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Heart of the West
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160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1907
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About the author
O. Henry
2,911 books1,860 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 - 30 of 58 reviews
June 12, 2014
Like many of you, I suspect, I read The Gift of the Magi and The Ransom of Red Chief in school, enjoyed them both, and then never gave O. Henry another thought.
Man, was I an idiot...
This is a fantastic collection of western-themed stories, many feature the man's signature surprise endings. There are tales of cowpunchers, desperados and ranchers in love. Most explore happy times, though death and sorrow do pay an infrequent visit. More than once the folly of male/female relationships is explored with predictably humorous results.
My favorite story, The Ransom of Mack, involves an old miner who attempts to dissuade a young lady from marrying his housemate.
"Now, Rebosa, I'm old enough to have owed money to your father. And that old, specious, dressed-up, garbled, sea-sick, ptomaine prancing around avidiously like an irremediable turkey gobbler with patent leather shoes on is my best friend. Why did you go and get him invested in this marriage business?"
Need more evidence of O. Henry's greatness? Try this lengthy but lovely passage from The Missing Chord:
The ranch rested upon the summit of a lenient slope. The ambient prairie, diversified by arroyos and murky patches of brush and pear, lay around us like a darkened bowl at the bottom of which we reposed as dregs. Like a turquoise cover the sky pinned us there. The miraculous air, heady with ozone and made memorably sweet by leagues of wild flowerets gave tang and savour to the breath. In the sky was a great, round, mellow searchlight which we knew to be no moon, but the dark lantern of summer, who came to hunt northward the cowering spring. In the nearest corral a flock of sheep lay silent until a groundless panic would send a squad of them huddling together with a drumming rush. For other sounds a shrill family of coyotes yapped beyond the shearing-pen, and whippoorwills twittered in the long grass. But even these dissonances hardly rippled the clear torrent of the mockingbirds' notes that fell from a dozen neighboring shrubs and trees. It would not have been preposterous for one to tiptoe and essay to touch the stars, they hung so bright and imminent.
Lovely, huh? Read and savour this man's writing.
Man, was I an idiot...
This is a fantastic collection of western-themed stories, many feature the man's signature surprise endings. There are tales of cowpunchers, desperados and ranchers in love. Most explore happy times, though death and sorrow do pay an infrequent visit. More than once the folly of male/female relationships is explored with predictably humorous results.
My favorite story, The Ransom of Mack, involves an old miner who attempts to dissuade a young lady from marrying his housemate.
"Now, Rebosa, I'm old enough to have owed money to your father. And that old, specious, dressed-up, garbled, sea-sick, ptomaine prancing around avidiously like an irremediable turkey gobbler with patent leather shoes on is my best friend. Why did you go and get him invested in this marriage business?"
Need more evidence of O. Henry's greatness? Try this lengthy but lovely passage from The Missing Chord:
The ranch rested upon the summit of a lenient slope. The ambient prairie, diversified by arroyos and murky patches of brush and pear, lay around us like a darkened bowl at the bottom of which we reposed as dregs. Like a turquoise cover the sky pinned us there. The miraculous air, heady with ozone and made memorably sweet by leagues of wild flowerets gave tang and savour to the breath. In the sky was a great, round, mellow searchlight which we knew to be no moon, but the dark lantern of summer, who came to hunt northward the cowering spring. In the nearest corral a flock of sheep lay silent until a groundless panic would send a squad of them huddling together with a drumming rush. For other sounds a shrill family of coyotes yapped beyond the shearing-pen, and whippoorwills twittered in the long grass. But even these dissonances hardly rippled the clear torrent of the mockingbirds' notes that fell from a dozen neighboring shrubs and trees. It would not have been preposterous for one to tiptoe and essay to touch the stars, they hung so bright and imminent.
Lovely, huh? Read and savour this man's writing.
August 23, 2024
O. Henry was a master of the well told short story, so much so that an annual award for exceptional short stories bears his name. Yet today this prolific writer is best known through only a limited selection of his tales. You probably know The Gift of the Magi, The Cop and the Anthem, The Last Leaf, or The Ransom of Red Chief because these are the stand out tales that make it into his collections. The bulk of his work, collected into many volumes published during his lifetime, goes unread.
Heart of the West is one of those neglected volumes. Few, if any, of the tales from this book (first published in 1907) make it into the reprinted collections of O. Henry stories that most are familiar with. Yet these tales display the wit, charm, and fun that are hallmarks of his style.
Unlike O. Henry’s better known stories, these are not urban tales of early 20th century NYC. Instead, as could be guessed from the title, these are stories of the American West, filled with rustic cowpokes, prospectors, outlaws, and cattle queens, with the occasional northern sharpie or tramp thrown into the sagebrush for contrast. O. Henry showed himself just as much home on the range as he was in the tenements and dancehalls of New York.
While none of these tales packs the same punch as O. Henry’s best known and most collected stories, each is well told and worth reading. It is a case of the whole adding up to more than the sum of its parts. Below are a sampling of a few of my favorites.
Hearts and Crosses spins a tale of marital discord between a cowpoke trail boss and his wife, the daughter who inherited the ranch and became cattle queen. Trail boss feels like a junior partner, and doesn’t care for it:
”What was that you called me Baldy?” he asked. “What kind of concert was it?”
“A consort,” corrected Baldy, “A Prince Consort. It’s a kinda short-card pseudonym. You come in somewhere between Jack high and a four card flush.”
The Ransom of Mac: Two prospectors strike it rich and go to town for rest and relaxation. One tries to save his partner from being trapped into marriage by a young woman he takes as a gold digger. Miscommunication supplies the O. Henry humorous twist ending.
The Handbook of Hyman: A tale of a pair of Western pards courting the same gal. One uses romantic poetry, the other a book of facts and statistics. Guess who prevailed?
”Let us sit on this log at the roadside,” says I, “and forget the inhumanity and ribaldry of the poets. It is in the glorious columns of ascertained facts and legalized measures that beauty is to be found. In this very log that we sit upon is statistics more wonderful than any poem.”
The Pimienta Pancakes: More courting chicanery as a cowpoke and sheep rancher compete for the young lady. Gastronomical guile proves the winning hand in this high stakes courtship.
Seats of the Haughty: A slick, northern confidence man is frustrated in his attempts to work a newly oil rich cowboy whose idea of luxury tops out at beans and saddles.
The Higher Abdication: This is a busy tale, loaded with family feuds, Star crossed lovers, kidnapped kids, and a colorful, young Tramp from Chicago who finds himself stranded on a ranch and forced to work. It all meshes together in the end in a charming, if improbable climax.
The Caballero’s Way: A tragic love triangle between a desperate outlaw, his lady, and the upright Texas Ranger set on bringing him to justice. O. Henry’s signature twist ending is surprisingly dark in this tale.
”The Cisco Kid had killed six men in more or less fair scrimmages, had murdered twice as many, mostly Mexicans, and had winged a larger number who he modestly forbore to count. Therefore, a woman loved him. The Kid was twenty-five, looked twenty, and a careful insurance company would have estimated the probable time of his demise at, say, twenty-six.”
Heart of the West is one of those neglected volumes. Few, if any, of the tales from this book (first published in 1907) make it into the reprinted collections of O. Henry stories that most are familiar with. Yet these tales display the wit, charm, and fun that are hallmarks of his style.
Unlike O. Henry’s better known stories, these are not urban tales of early 20th century NYC. Instead, as could be guessed from the title, these are stories of the American West, filled with rustic cowpokes, prospectors, outlaws, and cattle queens, with the occasional northern sharpie or tramp thrown into the sagebrush for contrast. O. Henry showed himself just as much home on the range as he was in the tenements and dancehalls of New York.
While none of these tales packs the same punch as O. Henry’s best known and most collected stories, each is well told and worth reading. It is a case of the whole adding up to more than the sum of its parts. Below are a sampling of a few of my favorites.
