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O. Henry's New York
Antología compuesta por veintitrés relatos que, aunque con argumentos muy diferentes y únicos, comparten algunos denominadores comunes que les confieren la calidad de unidad. Entre ellos, el estar ambientados en dicha ciudad, en el periodo en que O'Henry la conoció, es decir, en la primera década del siglo XX, y el tener como protagonistas a personas comunes. Los equívocos, las circunstancias irónicas, las relaciones insólitas, los desenlaces sorprendentes de cuentos tan paradigmáticos como El regalo de los Reyes Magos y Los pasajeros en Arcadia, le convierten en el gran maestro del relato corto. El autor está considerado como uno de los maestros del relato corto.
- GenresShort Stories
192 pages, paperback
Published January 1, 1964
4 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
O. Henry
2,911 books1,868 followersSuch volumes as
Cabbages and Kings
(1904) and
The Four Million
(1906) collect short stories, noted for their often surprising endings, of American writer William Sydney Porter, who used the pen name O. Henry.
His biography shows where he found inspiration for his characters. His era produced their voices and his language.
Mother of three-year-old Porter died from tuberculosis. He left school at fifteen years of age and worked for five years in drugstore of his uncle and then for two years at a Texas sheep ranch.
In 1884, he went to Austin, where he worked in a real estate office and a church choir and spent four years as a draftsman in the general land office. His wife and firstborn died, but daughter Margaret survived him.
He failed to establish a small humorous weekly and afterward worked in poorly-run bank. When its accounts balanced not, people blamed and fired him.
In Houston, he worked for a few years until, ordered to stand trial for embezzlement, he fled to New Orleans and thence Honduras.
Two years later, he returned on account of illness of his wife. Apprehended, Porter served a few months more than three years in a penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio. During his incarceration, he composed ten short stories, including A Blackjack Bargainer , The Enchanted Kiss , and The Duplicity of Hargraves .
In 1899, McClure's published Whistling Dick's Christmas Story and Georgia's Ruling .
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he sent manuscripts to New York editors. In the spring of 1902, Ainslee's Magazine offered him a regular income if he moved to New York.
In less than eight years, he became a bestselling author of collections of short stories. Cabbages and Kings came first in 1904 The Four Million, and The Trimmed Lamp and Heart of the West followed in 1907, and The Voice of the City in 1908, Roads of Destiny and Options in 1909, Strictly Business and Whirligigs in 1910 followed.
Posthumously published collections include The Gentle Grafter about the swindler, Jeff Peters; Rolling Stones , Waifs and Strays , and in 1936, unsigned stories, followed.
People rewarded other persons financially more. A Retrieved Reformation about the safe-cracker Jimmy Valentine got $250; six years later, $500 for dramatic rights, which gave over $100,000 royalties for playwright Paul Armstrong. Many stories have been made into films.
His biography shows where he found inspiration for his characters. His era produced their voices and his language.
Mother of three-year-old Porter died from tuberculosis. He left school at fifteen years of age and worked for five years in drugstore of his uncle and then for two years at a Texas sheep ranch.
In 1884, he went to Austin, where he worked in a real estate office and a church choir and spent four years as a draftsman in the general land office. His wife and firstborn died, but daughter Margaret survived him.
He failed to establish a small humorous weekly and afterward worked in poorly-run bank. When its accounts balanced not, people blamed and fired him.
In Houston, he worked for a few years until, ordered to stand trial for embezzlement, he fled to New Orleans and thence Honduras.
Two years later, he returned on account of illness of his wife. Apprehended, Porter served a few months more than three years in a penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio. During his incarceration, he composed ten short stories, including A Blackjack Bargainer , The Enchanted Kiss , and The Duplicity of Hargraves .
In 1899, McClure's published Whistling Dick's Christmas Story and Georgia's Ruling .
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he sent manuscripts to New York editors. In the spring of 1902, Ainslee's Magazine offered him a regular income if he moved to New York.
