SHORT STORIES BY O. HENRY

O. Henry, whose real name was William Sydney Porter, was born in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1862. He spent his youth in Greensboro working as a drug store clerk, and then for a time lived in Texas, working on ranches in banks and on newspapers. He was imprisoned for embezzlement for three years, during which time he first began to write his short stories which were to make him famous. Shortly after he came out of prison, he moved to New York where he started to write in earnest.　　His best-known stories are of New York and the ordinary people who fill the streets. He once said, “I would like to live a lifetime on each street in New York. Every house has a drama in it. “He was forty years old when he first lived in New York, and for the next eight years until he died in 1910, he wrote constantly of the New York scene.　　He was master of the short story art; he would sit at the window of his room near Madison Square in New York watching the passing parade. He then wove his tales around the homeless strays, the lowly waitresses and shop girls, the policeman, the drunk, the storekeeper, the grifter and the tart. He found fantasy and romance in the everyday, commonplace happening of his “Bagh-dad-on-the Subway.”　　His short stories form a vital part of American literature.　本書選錄了歐亨利十一篇最膾炙人口的短篇小說，有＜聖誕禮物＞（The Gift of the Magi）、＜二十年後＞（After Twenty Years）、＜警察與讚美詩＞（The Cop and the Anthem）及＜最後一片藤葉＞（The Last Leaf）等佳作。　　＜聖誕禮物＞Della和Jim是對年輕的窮苦夫妻，Della想送Jim錶鍊作為聖誕節禮物，於是賣掉自己的長髮。結果出乎意料的是，Jim為了送她一套精緻的髮梳，賣掉自己的金錶。　　＜二十年後＞一對好友約定二十年後在一家餐廳門口見面，看看二十年後彼此的變化。兩人沒有忘記約定，依約碰面，然而再度令人出乎意料，一個成了警察，另一個卻是通緝中的犯人。　　＜警察與讚美詩＞Soapy是個流浪漢，想到監獄過冬，於是故意破壞商店、到餐廳白吃白喝等違法行為，可是警察卻不想抓他。直到有一次Soapy聽到教堂傳出的歌聲，想重新做人時，警察反而將他繩之以法。　　還有更多令讀者意想不到的結局，篇篇皆能引發閱讀的樂趣。