Hearts and Crosses spins a tale of marital discord between a cowpoke trail boss and his wife, the daughter who inherited the ranch and became cattle queen. Trail boss feels like a junior partner, and doesn’t care for it:
”What was that you called me Baldy?” he asked. “What kind of concert was it?”
“A consort,” corrected Baldy, “A Prince Consort. It’s a kinda short-card pseudonym. You come in somewhere between Jack high and a four card flush.”
The Ransom of Mac: Two prospectors strike it rich and go to town for rest and relaxation. One tries to save his partner from being trapped into marriage by a young woman he takes as a gold digger. Miscommunication supplies the O. Henry humorous twist ending.
The Handbook of Hyman: A tale of a pair of Western pards courting the same gal. One uses romantic poetry, the other a book of facts and statistics. Guess who prevailed?
”Let us sit on this log at the roadside,” says I, “and forget the inhumanity and ribaldry of the poets. It is in the glorious columns of ascertained facts and legalized measures that beauty is to be found. In this very log that we sit upon is statistics more wonderful than any poem.”
The Pimienta Pancakes: More courting chicanery as a cowpoke and sheep rancher compete for the young lady. Gastronomical guile proves the winning hand in this high stakes courtship.
Seats of the Haughty: A slick, northern confidence man is frustrated in his attempts to work a newly oil rich cowboy whose idea of luxury tops out at beans and saddles.
The Higher Abdication: This is a busy tale, loaded with family feuds, Star crossed lovers, kidnapped kids, and a colorful, young Tramp from Chicago who finds himself stranded on a ranch and forced to work. It all meshes together in the end in a charming, if improbable climax.
The Caballero’s Way: A tragic love triangle between a desperate outlaw, his lady, and the upright Texas Ranger set on bringing him to justice. O. Henry’s signature twist ending is surprisingly dark in this tale.
”The Cisco Kid had killed six men in more or less fair scrimmages, had murdered twice as many, mostly Mexicans, and had winged a larger number who he modestly forbore to count. Therefore, a woman loved him. The Kid was twenty-five, looked twenty, and a careful insurance company would have estimated the probable time of his demise at, say, twenty-six.”
July 17, 2019
Заглавието „Сърцето на Запада“ чудесно обобщава тематичния сборник с разкази на О. Хенри. Тези деветнадесет истории надзъртат в емоциите, които оцветяват живота на пионерите от американския Запад – а понякога изтъкават и самия вътък, който сплита в едно деянията им, и героичните, и раждащите смеха ни.
Кралица на тези емоции без съмнение е любовта. В американския Див запад тя, както всичко останало, често трябва да се извоюва. Със състезание по галантност, в което доскоро неразделни приятели сега седят от двете страни на една жена и се съревновават за чувствата ѝ, всеки по начина, който смята за по-удачен, но без да се възползва нечестно от отсъствието на другия (честта е важна съставка от тогавашния живот – дори неминуемите измами, които изобилстват във всяка територия, граничеща със закона, се подчиняват на неписани правила). Или като подложим любимата на изпитание, което ще ѝ разкрие истинските измерения на глада, за да я направи по-съпричастна към проблемите на мъжкия апетит, да я накара да спре да възприема мъжете като двуноги преживни и да отвори сърцето си към тях. Понякога любовта дори убива, водена от ревнивата ръка на предадения мексикански кабалеро, който подмамва съперника си да погуби общата им любима... достатъчно голямо е сърцето на Запада, има място и за жестокост в него. А понякога тя просто присъства като символ: женската красота и нежност, въплътени в единствената пътничка в скован от снеговете дилижанс, разпалват петимата мъже около нея да разказват истории, с които да налучкат пътя си към женското сърце.
Разбира се, в собственото си сърце О. Хенри си остава шегобиец. Той не пропуска шанса да ни изненада и да изтръгне смеха ни. В историята с петимата сладкодумци, девойката, която трябва да определи най-изкусния разказвач, така и не дочаква свършека на съревнованието. Ухажорите ѝ, веднъж изтръгнали се от омаята на историите, откриват, че журито им междувременно е заспало... след като е изяло приза за победителя. Навярно Западът не би могъл да се справи без хумор. При толкова опасности и с такива разстояния, при които вестите са рядкост, всяка разсмиващата история е толкова нужна благодат, колкото питиетата и храната. О. Хенри е сред истинските майстори на смеха. Неочаквани обрати, изненадващи, но правдиви наблюдения за хората и делата им, изказвания в най-висок регистър, изникващи на места, където надали бихме ги търсили (само си представете двама каубои, говорещи като възпитаници на университети от Бръшляновата лига), игри на думи и препратки към античността и класиката... няма оръжие, което да засече в ръцете на опитния стрелец. (Удивих се да науча, че във върховите си години авторът е писал по един разказ на седмица – и се натъжих, като разбрах какво е коствало това на здравето и психиката му.)
Не по-малко всепроникващи и всенапояващи от смеха са ерудицията на писателя и наситеността на стила. Имах късмета да попадна на издание с анотации и навярно само по тази причина не се залутах безвъзвратно сред разните видове кактуси, коне и кулинарни шедьоври, които шестват из разказите. О. Хенри пише в епохата на американския реализъм (макар и да е от подкачащия тип реалисти) и от пейзажите на големите западни прерии и порядките в малките западни градчета, които ни поднася, лъха достоверност и лично познанство – иначе казано, ерудиция в резултат на житейски опит. (Разбрах, че авторът си е позволявал своеволия само с географията, премествайки някой брод или река с петдесетина километра.) Когато разглеждам шарената му биография, мога да си представя как е натрупал впечатленията, за да обрисува фино и убедително толкова много места и типажи. Трудно ми е обаче да си представя как е натрупал речниковия си запас. На всяка страница ме причакваше поне по една дума, от която да се почесваме и аз, и речниците ми – всичките хартиени и електронни версии, които ми се намираха под ръка. Вижте само този пасаж и се опитайте да си го представите на български:
Същият този образен, свръхсбит стил ме прехласна и замая неведнъж. На някои места щрихите му са толкова ярки, неочаквани и гъсто сложени, че световъртежът става почти физически, усилието да сместиш във въображението си всеки детайл – почти неистово. (Започвам да разбирам на чии рамене са стъпвали моите любими Бийгъл и Стърджън...)
Характеризацията на героите чрез речта им е другата смайваща способност на О. Хенри. Обикновено едно изречение ми бе достатъчно да разбера кой точно герой говори. Заемки от испанския и мексиканския, учена, псевдоучена и простонародна лексика, фонетичните чудатости на акцента... палитрата за речево охарактеризиране изглежда неизчерпаема.
Това ми беше втората среща с О. Хенри и първата с блясъка му в оригинал. Благодарен съм ѝ. Тя ми напомни къде мога да намеря още извори на смеха, ако мракът стане непоносим.
Кралица на тези емоции без съмнение е любовта. В американския Див запад тя, както всичко останало, често трябва да се извоюва. Със състезание по галантност, в което доскоро неразделни приятели сега седят от двете страни на една жена и се съревновават за чувствата ѝ, всеки по начина, който смята за по-удачен, но без да се възползва нечестно от отсъствието на другия (честта е важна съставка от тогавашния живот – дори неминуемите измами, които изобилстват във всяка територия, граничеща със закона, се подчиняват на неписани правила). Или като подложим любимата на изпитание, което ще ѝ разкрие истинските измерения на глада, за да я направи по-съпричастна към проблемите на мъжкия апетит, да я накара да спре да възприема мъжете като двуноги преживни и да отвори сърцето си към тях. Понякога любовта дори убива, водена от ревнивата ръка на предадения мексикански кабалеро, който подмамва съперника си да погуби общата им любима... достатъчно голямо е сърцето на Запада, има място и за жестокост в него. А понякога тя просто присъства като символ: женската красота и нежност, въплътени в единствената пътничка в скован от снеговете дилижанс, разпалват петимата мъже около нея да разказват истории, с които да налучкат пътя си към женското сърце.