In less than eight years, he became a bestselling author of collections of short stories. Cabbages and Kings came first in 1904 The Four Million, and The Trimmed Lamp and Heart of the West followed in 1907, and The Voice of the City in 1908, Roads of Destiny and Options in 1909, Strictly Business and Whirligigs in 1910 followed.
Posthumously published collections include The Gentle Grafter about the swindler, Jeff Peters; Rolling Stones , Waifs and Strays , and in 1936, unsigned stories, followed.
People rewarded other persons financially more. A Retrieved Reformation about the safe-cracker Jimmy Valentine got $250; six years later, $500 for dramatic rights, which gave over $100,000 royalties for playwright Paul Armstrong. Many stories have been made into films.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 7, 2024
Maestro del cuento corto, este libro es muy divertido. Disfruté cada uno de sus cuentos, habiendo leído algunos en algunas antologías de cuentos, realmente un maestro que sabe utilizar todas las herramientas de este género. 100% recomendado
May 23, 2016
Los cuentos de O. Henry tienen la cualidad de lo inesperado. No sólo por lo que en ellos ocurre, que es algo a lo que quizás podríamos anticiparnos, sino particularmente por la cantidad de luz que son capaces de poseer. Cada uno de los textos que componen Cuentos de Nueva York es brillante; como un faro regentado por un alcohólico solitario, que puntualmente ofrece sus parpadeos a los navegantes, pese a la danza tambaleante del hombre que se encarga de su cuidado.
La metáfora con el alcohol no es accidente, y aunque pensar en la vida del autor sea innecesario en una reseña, en este caso la realidad extraliteraria entra en el universo de las ficciones para aumentar la paradoja. Porque O. Henry tiene las condiciones biográficas para ser un pesimista, un absoluto desencantado. Su historia personal es el marco para historias desoladoras, y de alguna forma, de los pozos de oscuridad de la pobreza y la ebriedad no surgen los delirios del miedo. Se alzan, de algún modo triunfantes, cuentos como Pasajeros en Arcadia o Desde el pescante del cochero, cuentos en los que todo lo que podría salir mal, sale bien.
Escribir es eso, en algunos momentos, un resolver en los sueños entre los párrafos, un insistir en que el destino y el azar pueden conjurar de parte de los personajes.
El gran éxito de O. Henry no se queda en ello. Si en esta colección de cuentos todo fuese fábulas con final feliz, estaríamos frente a un buen autor, un autor excelente, pero no frente a la gigantesca mole narrativa por la que me he dejado arrollar. No se trata solamente de un fabulador afortunado, sino de un observador agudo, un experimentador avezado, un crítico irónico y despiadado cuando es necesario. Leerlo es ir de sorpresa en sorpresa.
Entre La lámpara dispuesta con todo su candor, y El cuarto amueblado con toda su crueldad, hay un espacio infinito. Del humor de El policía y el salmo al de Mamón y el arquero hay dos mundos, y ni qué decir de lo que media entre ellos y Un cuento inconcluso donde la desmesura es protagonista. Todavía no sé que hacer con La última hoja, ni con el clásico El regalo de los Reyes Magos, pero quizás el mejor de toda la serie sea Primavera a la carte. Luego están los cuentos que son declaraciones de amor a la ciudad, y también entre Cómo nace un neoyorquino y La cuadratura del círculo cabe la ciudad multiplicada.
Sólo un muy depurado gusto logra narrativas de ese tamaño. La sencillez de su sensibilidad es arrasadora, señal de que es el viento, más que el fuego, quien multiplica un incendio. Eso, sí, quizás eso: leer a O. Henry es entrar en un parque mientras sopla la brisa, sabiendo que puede cambiar de golpe y hacerse un huracán.
Quien lea Cuentos de Nueva York se asegura un paseo accidentado y hermoso, inclemente y total como la primavera.
