Fickle Fortune, or How Gladys Hustled

Written by O. Henry

Narrated by Maria Tolkacheva

People all over the world enjoy the stories of a great American writer O. Henry. Irony and unpredictable plot captivate us from the first sentences. O. Henry's characters are ordinary American people, always described with humor.

Here is a short story from the Rolling Stones (1912).

Young and ambitious lawyer attempted to ask a lady from the honorable family for a marriage. She refuses because he is poor. But he promises that after 15 years he'll return and marry her.

Meanwhile another man tries to win her heart. Though money is the only thing that matters for this lady, that's why she easily changes her mind when it comes to choosing the future husband.

A SmartTouch Media production.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SmartTouch Media
• Release date: Jan 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9781467605489

O. Henry

O. Henry (1862-1910) was an American short story writer. Born and raised in North Carolina, O. Henry—whose real name was William Sydney Porter—moved to Texas in 1882 in search of work. He met and married Athol Estes in Austin, where he became well known as a musician and socialite. In 1888, Athol gave birth to a son who died soon after, and in 1889 a daughter named Margaret was born. Porter began working as a teller and bookkeeper at the First National Bank of Austin in 1890 and was fired four years later and accused of embezzlement. Afterward, he began publishing a satirical weekly called The Rolling Stone, but in 1895 he was arrested in Houston following an audit of his former employer. While waiting to stand trial, Henry fled to Honduras, where he lived for six months before returning to Texas to surrender himself upon hearing of Athol’s declining health. She died in July of 1897 from tuberculosis, and Porter served three years at the Ohio Penitentiary before moving to Pittsburgh to care for his daughter. While in prison, he began publishing stories under the pseudonym “O. Henry,” finding some success and launching a career that would blossom upon his release with such short stories as “The Gift of the Magi” (1905) and “The Ransom of Red Chief” (1907). He is recognized as one of America’s leading writers of short fiction, and the annual O. Henry Award—which has been won by such writers as William Faulkner, John Updike, and Eudora Welty—remains one of America’s most prestigious literary prizes.