Разбира се, в собственото си сърце О. Хенри си остава шегобиец. Той не пропуска шанса да ни изненада и да изтръгне смеха ни. В историята с петимата сладкодумци, девойката, която трябва да определи най-изкусния разказвач, така и не дочаква свършека на съревнованието. Ухажорите ѝ, веднъж изтръгнали се от омаята на историите, откриват, че журито им междувременно е заспало... след като е изяло приза за победителя. Навярно Западът не би могъл да се справи без хумор. При толкова опасности и с такива разстояния, при които вестите са рядкост, всяка разсмиващата история е толкова нужна благодат, колкото питиетата и храната. О. Хенри е сред истинските майстори на смеха. Неочаквани обрати, изненадващи, но правдиви наблюдения за хората и делата им, изказвания в най-висок регистър, изникващи на места, където надали бихме ги търсили (само си представете двама каубои, говорещи като възпитаници на университети от Бръшляновата лига), игри на думи и препратки към античността и класиката... няма оръжие, което да засече в ръцете на опитния стрелец. (Удивих се да науча, че във върховите си години авторът е писал по един разказ на седмица – и се натъжих, като разбрах какво е коствало това на здравето и психиката му.)
Не по-малко всепроникващи и всенапояващи от смеха са ерудицията на писателя и наситеността на стила. Имах късмета да попадна на издание с анотации и навярно само по тази причина не се залутах безвъзвратно сред разните видове кактуси, коне и кулинарни шедьоври, които шестват из разказите. О. Хенри пише в епохата на американския реализъм (макар и да е от подкачащия тип реалисти) и от пейзажите на големите западни прерии и порядките в малките западни градчета, които ни поднася, лъха достоверност и лично познанство – иначе казано, ерудиция в резултат на житейски опит. (Разбрах, че авторът си е позволявал своеволия само с географията, премествайки някой брод или река с петдесетина километра.) Когато разглеждам шарената му биография, мога да си представя как е натрупал впечатленията, за да обрисува фино и убедително толкова много места и типажи. Трудно ми е обаче да си представя как е натрупал речниковия си запас. На всяка страница ме причакваше поне по една дума, от която да се почесваме и аз, и речниците ми – всичките хартиени и електронни версии, които ми се намираха под ръка. Вижте само този пасаж и се опитайте да си го представите на български:
And the days, with Sundays at their head, formed into hebdomadal squads; and the weeks, captained by the full moon, closed ranks into menstrual companies crying "Tempus fugit" on their banners...
Същият този образен, свръхсбит стил ме прехласна и замая неведнъж. На някои места щрихите му са толкова ярки, неочаквани и гъсто сложени, че световъртежът става почти физически, усилието да сместиш във въображението си всеки детайл – почти неистово. (Започвам да разбирам на чии рамене са стъпвали моите любими Бийгъл и Стърджън...)
Характеризацията на героите чрез речта им е другата смайваща способност на О. Хенри. Обикновено едно изречение ми бе достатъчно да разбера кой точно герой говори. Заемки от испанския и мексиканския, учена, псевдоучена и простонародна лексика, фонетичните чудатости на акцента... палитрата за речево охарактеризиране изглежда неизчерпаема.
Това ми беше втората среща с О. Хенри и първата с блясъка му в оригинал. Благодарен съм ѝ. Тя ми напомни къде мога да намеря още извори на смеха, ако мракът стане непоносим.
June 20, 2023
All these stories happen in the West, among gold diggers, cattle barons, Mexican bandits and settlers. They are as good as O. Henry’s New York stories.
August 4, 2021
Really love his ending twists.
August 21, 2025
ENGLISH: 19 short stories by O.Henry. This is the second time I've read them all. Some of them (the best) I've read more times. Those I liked best are the following:
In the first place: A chaparral prince. In the second place: The higher abdication, Cupid à la carte and The princess and the puma.
ESPAÑOL: 19 relatos cortos de O. Henry. Esta es la segunda vez que los he leído. Algunos (los mejores) los he leído más veces. Los que más me han gustado son los siguientes:
En primer lugar: Un príncipe del chaparral. En segundo lugar: La abdicación suprema, Cupido a la carta y La princesa y el puma.
In the first place: A chaparral prince. In the second place: The higher abdication, Cupid à la carte and The princess and the puma.
ESPAÑOL: 19 relatos cortos de O. Henry. Esta es la segunda vez que los he leído. Algunos (los mejores) los he leído más veces. Los que más me han gustado son los siguientes:
En primer lugar: Un príncipe del chaparral. En segundo lugar: La abdicación suprema, Cupido a la carta y La princesa y el puma.
June 13, 2023
Clever, often touching, tales of the Old West.
July 4, 2019
I realized once I started Heart of the West that I had not read anything by O. Henry since September of 2011; that is, not since I began seriously reviewing books. It had been far too long.
I fell in love with O. Henry’s short stories back in 2010. I enjoyed his story The Gift of the Magi, but it was The Ransom of Red Chief that clinched me. While the Auto Waited, A Retrieved Reformation, and The Tainted Tenner were just icing on the cake.
O. Henry crafted stories like no other writer I have ever read. He is humorous – he gets the biggest kicks out of his characters and the circumstances in which they find themselves. He has an extensive vocabulary – the story is that as a young man he read the dictionary like some people read novels – and he writes twists like nobody’s business. O. Henry’s endings are on a level with Agatha Christie’s for ingenuity, elan, and all around devilishness, only they are usually of an outrageously humorous nature, whereas Christie contents herself with being merely shockingly clever.
All of the stories in Heart of the West are set in the west – mostly Texas. The stories concern half-built settlements, cattle ranchers, outlaws, and all things western. However, although the stories were set in the west, populated by the west, and concern nothing but the west, these stories have nothing to do with the western genre. They pointedly ignore the guns-aflarin’ style and instead fall under the probing-of-human-nature category. They are humorous, but masterful; light-hearted yet deeply sincere.
Conclusion. I would definitely recommend O. Henry’s short stories to anyone interested in the early development of the short story.
I fell in love with O. Henry’s short stories back in 2010. I enjoyed his story The Gift of the Magi, but it was The Ransom of Red Chief that clinched me. While the Auto Waited, A Retrieved Reformation, and The Tainted Tenner were just icing on the cake.
O. Henry crafted stories like no other writer I have ever read. He is humorous – he gets the biggest kicks out of his characters and the circumstances in which they find themselves. He has an extensive vocabulary – the story is that as a young man he read the dictionary like some people read novels – and he writes twists like nobody’s business. O. Henry’s endings are on a level with Agatha Christie’s for ingenuity, elan, and all around devilishness, only they are usually of an outrageously humorous nature, whereas Christie contents herself with being merely shockingly clever.
All of the stories in Heart of the West are set in the west – mostly Texas. The stories concern half-built settlements, cattle ranchers, outlaws, and all things western. However, although the stories were set in the west, populated by the west, and concern nothing but the west, these stories have nothing to do with the western genre. They pointedly ignore the guns-aflarin’ style and instead fall under the probing-of-human-nature category. They are humorous, but masterful; light-hearted yet deeply sincere.
Conclusion. I would definitely recommend O. Henry’s short stories to anyone interested in the early development of the short story.
March 8, 2022
Who knew O. Henry wrote cowboy stories? Well, to be honest most of them were romances (hence, the"heart" of the west). Received for free from Amazon ages ago.
Most of the stories take place in San Antonio where he mentions the Menger Hotel often. It's still open! 163 years old now, was around for almost 50 years when this was written in 1904.