La metáfora con el alcohol no es accidente, y aunque pensar en la vida del autor sea innecesario en una reseña, en este caso la realidad extraliteraria entra en el universo de las ficciones para aumentar la paradoja. Porque O. Henry tiene las condiciones biográficas para ser un pesimista, un absoluto desencantado. Su historia personal es el marco para historias desoladoras, y de alguna forma, de los pozos de oscuridad de la pobreza y la ebriedad no surgen los delirios del miedo. Se alzan, de algún modo triunfantes, cuentos como Pasajeros en Arcadia o Desde el pescante del cochero, cuentos en los que todo lo que podría salir mal, sale bien.
Escribir es eso, en algunos momentos, un resolver en los sueños entre los párrafos, un insistir en que el destino y el azar pueden conjurar de parte de los personajes.
El gran éxito de O. Henry no se queda en ello. Si en esta colección de cuentos todo fuese fábulas con final feliz, estaríamos frente a un buen autor, un autor excelente, pero no frente a la gigantesca mole narrativa por la que me he dejado arrollar. No se trata solamente de un fabulador afortunado, sino de un observador agudo, un experimentador avezado, un crítico irónico y despiadado cuando es necesario. Leerlo es ir de sorpresa en sorpresa.
Entre La lámpara dispuesta con todo su candor, y El cuarto amueblado con toda su crueldad, hay un espacio infinito. Del humor de El policía y el salmo al de Mamón y el arquero hay dos mundos, y ni qué decir de lo que media entre ellos y Un cuento inconcluso donde la desmesura es protagonista. Todavía no sé que hacer con La última hoja, ni con el clásico El regalo de los Reyes Magos, pero quizás el mejor de toda la serie sea Primavera a la carte. Luego están los cuentos que son declaraciones de amor a la ciudad, y también entre Cómo nace un neoyorquino y La cuadratura del círculo cabe la ciudad multiplicada.
Sólo un muy depurado gusto logra narrativas de ese tamaño. La sencillez de su sensibilidad es arrasadora, señal de que es el viento, más que el fuego, quien multiplica un incendio. Eso, sí, quizás eso: leer a O. Henry es entrar en un parque mientras sopla la brisa, sabiendo que puede cambiar de golpe y hacerse un huracán.
Quien lea Cuentos de Nueva York se asegura un paseo accidentado y hermoso, inclemente y total como la primavera.
January 28, 2016
3.5 stars
My mother-in-law found, in a used book bin, this 1960s collection of O. Henry's stories that all take place in New York City. She picked it up for me and I've been nibbling away at it here and there for quite some time now. Two of the stories were already familiar to me, The Gift of the Magi and The Last Leaf - but all the others were fresh and new.
Each character's ties to New York are unique and, for the most part, they are pawns in the great games being played out in that glorious city. Shop girls and bar tenders, actors and laundresses and piano teachers - everyone wants just one little piece of happiness. The thing about O. Henry, and either you'll like it or you won't, is that there is always a zinger at the end, always something is turned on its head. I happen to find it intriguing, waiting to see what isn't really what it seems, but it might come off as formulaic. For myself, I find these a wonderful diversion - his wit is sharp and it's so clear that he has studied the human character - you can almost see him sitting somewhere and listening in on a snippet of conversation and then plotting an entire story around it.
While I was never dying to finish reading them, I enjoyed myself muchly
My mother-in-law found, in a used book bin, this 1960s collection of O. Henry's stories that all take place in New York City. She picked it up for me and I've been nibbling away at it here and there for quite some time now. Two of the stories were already familiar to me, The Gift of the Magi and The Last Leaf - but all the others were fresh and new.
Each character's ties to New York are unique and, for the most part, they are pawns in the great games being played out in that glorious city. Shop girls and bar tenders, actors and laundresses and piano teachers - everyone wants just one little piece of happiness. The thing about O. Henry, and either you'll like it or you won't, is that there is always a zinger at the end, always something is turned on its head. I happen to find it intriguing, waiting to see what isn't really what it seems, but it might come off as formulaic. For myself, I find these a wonderful diversion - his wit is sharp and it's so clear that he has studied the human character - you can almost see him sitting somewhere and listening in on a snippet of conversation and then plotting an entire story around it.
While I was never dying to finish reading them, I enjoyed myself muchly
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews