O. Henryana
Read by Phil Schempf
Running Time:01:13:23 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
A book of poems and short stories.
The Crucible
A Lunar Episode
Three Paragraphs
Bulger’s Friend
A Professional Secret
The Elusive Tenderloin
The Struggle of the Outliers
Options
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:07:14:12 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
O. Henry needs no introduction of course; the man who made the short story with the surprise ending famous. These 16 stories are all wonderful examples of his word sculpting art. They include: "The Rose of Dixie"; The Third Ingredient; The Hiding of Black Bill; Schools and Schools; Thimble, Thimble; Supply and Demand; Buried Treasure; To Him Who Waits; He Also Serves; The Moment of Victory; The Head-Hunter; No Story; The Higher Pragmatism; Best-Seller; Rus in Urbe; A Poor Rule.
Roads of Destiny
Read by Scott Foster; Phil Schempf; Craig Van Ness
Running Time:09:05:34 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
This is another collection of O. Henry short stories.
Roads Of Destiny
The Guardian Of The Accolade
The Discounters Of Money
The Enchanted Profile
Next To Reading Matter
Art And The Bronco
Phœbe
A Double-Dyed Deceiver
The Passing Of Black Eagle
A Retrieved Reformation
Cherchez La Femme
Friends In San Rosario
The Fourth In Salvador
The Emancipation Of Billy
The Enchanted Kiss
A Departmental Case
The Renaissance At Charleroi
On Behalf Of The Management
Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking
The Halberdier Of The Little Rheinschloss
Two Renegades
The Lonesome Road
Strictly Business: More Stories of the Four Million
Read by Warren Kati
Running Time:08:44:56 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
O. Henry is the pen name of American writer William Sydney Porter (1862-1910). His short stories are known for their wit, wordplay, characterization and the clever use of twist endings. Indeed, O. Henry is often credited with defining the short story as a literary art form. Strictly Business: More Stories of the Four Million, is a collection of twenty-three short stories that was first published in 1908. The setting is New York City in the first decade of the 1900’s (the Four Million in the subtitle is a reference to the population of the city at that time as well as to the title of an earlier collection of his short stories). You will meet a wide variety of characters from all walks of life who are trying to make a living via honest (and sometimes dishonest) means. Personal interactions and business transactions abound, but sometimes there is a twist. But don’t take it personally if you get fooled, after all it is Strictly Business.
Strictly Business
The Gold that Glittered
Babes in the Jungle
The Day Resurgent
The Fifth Wheel
The Poet and the Peasant
The Robe of Peace
The Girl and the Graft
The Call of the Tame
The Unknown Quantity
The Thing's the Play
A Ramble in Aphasia
A Municipal Report
Psyche and the Pskyscraper
A Bird of Baghdad
Compliments of the Season
A Night in New Arabia
The Girl and the Habit
Proof of the Pudding
Past One at Rooney's
The Venturers
The Duel
"What You Want"
The Four Million
Read by Marian Brown
Running Time:5:31:08 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
The Four Million is the second book written by O. Henry while he served time for embezzlement in a penitentiary in Ohio. The book is a series of short stories which take place in New York City in the early years of the 20th century and are representative of the surprise endings that popularized O. Henry’s work. They also capture his use of coincidence or chance to create humor in the story. O Henry wrote about ordinary people in everyday circumstances. He is quoted as once saying, “There are stories in everything. I’ve got some of my best yarns from park benches, lampposts and newspaper stands.”
Tobin's Palm
The Gift of the Magi
The Cosmopolite in a Café
Between Rounds
The Skylight Room
A Service of Love
The Coming Out of Maggie
Man About Town
The Cop and The Anthem
An Adjustment of Nature
Memoirs of a Yellow Dog
The Love Philtre of Ikey Schoestein
Mammon and the Archer
Springtime a la Carte
The Green Door
From the Cabby's Seat
An Unfinished Story
The Caliph, Cupid and Clock
Sister of the Golden Circle
The Romance of a Busy Broker
After Years
Lost on Dress Parade
By Courier
The Furnished Room
The Brief Debut of Tildy
The Gentle Grafter
Read by Leslie Walden
Running Time:4:36:39 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
If Jefferson "Parleyvoo" Pickens had appeared in print just a few years later, he might have been the "Gentle Grifter" instead of the "Gentle Grafter", the name O. Henry picked for him. His situation as an ethical graft artist gives Jeff an extra impediment in pursuing his craft, but he never wanted it to be too easy. The result is fourteen delightful tales for us and a number of new partners for him. With those partners (he always has at least one) he works his way through a number of confidence games. Some they win, some they lose, some go into extra innings. They seem never to end just the way you figure they will. In the end he conquers almost all, except for the English language, which often seems to defeat him.
The Octopus Marooned
Jeff Peters as Personal Magnet
Modern Rural Sports
The Chair of Philanthromathematics
The Hand that Riles the World
The Exact Science of Matrimony
A Midsummer Masquerade
Shearing the Wolf
Innocents of Broadway
Conscience in Art
The man Higher Up
A Tempered Wind
Hostages to Momus
The Ethics of Pig
The Gift of the Magi
Read by Betsie Bush
Running Time:00:13:22 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
The Gift of the Magi is an O. Henry short story in which a young couple are very much in love with each other but can barely afford their one-room apartment. For Christmas, they each make a sacrifice to purchase a gift for the other, with ironic results.
The moral of the story is that physical possessions, however valuable they may be, are of little value in the grand scheme of things. The true unselfish love that the characters, Jim and Della, share is greater than their possessions.
O. Henry ends the story by clarifying the metaphor between the characters in the story, Della and James (or Jim), and the Biblical Magi. The Gift of the Magi features O. Henry's characteristic twist ending and use of flowery diction.
The Trimmed Lamp: and other Stories of the Four Million
Read by Marian Brown
Running Time:5:54:51 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
The Trimmed Lamp follows The Four Million and provides another series of short stories that take place in New York City in the early years of the 20th century and are representative of the surprise endings that popularized O. Henry’s work. They also capture his use of coincidence or chance to create humor in the story. O Henry wrote about ordinary people in everyday circumstances. He is quoted as once saying, “There are stories in everything. I’ve got some of my best yarns from park benches, lampposts and newspaper stands.”
The Trimmed Lamp
A Madison Square Arabian Night
The Rubaiyat of a Scotch Highball
The Pendulum
Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen
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 Purple Dress
The Foreign Policy of Company
The Lost Blend
A Harlem Tragedy
The Guilty Party An East Side Tragedy
According to Their Lights
A Midsummer Knight's Dream
The Last Leaf
The Count and the Wedding Guest
The County of Elusion
The Ferry of Unfulfillment
The Tale of a Tainted Tenner
Elsie in New York
Waifs and Strays
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:3:22:45 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
These 12 O. Henry stories all deal with waifs and strays in one way or another; people who have somehow become adrift in the current of life. Will they find their way on their own or be helped by kind hearted folk or perhaps, stay a waif and stray, somehow outside the normal life of society? All naturally have the wonderful O. Henry beautiful way with words and people. So if you are in the mood to enjoy some sensuous sounds and convoluted flowing phrases unique to William Sydney Porter, give these a listen. And of course the endings cannot ever be predicted. Ever!
01 - The Red Roses of Tonia
02 - Round The Circle
03 - The Rubber Plant's Story
04 - Out of Nazareth
05 - Confessions of a Humorist Leslie
06 - The Sparrows in Madison Square
07 - Hearts and Hands
08 - The Cactus
09 - The Detective Detector
10 - The Dog and the Playlet
11 - A Little Talk About Mobs
12 - The Snow Man
Whirligigs
Read by Richard Kilmer
Running Time:08:17:41 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
A collection of short stories.
The World and the Door
The Theory and the Hound
The Hypotheses of Failure
Calloway's Code
A Matter of Mean Elevation
"Girl"
Sociology in Serge and Straw
The Ransom of Red Chief
The Marry Month of May
A Technical Error
Suite Homes and their Romance
The Whirligig of Life
A Sacrifice Hit
The Roads We Take
A Blackjack Bargainer
The Song and the Sergeant
One Dollar's Worth
A Newspaper Story
Tommy's Burglar
A Chaparral Christmas
A Little Local Colour
Georgia's Ruling
Blind Man's Holiday
Madame BoPeep, of the Ranches