I just assumed when cowboys went to the big city they just wanted to drink and play cards. I never thought about them having a sweet tooth and what they would eat for that--canned fruit! They loved them some cling peaches and greengages!
For those (like me) who have no idea what a greengage is--
They referred to cigarettes as coffin nails way back then.
What does a sharp-shooter study in school? Triggernometry!
Most of the stories take place in San Antonio where he mentions the Menger Hotel often. It's still open! 163 years old now, was around for almost 50 years when this was written in 1904.
I just assumed when cowboys went to the big city they just wanted to drink and play cards. I never thought about them having a sweet tooth and what they would eat for that--canned fruit! They loved them some cling peaches and greengages!
For those (like me) who have no idea what a greengage is--
They referred to cigarettes as coffin nails way back then.
What does a sharp-shooter study in school? Triggernometry!
January 16, 2024
Phenomenal! I would've read this years ago if I'd realized how hilarious O. Henry is. I love the grandiloquent dialogue, which I can't help but suspect does not read exactly the way that authentic cattlemen of the late 1800s would've spoken.
I was familiar with some elements of some of these stories (A Call Loan, Cupid a la Carte, and The Reformation of Calliope) because they were blended together to form the plotline of Wishbone's only full-length movie. But I think my favorite was "The Pimienta Pancakes."
I was familiar with some elements of some of these stories (A Call Loan, Cupid a la Carte, and The Reformation of Calliope) because they were blended together to form the plotline of Wishbone's only full-length movie. But I think my favorite was "The Pimienta Pancakes."
July 1, 2017
I have always heard about O. Henry, but had never read any of his works. This was an enjoyable romp through the Old West, with typical O. Henry type endings. Most of the books involve romance in some form or other, often with unexpected conclusions.
The narrator was perfect for these stories. Just enough good ole boy accent, but not so much as to be distracting. The only bad thing I can say about this audiobook is that O. Henry loved to use unusual words in his stories & it is hard to stop & look them when listening to a book.
I received the audiobook version of this book from the narrator or publisher & chose to review it.
The narrator was perfect for these stories. Just enough good ole boy accent, but not so much as to be distracting. The only bad thing I can say about this audiobook is that O. Henry loved to use unusual words in his stories & it is hard to stop & look them when listening to a book.
I received the audiobook version of this book from the narrator or publisher & chose to review it.
January 31, 2018
**3.5** Thes stories were nothing like my boy hood days of reading 'Larry & Stretch'.
O. Henry is a complete logophile. He absolutely kept me at the dictionary (not that i retained any of these sesquipedalian words. Regardless, all of these short stories had some really nice elements of humour examining the diverse relationships between men and women.
Partilarly liked 'The Pimienta Pancakes' - Alls fair in love and war. Trickery at its best.
O. Henry is a complete logophile. He absolutely kept me at the dictionary (not that i retained any of these sesquipedalian words. Regardless, all of these short stories had some really nice elements of humour examining the diverse relationships between men and women.
Partilarly liked 'The Pimienta Pancakes' - Alls fair in love and war. Trickery at its best.
November 23, 2025
O’ Henry Revisited
’Is O. Henry still relevant today?’ It’s a question that three friends — I the youngest by nearly two decades, they the seasoned veterans — decided to test during the strange stillness of Covid. On May 1st, 2021, we set ourselves a rather reckless mission: to reread every word O. Henry ever wrote, slowly, deliberately, over the course of a year. And we did. What follows are the reflections and reviews born from that long, unusual experiment — an O. Henry revisited, re-examined, and re-imagined for a modern age.
The American West has always been a place where imagination outruns topography, where the map is less important than the myths scribbled over it, and where even the dust seems to carry a cultural memory of unlikely coincidences and moral double-takes.
Rereading ‘Heart of the West’ during the pandemic hits differently. It becomes less a collection of cowboy stories and more a strange archive of possibility—stories from a landscape built for reinvention, told by a writer who never quite trusted reinvention to behave. Everything here feels like the American dream in chaps and spurs, but also like the American dream caught staring into a motel mirror at 2 AM, unsure of whether it’s aging well.
The West O. Henry writes is not the cinematic frontier of John Wayne or the prestige-TV dystopia of ‘Westworld’; it's a place where big personalities collide with bigger absurdities, where honour and trickery sleep in the same bunkhouse, and where people live at the mercy of weather, luck, gossip, and the occasional stampede of human impulse.
It has swagger, humour, a dry wit you could grate cheese on, and yet beneath all that bluster there’s a surprisingly tender heart. The pandemic rereading reveals how these stories pulse with emotional restlessness—the kind familiar to anyone who stared at a cracked ceiling fan for hours wondering if life could still surprise them.
What stands out immediately is how O. Henry renders the West as a place of constant negotiation. Not just cattle deals or bartering over horses, but negotiations of identity, expectation, and personal mythologies. Everyone in these stories is both exactly themselves and also performing themselves. There’s always a faint sense of theatre: cowboy as archetype, rancher as philosopher, and outlaw as romantic antihero. But O. Henry’s genius lies in how he deflates that very theatre while revelling in it. His characters step into their own stereotypes and then slip out of them sideways, undermining the myth with a wink and then rebuilding it with an even bigger flourish.
Reading this during Covid—the era of Zoom personas, self-help reinvention, identity spreadsheets—adds an unexpected resonance. The notion that people hold two or three versions of themselves at once suddenly feels too real. The West becomes a metaphor for everything we tried to piece together in those claustrophobic months: meaning, humour, a sense of who we used to be before the world paused. In O. Henry’s West, stopping is not an option. People keep moving, if not across land then across their own shifting internal borders.
The humour remains one of the most delightful surprises of these stories. It’s a dry humour, the kind that rustles like sagebrush when the wind hits right. O. Henry never punches down. He laughs with his characters, not at them, which makes even the absurd moments feel affectionate. The jokes land because they come from people whose flaws are familiar.
A cowboy boasting beyond his means feels like your friend who overestimates their sourdough-baking talent. A rancher making grand romantic gestures feels like every person who bought ring lights during lockdown in hopes of reinventing themselves as content creators. The West becomes strangely intimate—like a group chat that refuses to die.
But beneath the jokes is an emotional complexity that becomes clearer when read slowly, quietly, during a time when silence was everywhere. O. Henry wrote about the West as a place that forces people to confront themselves. When the horizon stretches infinite, you can’t hide from the parts of your soul you’d rather ignore. Characters here are driven by longing more than greed, by loneliness more than bravado.
They want connection in a world that rewards independence. They want affection in a world that stereotypes them as stoic. And Covid, with all its physical isolation and digital closeness, taught us exactly that dissonance. ‘Heart of the West’ reads like a manual for navigating solitude with humour and a moral compass that points mostly north but occasionally trips over its own shadow.
The romantic elements in these stories are some of the most delightful parts—tender but never saccharine, dramatic but never overwrought. Romance in the West is always filtered through dust, danger, stubbornness, and the awkwardness of men who have spent too long talking only to horses.
But O. Henry uses romance not as plot but as revelation; love exposes who people really are, stripping them of performance like wind stripping paint from a barn. In the pandemic, love also became a site of revelation, sometimes messy, sometimes comforting, always clarifying.
So these stories, revisited now, feel emotionally amplified. The courtships are clumsy in the best way. The miscommunications feel painfully human. The resolutions carry a charm that borders on the mischievously philosophical.
Then there’s the landscape—always looming, always shaping the humans scrambling across it. O. Henry’s West is not the pastoral fantasy of tourist brochures; it’s a place of harsh beauty and unpredictable forces. Nature is almost a character itself: dusty, stubborn, indifferent. But there’s something comforting in that indifference.
