Essay Database

Surprise! O. Henry's multitude of short stories are still read and enjoyed almost as much today as when they were first published. While he had done some writing before, it was during his three-year incarceration in the Columbus, Ohio Penitentiary for fraud that he began to write seriously. (O. Henry vi) O. Henry was an observer of human nature "who liked to walk about the city at night, studying faces and inventing stories about them." (…

…While the surprise ending in the "Gift of the Magi" touches our hearts tenderly, O. Henry also reaches us when the tables are turned in the "Ransom of Red Chief." We are filled with mirthful laughter over the kidnappers having to pay to return their victim. This ability to draw the readers in and give them something to identify with is what has made O. Henry's works some of the most popular over the decades.