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    Cabbages and Kings
    Cabbages and Kings
    Cabbages and Kings
    Ebook230 pages3 hours

    Cabbages and Kings

    By O. Henry

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    About this ebook

    A series of stories which each explore some individual aspect of life in a paralytically sleepy Central American town while each advancing some aspect of the larger plot and relating back one to another in a complex structure which slowly explicates its own background even as it painstakingly erects a town which is one of the most detailed literary creations of the period.In this book, O. Henry coined the term "banana republic".

    Set in a fictitious Central American country called the Republic of Anchuria, this is a classic tale that has been loved by many for generations, a great addition to the collection. 

    William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 - June 5, 1910), known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American short story writer. O. Henry's short stories are known for their surprise endings.

    He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. He changed the spelling of his middle name to Sydney in 1898. 

    PROEM (excerpt)

    They will tell you in Anchuria, that President
    Miraflores, of that volatile republic, died by his own hand in the
    coast town of Coralio; that he had reached thus far in flight from
    the inconveniences of an imminent revolution; and that one hundred
    thousand dollars, government funds, which he carried with him in an
    American leather valise as a souvenir of his tempestuous
    administration, was never afterward recovered... 

    It is characteristic of this buoyant people that
    they pursue no man beyond the grave. "Let God be his
    judge!"—Even with the hundred thousand unfound, though greatly
    coveted, the hue and cry went no further than that.

    To the stranger or the guest the people of Coralio
    will relate the story of the tragic end of their former president;
    how he strove to escape from the country with the public funds and
    also with Doña Isabel Guilbert, the young American opera singer; and
    how, being apprehended by members of the opposing political party in
    Coralio, he shot himself through the head rather than give up the
    funds, and, in consequence, the Señorita Guilbert. They will relate
    further that Doña Isabel, her adventurous bark of fortune shoaled by
    the simultaneous loss of her distinguished admirer and the souvenir
    hundred thousand, dropped anchor on this stagnant coast, awaiting a
    rising tide.

    They say, in Coralio, that she found a prompt and
    prosperous tide in the form of Frank Goodwin, an American resident of
    the town, an investor who had grown wealthy by dealing in the
    products of the country—a banana king, a rubber prince, a
    sarsaparilla, indigo, and mahogany baron... 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPublishdrive
    Release dateJul 3, 2017
    ISBN9781387079650
    Author

    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.

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      Cabbages and Kings - O. Henry

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