During Covid, when the world felt like a runaway horse dragging us by the stirrup, the idea of a landscape that remains steady, immune to human panic, feels almost medicinal. O. Henry’s descriptions make you feel the heat on your skin, the grit between your teeth, the vastness pressing against your ribs. And that vastness shifts the perspective on small human dramas. Suddenly every jealousy, every rivalry, every flirtation becomes both ridiculous and profound—exactly the way everything felt in 2020 and 2021.
O. Henry’s narrative style here is deceptively simple. It’s relaxed, almost lazy in tone, like a cowboy who leans back in his chair and starts telling a story no one asked for—but within a few lines, everyone is silently hooked. The writing pretends it’s casual but is in fact carrying finely tuned emotional architecture. Each sentence hides a delayed fuse.
Each paragraph contains a seed of irony or unexpected tenderness. And the curves in the narrative—the little reversals, the sideways moral turns—mirror the serpentine way the mind worked during lockdowns, looping back on itself, replaying memories, reconsidering old decisions with too much time and too little certainty.
One of the most striking aspects of rereading ‘Heart of the West’ is how the stories treat the concept of honour. Not the Hollywood version with dramatic showdowns and sheriff badges, but the quieter, quirkier, sometimes contradictory internal code by which O. Henry’s characters operate. Honour here is not rigid. It bends, stretches, improvises. It’s personal and idiosyncratic. And in the pandemic, honour suddenly became reshaped for all of us—what does it mean to take responsibility, to show up, to protect others, to be truthful, to do the right thing when everything is unstable? O. Henry’s West, unexpectedly, feels like a rehearsal space for those questions.
What makes these stories feel strangely contemporary is how much they understand the uncertainty of human motivations. Characters think they know what drives them, but life—messy life—intervenes. Chance plays a huge role. Mistakes turn into opportunities.
Moments of confusion open doors no one intended to knock on. This wasn’t a surprise to O. Henry, who lived a life full of detours, mistakes, consequences, and reinventions. Covid taught the world the same lesson: we’re all improvising, even when pretending to follow a plan.
And then comes the emotional softness—always tucked behind the humor, behind the irony, behind the swagger. O. Henry’s men, especially, carry hidden depths of affection and vulnerability. In a genre so often associated with rugged individualism, O. Henry allows his characters to care openly, foolishly, bravely. He lets them be emotionally clumsy without making them the butt of the joke.
Their vulnerability becomes their charm, their defining feature. This feels incredibly modern in 2023 terms, but it also felt revelatory during the pandemic when the toughest people suddenly found themselves admitting fear, longing, tenderness. These stories understood that emotional openness is not weakness but a form of frontier courage.
As the collection moves from one tale to the next, the West becomes less a place and more a mood—a dusty existentialism, a rugged absurdity, a philosophical shrug. The stories occasionally brush against melancholy but never collapse into it. They acknowledge life’s unpredictability while celebrating its absurd beauty. Even the minor characters sparkle with personality: bartenders with sharp tongues and softer hearts, ranch hands with unexpected wisdom, women who wield intelligence like a lasso. Every voice feels alive, specific, shaped by the environment yet somehow rising beyond it.
By the end, the West that O. Henry offers is not a historical setting but a metaphorical terrain: a place where life is unpredictable, where luck and intention collide, where humour keeps sorrow from taking over, where people—flawed, earnest, hopeful—keep stumbling into revelations they didn’t know they needed.
And reading this after or during Covid makes the whole thing glow with an extra frequency. It becomes a reminder that uncertainty doesn’t cancel joy, that reinvention doesn’t require perfection, that humour can coexist with fear, and that tenderness can survive even in the harshest landscapes.
If you want the spoiler-free “What could the ending have been like?” meditation for this one too, just say the word and I’ll craft it.
’Is O. Henry still relevant today?’ It’s a question that three friends — I the youngest by nearly two decades, they the seasoned veterans — decided to test during the strange stillness of Covid. On May 1st, 2021, we set ourselves a rather reckless mission: to reread every word O. Henry ever wrote, slowly, deliberately, over the course of a year. And we did. What follows are the reflections and reviews born from that long, unusual experiment — an O. Henry revisited, re-examined, and re-imagined for a modern age.
The American West has always been a place where imagination outruns topography, where the map is less important than the myths scribbled over it, and where even the dust seems to carry a cultural memory of unlikely coincidences and moral double-takes.
Rereading ‘Heart of the West’ during the pandemic hits differently. It becomes less a collection of cowboy stories and more a strange archive of possibility—stories from a landscape built for reinvention, told by a writer who never quite trusted reinvention to behave. Everything here feels like the American dream in chaps and spurs, but also like the American dream caught staring into a motel mirror at 2 AM, unsure of whether it’s aging well.
The West O. Henry writes is not the cinematic frontier of John Wayne or the prestige-TV dystopia of ‘Westworld’; it's a place where big personalities collide with bigger absurdities, where honour and trickery sleep in the same bunkhouse, and where people live at the mercy of weather, luck, gossip, and the occasional stampede of human impulse.
It has swagger, humour, a dry wit you could grate cheese on, and yet beneath all that bluster there’s a surprisingly tender heart. The pandemic rereading reveals how these stories pulse with emotional restlessness—the kind familiar to anyone who stared at a cracked ceiling fan for hours wondering if life could still surprise them.
What stands out immediately is how O. Henry renders the West as a place of constant negotiation. Not just cattle deals or bartering over horses, but negotiations of identity, expectation, and personal mythologies. Everyone in these stories is both exactly themselves and also performing themselves. There’s always a faint sense of theatre: cowboy as archetype, rancher as philosopher, and outlaw as romantic antihero. But O. Henry’s genius lies in how he deflates that very theatre while revelling in it. His characters step into their own stereotypes and then slip out of them sideways, undermining the myth with a wink and then rebuilding it with an even bigger flourish.
Reading this during Covid—the era of Zoom personas, self-help reinvention, identity spreadsheets—adds an unexpected resonance. The notion that people hold two or three versions of themselves at once suddenly feels too real. The West becomes a metaphor for everything we tried to piece together in those claustrophobic months: meaning, humour, a sense of who we used to be before the world paused. In O. Henry’s West, stopping is not an option. People keep moving, if not across land then across their own shifting internal borders.
The humour remains one of the most delightful surprises of these stories. It’s a dry humour, the kind that rustles like sagebrush when the wind hits right. O. Henry never punches down. He laughs with his characters, not at them, which makes even the absurd moments feel affectionate. The jokes land because they come from people whose flaws are familiar.
A cowboy boasting beyond his means feels like your friend who overestimates their sourdough-baking talent. A rancher making grand romantic gestures feels like every person who bought ring lights during lockdown in hopes of reinventing themselves as content creators. The West becomes strangely intimate—like a group chat that refuses to die.
But beneath the jokes is an emotional complexity that becomes clearer when read slowly, quietly, during a time when silence was everywhere. O. Henry wrote about the West as a place that forces people to confront themselves. When the horizon stretches infinite, you can’t hide from the parts of your soul you’d rather ignore. Characters here are driven by longing more than greed, by loneliness more than bravado.
They want connection in a world that rewards independence. They want affection in a world that stereotypes them as stoic. And Covid, with all its physical isolation and digital closeness, taught us exactly that dissonance. ‘Heart of the West’ reads like a manual for navigating solitude with humour and a moral compass that points mostly north but occasionally trips over its own shadow.
The romantic elements in these stories are some of the most delightful parts—tender but never saccharine, dramatic but never overwrought. Romance in the West is always filtered through dust, danger, stubbornness, and the awkwardness of men who have spent too long talking only to horses.
But O. Henry uses romance not as plot but as revelation; love exposes who people really are, stripping them of performance like wind stripping paint from a barn. In the pandemic, love also became a site of revelation, sometimes messy, sometimes comforting, always clarifying.
So these stories, revisited now, feel emotionally amplified. The courtships are clumsy in the best way. The miscommunications feel painfully human. The resolutions carry a charm that borders on the mischievously philosophical.
Then there’s the landscape—always looming, always shaping the humans scrambling across it. O. Henry’s West is not the pastoral fantasy of tourist brochures; it’s a place of harsh beauty and unpredictable forces. Nature is almost a character itself: dusty, stubborn, indifferent. But there’s something comforting in that indifference.
During Covid, when the world felt like a runaway horse dragging us by the stirrup, the idea of a landscape that remains steady, immune to human panic, feels almost medicinal. O. Henry’s descriptions make you feel the heat on your skin, the grit between your teeth, the vastness pressing against your ribs. And that vastness shifts the perspective on small human dramas. Suddenly every jealousy, every rivalry, every flirtation becomes both ridiculous and profound—exactly the way everything felt in 2020 and 2021.
O. Henry’s narrative style here is deceptively simple. It’s relaxed, almost lazy in tone, like a cowboy who leans back in his chair and starts telling a story no one asked for—but within a few lines, everyone is silently hooked. The writing pretends it’s casual but is in fact carrying finely tuned emotional architecture. Each sentence hides a delayed fuse.
Each paragraph contains a seed of irony or unexpected tenderness. And the curves in the narrative—the little reversals, the sideways moral turns—mirror the serpentine way the mind worked during lockdowns, looping back on itself, replaying memories, reconsidering old decisions with too much time and too little certainty.
One of the most striking aspects of rereading ‘Heart of the West’ is how the stories treat the concept of honour. Not the Hollywood version with dramatic showdowns and sheriff badges, but the quieter, quirkier, sometimes contradictory internal code by which O. Henry’s characters operate. Honour here is not rigid. It bends, stretches, improvises. It’s personal and idiosyncratic. And in the pandemic, honour suddenly became reshaped for all of us—what does it mean to take responsibility, to show up, to protect others, to be truthful, to do the right thing when everything is unstable? O. Henry’s West, unexpectedly, feels like a rehearsal space for those questions.
What makes these stories feel strangely contemporary is how much they understand the uncertainty of human motivations. Characters think they know what drives them, but life—messy life—intervenes. Chance plays a huge role. Mistakes turn into opportunities.
Moments of confusion open doors no one intended to knock on. This wasn’t a surprise to O. Henry, who lived a life full of detours, mistakes, consequences, and reinventions. Covid taught the world the same lesson: we’re all improvising, even when pretending to follow a plan.
And then comes the emotional softness—always tucked behind the humor, behind the irony, behind the swagger. O. Henry’s men, especially, carry hidden depths of affection and vulnerability. In a genre so often associated with rugged individualism, O. Henry allows his characters to care openly, foolishly, bravely. He lets them be emotionally clumsy without making them the butt of the joke.
Their vulnerability becomes their charm, their defining feature. This feels incredibly modern in 2023 terms, but it also felt revelatory during the pandemic when the toughest people suddenly found themselves admitting fear, longing, tenderness. These stories understood that emotional openness is not weakness but a form of frontier courage.
As the collection moves from one tale to the next, the West becomes less a place and more a mood—a dusty existentialism, a rugged absurdity, a philosophical shrug. The stories occasionally brush against melancholy but never collapse into it. They acknowledge life’s unpredictability while celebrating its absurd beauty. Even the minor characters sparkle with personality: bartenders with sharp tongues and softer hearts, ranch hands with unexpected wisdom, women who wield intelligence like a lasso. Every voice feels alive, specific, shaped by the environment yet somehow rising beyond it.
By the end, the West that O. Henry offers is not a historical setting but a metaphorical terrain: a place where life is unpredictable, where luck and intention collide, where humour keeps sorrow from taking over, where people—flawed, earnest, hopeful—keep stumbling into revelations they didn’t know they needed.
And reading this after or during Covid makes the whole thing glow with an extra frequency. It becomes a reminder that uncertainty doesn’t cancel joy, that reinvention doesn’t require perfection, that humour can coexist with fear, and that tenderness can survive even in the harshest landscapes.
If you want the spoiler-free “What could the ending have been like?” meditation for this one too, just say the word and I’ll craft it.
June 9, 2015
This is the first full collection of O. Henry's short stories that I have read, after which I can amply understand just why he is considered an American master - so much so that his name is still attached to an annual prize dedicated to the form.
The opening 'Hearts and Crosses', to do with a lover's secret sign and the ownership of a cattle ranch, is a perfect story of its type, with an arresting first line, wonderful set-up and a pleasing, serendipitous ending.
'The Handbook of Hymen' tells you why a copy of Herkimer's Handbook of Indispensable Information' is more use than a copy of "Homer K. M.'s Ruby Ott" to a pair of competing suitors.
A couple of the funniest stories were about food.
'The Pimienta Pancake' features a nifty swizz courtesy of the titular item, "honey-browned by the ambrosial fires of Epicurus." Then in 'Cupid a la Carte', a woman resistant to her wooer finally has her defenses breached after a period of enforced starvation.
Henry's writing is full of that grandly genteel dialogue, laced with outrageous slang such as 'cognocious', 'gaboozlum', 'masquerootin' and 'zizzaparoola', which s richly, uniquely American and a wonderful idiom for - as one of his characters puts it - "an amiable sort of hostility".
I could have highlighted a few more stories too as all nineteen are very good. Only a few times are themes or events repeated, but I think the better stories were top-loaded within the first half a dozen or so.
The opening 'Hearts and Crosses', to do with a lover's secret sign and the ownership of a cattle ranch, is a perfect story of its type, with an arresting first line, wonderful set-up and a pleasing, serendipitous ending.
'The Handbook of Hymen' tells you why a copy of Herkimer's Handbook of Indispensable Information' is more use than a copy of "Homer K. M.'s Ruby Ott" to a pair of competing suitors.
A couple of the funniest stories were about food.
'The Pimienta Pancake' features a nifty swizz courtesy of the titular item, "honey-browned by the ambrosial fires of Epicurus." Then in 'Cupid a la Carte', a woman resistant to her wooer finally has her defenses breached after a period of enforced starvation.
Henry's writing is full of that grandly genteel dialogue, laced with outrageous slang such as 'cognocious', 'gaboozlum', 'masquerootin' and 'zizzaparoola', which s richly, uniquely American and a wonderful idiom for - as one of his characters puts it - "an amiable sort of hostility".
I could have highlighted a few more stories too as all nineteen are very good. Only a few times are themes or events repeated, but I think the better stories were top-loaded within the first half a dozen or so.
September 26, 2011
First published 1907, Included in "Best Stories of O.Henry" qv.
September 24, 2018
William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), better known to most readers as O. Henry, moved to Texas from North Carolina for his health. There, he worked on a ranch for a few years before feeling well enough to take up his primary occupation of pharmacist, and fell in love with the state and its people. As a result, many of his stories are set in Texas, including these nineteen.
Despite the use of the setting by other authors for tales of gunpowder and fury, O. Henry was not so much a Western writer as a writer of comedic romances set in the West. Most of the tales in this anthology are about courtship, one way or another. In many ways this makes them more authentic to the lives of actual cowpunchers and waitresses than the blood and thunder stories of the Wild West.
The collection opens with “Hearts and Crosses.” A rancher whose wife actually owns the spread, inherited from her father, gets prodded into thinking he should be “king” if she’s the “queen.” This results in a misunderstanding, and he goes off to handle their range affairs from a distance. But a few months later, the queen summons her husband, and the question of who rules supreme is settled for good. O. Henry shows his use of the twist ending well here, with a strong showing for his sentimental side.
The ending story is “The Reformation of Calliope”, in which a man who regularly gets drunk and shoots up the town is finally brought to heel by the one person in the world who he can’t fight. Oh, and the town marshal is involved too. This one’s a bit less sentimental and a bit more wry humor.
In between, the most striking tale is “The Caballero’s Way”, a dark stinger about a Texas Ranger’s attempt to bring in the notorious outlaw known as the Cisco Kid. It’s the closest to the Western genre, and the cold-hearted, cunning villain of the story inspired a series of movies and television shows…where he’s the Robin Hood-style hero. Go figure.
Most all of the stories are good, like “The Pimentia Pancakes”, in which we learn why a camp cook never eats his own delicious pancake recipe, or “A Call Loan” where a rancher contemplates robbery when a shortage is discovered at the bank. (This latter ties in to the author’s own conviction on embezzlement charges.)
“The Indian Summer of Dry Valley Johnson” might be a harder read for modern audiences. It’s about a middle-aged man developing a foolish infatuation with the nineteen-year-old girl next door and duding himself up to court her. In addition to this rather cringy plotline, there’s a scene where Johnson chases children out of his strawberry patch with a whip.
There’s some period ethnic prejudice against Mexicans in the stories, which seems less about the author’s opinions than a reflection of the characters he’s writing about. Also a touch of period sexism.
Overall, this is a lovely collection of short stories by a master of the twist ending. Some readers may find the twists too familiar for their tastes, as those have often been imitated in other stories. If you have not read “The Caballero’s Way” elsewhere, this collection is the best setting for it. Recommended to short story fans who like their stories mostly sentimental.
Despite the use of the setting by other authors for tales of gunpowder and fury, O. Henry was not so much a Western writer as a writer of comedic romances set in the West. Most of the tales in this anthology are about courtship, one way or another. In many ways this makes them more authentic to the lives of actual cowpunchers and waitresses than the blood and thunder stories of the Wild West.
The collection opens with “Hearts and Crosses.” A rancher whose wife actually owns the spread, inherited from her father, gets prodded into thinking he should be “king” if she’s the “queen.” This results in a misunderstanding, and he goes off to handle their range affairs from a distance. But a few months later, the queen summons her husband, and the question of who rules supreme is settled for good. O. Henry shows his use of the twist ending well here, with a strong showing for his sentimental side.
The ending story is “The Reformation of Calliope”, in which a man who regularly gets drunk and shoots up the town is finally brought to heel by the one person in the world who he can’t fight. Oh, and the town marshal is involved too. This one’s a bit less sentimental and a bit more wry humor.
In between, the most striking tale is “The Caballero’s Way”, a dark stinger about a Texas Ranger’s attempt to bring in the notorious outlaw known as the Cisco Kid. It’s the closest to the Western genre, and the cold-hearted, cunning villain of the story inspired a series of movies and television shows…where he’s the Robin Hood-style hero. Go figure.
Most all of the stories are good, like “The Pimentia Pancakes”, in which we learn why a camp cook never eats his own delicious pancake recipe, or “A Call Loan” where a rancher contemplates robbery when a shortage is discovered at the bank. (This latter ties in to the author’s own conviction on embezzlement charges.)
“The Indian Summer of Dry Valley Johnson” might be a harder read for modern audiences. It’s about a middle-aged man developing a foolish infatuation with the nineteen-year-old girl next door and duding himself up to court her. In addition to this rather cringy plotline, there’s a scene where Johnson chases children out of his strawberry patch with a whip.
There’s some period ethnic prejudice against Mexicans in the stories, which seems less about the author’s opinions than a reflection of the characters he’s writing about. Also a touch of period sexism.
Overall, this is a lovely collection of short stories by a master of the twist ending. Some readers may find the twists too familiar for their tastes, as those have often been imitated in other stories. If you have not read “The Caballero’s Way” elsewhere, this collection is the best setting for it. Recommended to short story fans who like their stories mostly sentimental.
December 19, 2022
In this (the third book in O. Henry's 10-volume output of short stories) the scene shifts from NYC to the plains and valleys and villages of the Western states. But notably, O. Henry’s patented breezy, over-the-top slang, quite at home in early 20th century New York, seems at first to be out of place in the ranchland of Texas or Wyoming. Anyone whose first encounter with this iconic writer happened to be this volume would probably find the style and language bizarre. Whether it works or not may largely depend on the individual reader. When, in some of the stories he abandons that pose and writes in a more conventional manner, his stories take on a quite different tone and can be much more appealing.
Like many of his protagonists, Porter was a bit of a vagabond and appears to have spent a good deal of his life on the fringes of society and at times he found himself scratching out a living “by hook or by crook” as it were. (This is illustrated most intriguingly in “The Gentle Grafter”; more of that at a later date.) But even in this set, his heroes are often marginalized characters whose schemes frequently go awry. O. Henry could at times be hilariously entertaining, gleefully celebrating the discomfiture of his unfortunate protagonists. In “Cupid a La Carte”, having failed to secure the affections of a waitress because she was fed up watching men continually eat and has resolved never to marry, the protagonist considers his options:
I couldn’t bear to give up Mame; and yet it pained me to abandon the practice of eating. I had acquired the habit too early. For twenty-seven years I had been blindly rushing upon my fate, yielding to the insidious lures of that deadly monster, food. It was too late. I was a ruminant biped for keeps. It was lobster salad to a doughnut that my life was going to be blighted by it.
As is the case in each of the ten volumes, there are a few gems among the collection and the rest of the stories are just OK. And since they are formulaic in structure —i.e. often portraying a scheme of some kind that somehow doesn’t turn out the way the protagonist intended and almost always with a twist near the end — reading a number of them in short succession can soon become cloying. I’ve read all of these stories at various times over many years but almost always in a “dabbling” mode, selecting one here, one there and mixing that in with other reading material. For me, the two best stories in this lot are “The Missing Chord” and “Hygeia at the Solito” but there are also several others that are quite appealing.
Like many of his protagonists, Porter was a bit of a vagabond and appears to have spent a good deal of his life on the fringes of society and at times he found himself scratching out a living “by hook or by crook” as it were. (This is illustrated most intriguingly in “The Gentle Grafter”; more of that at a later date.) But even in this set, his heroes are often marginalized characters whose schemes frequently go awry. O. Henry could at times be hilariously entertaining, gleefully celebrating the discomfiture of his unfortunate protagonists. In “Cupid a La Carte”, having failed to secure the affections of a waitress because she was fed up watching men continually eat and has resolved never to marry, the protagonist considers his options:
I couldn’t bear to give up Mame; and yet it pained me to abandon the practice of eating. I had acquired the habit too early. For twenty-seven years I had been blindly rushing upon my fate, yielding to the insidious lures of that deadly monster, food. It was too late. I was a ruminant biped for keeps. It was lobster salad to a doughnut that my life was going to be blighted by it.
As is the case in each of the ten volumes, there are a few gems among the collection and the rest of the stories are just OK. And since they are formulaic in structure —i.e. often portraying a scheme of some kind that somehow doesn’t turn out the way the protagonist intended and almost always with a twist near the end — reading a number of them in short succession can soon become cloying. I’ve read all of these stories at various times over many years but almost always in a “dabbling” mode, selecting one here, one there and mixing that in with other reading material. For me, the two best stories in this lot are “The Missing Chord” and “Hygeia at the Solito” but there are also several others that are quite appealing.
August 26, 2018
For more info about O. Henry, read my review of O. Henry's Roads of Destiny. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . Go check it out, this book is 110 years old, my review won't exactly get any staler in the meantime.
Heart of the West is a collection of O. Henry stories, all of which are set in or feature the American West at the turn of the 20th Century, back before paved interstates, when cowboy culture was at its peak and the Stetson Hat Company was still employing much of North Philadelphia. All of the stories have heart, whether romantic, sentimental, or people just being nice to each other. So score one for the accurate title.
I don't recall reading any of the stories in other more recent (like in the last 60 years) O. Henry compilations. So no O. Henry "Greatest Hits" but some deep cuts that fans will cherish more than the hot hits.
Many stories have a surprise twist, which O. Henry is best known for. What O. Henry is not really remembered for is how a great writer he was. O. Henry really was a genius, both as a narrator who can make any paragraph fun, and as a writer of dialog. Some of the cowboys go on like Robin Williams on a roll. Like Roads of Destiny, Heart of the West remains wonderfully readable 110 years later. If and when I write my book, O. Henry will be the standard I will try match.
Unfortunately the N word makes an appearance, uttered once by one of the characters. The book has no racist undertones to any ethnicity, but the word is in there so be forewarned. Don't let that stop you from reading this great book. And you can download it free from Project Guttenberg.
Heart of the West is a collection of O. Henry stories, all of which are set in or feature the American West at the turn of the 20th Century, back before paved interstates, when cowboy culture was at its peak and the Stetson Hat Company was still employing much of North Philadelphia. All of the stories have heart, whether romantic, sentimental, or people just being nice to each other. So score one for the accurate title.
I don't recall reading any of the stories in other more recent (like in the last 60 years) O. Henry compilations. So no O. Henry "Greatest Hits" but some deep cuts that fans will cherish more than the hot hits.
Many stories have a surprise twist, which O. Henry is best known for. What O. Henry is not really remembered for is how a great writer he was. O. Henry really was a genius, both as a narrator who can make any paragraph fun, and as a writer of dialog. Some of the cowboys go on like Robin Williams on a roll. Like Roads of Destiny, Heart of the West remains wonderfully readable 110 years later. If and when I write my book, O. Henry will be the standard I will try match.
Unfortunately the N word makes an appearance, uttered once by one of the characters. The book has no racist undertones to any ethnicity, but the word is in there so be forewarned. Don't let that stop you from reading this great book. And you can download it free from Project Guttenberg.
October 13, 2024
4.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews
Summary
A collection of O. Henry's characteristic short stories, this time set in a broadly defined West.
Review
This is the third collection of O. Henry stories I’ve read in quick succession, and I remain just as delighted as when I first encountered him decades ago.
For a change of pace, O. Henry sets these stories in a broadly defined West, and he doesn’t really pull it off. O. Henry’s characters are often intentional caricatures, and that’s especially true here – perhaps even when not intended. Especially in the earlier stories in the collection, they often come across more as stereotypes than archetypes, and feel more formed from lurid adventure novels than observation.
What does stay steady, though, is O. Henry’s sense of humour, which gives a sparkle to many of the stories. The stories themselves tend a little more toward the light-hearted and happy ending than in the prior collections, though there’s enough pathos here for leavening.
All in all, another O. Henry collection I can wholeheartedly recommend.
My favorite stories:
"Telemachus, Friend"
"The Handbook of Hymen"
"The Sphinx Apple"
"The Missing Chord"
"A Call Loan"
"A Chapparal Prince"
Summary
A collection of O. Henry's characteristic short stories, this time set in a broadly defined West.
Review
This is the third collection of O. Henry stories I’ve read in quick succession, and I remain just as delighted as when I first encountered him decades ago.
For a change of pace, O. Henry sets these stories in a broadly defined West, and he doesn’t really pull it off. O. Henry’s characters are often intentional caricatures, and that’s especially true here – perhaps even when not intended. Especially in the earlier stories in the collection, they often come across more as stereotypes than archetypes, and feel more formed from lurid adventure novels than observation.
What does stay steady, though, is O. Henry’s sense of humour, which gives a sparkle to many of the stories. The stories themselves tend a little more toward the light-hearted and happy ending than in the prior collections, though there’s enough pathos here for leavening.
All in all, another O. Henry collection I can wholeheartedly recommend.
My favorite stories:
"Telemachus, Friend"
"The Handbook of Hymen"
"The Sphinx Apple"
"The Missing Chord"
"A Call Loan"
"A Chapparal Prince"
September 5, 2025
For more info about O. Henry, read my review of O. Henry's Roads of Destiny. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . Go check it out, this book is 110 years old, my review won't exactly get any staler in the meantime.
Heart of the West is a collection of O. Henry stories, all of which are set in or feature the American West at the turn of the 20th Century, back before paved interstates, when cowboy culture was at its peak and the Stetson Hat Company was still employing much of North Philadelphia. All of the stories have heart, whether romantic, sentimental, or people just being nice to each other. So score one for the accurate title.
I don't recall reading any of the stories in other more recent (like in the last 60 years) O. Henry compilations. So no O. Henry "Greatest Hits" but some deep cuts that fans will cherish more than the hot hits.
Many stories have a surprise twist, which O. Henry is best known for. What O. Henry is not really remembered for is how a great writer he was. O. Henry really was a genius, both as a narrator who can make any paragraph fun, and as a writer of dialog. Some of the cowboys go on like Robin Williams on a roll. Like Roads of Destiny, Heart of the West remains wonderfully readable 110 years later. If and when I write my book, O. Henry will be the standard I will try match.
Unfortunately the N word makes an appearance, uttered once by one of the characters. The book has no racist undertones to any ethnicity, but the word is in there so be forewarned. Don't let that stop you from reading this great book. And you can download it free from Project Guttenberg.
Heart of the West is a collection of O. Henry stories, all of which are set in or feature the American West at the turn of the 20th Century, back before paved interstates, when cowboy culture was at its peak and the Stetson Hat Company was still employing much of North Philadelphia. All of the stories have heart, whether romantic, sentimental, or people just being nice to each other. So score one for the accurate title.
I don't recall reading any of the stories in other more recent (like in the last 60 years) O. Henry compilations. So no O. Henry "Greatest Hits" but some deep cuts that fans will cherish more than the hot hits.
Many stories have a surprise twist, which O. Henry is best known for. What O. Henry is not really remembered for is how a great writer he was. O. Henry really was a genius, both as a narrator who can make any paragraph fun, and as a writer of dialog. Some of the cowboys go on like Robin Williams on a roll. Like Roads of Destiny, Heart of the West remains wonderfully readable 110 years later. If and when I write my book, O. Henry will be the standard I will try match.
Unfortunately the N word makes an appearance, uttered once by one of the characters. The book has no racist undertones to any ethnicity, but the word is in there so be forewarned. Don't let that stop you from reading this great book. And you can download it free from Project Guttenberg.
August 20, 2021
I've had this book on my shelf for some time, and I decided to pick it up and read it. It was a lot of fun. These stories are told from the heart. They are funny, warm, and all of them have a point to put across. A lot of the stories are about love--some about enduring love and others about love that is lost. The wry humour and the syntax of the language from that time make them totally believable. There are 18 stories in this particular book and I enjoyed each and every one of them. As always I like to pick a favourite out of the collection. It was difficult with this book as there were a few that stood out, but I think that The Caballero's Way was my favourite. It certainly was one of the most memorable. The story about the Cisco Kid and his lady love tugged at the heartstrings. O. Henry led a dissolute but short life, but that did not hamper his deep need to find romance. This comes out in his stories. There is a lot of love that comes out in these warm and wonderful stories, and they all paint a very clear picture of what life was like in the old West at the end to the 19th century.For a book that languished so long on my shelves, it sure came to life in my hands once I cracked the spine.
September 4, 2019
3.5 stars
I had a sudden inclination to dive into the Western genre, and through O. Henry's short stories I went.
His writing—often verbose—can be a real chore, but his unique plot twists give his readers light at the end of the tunnel. The drawling, no-nonsense dialogue of cattlemen, sheepherders, and marauders acted as a much-needed buffer against his flowery language. These breaks in dialogue allowed me to come up for air and digest all this beautiful early 1900 vocabulary. Some memorable stories include "Telemachus, Friend", "Hygeia At The Solito", and my favorite, "The Caballero's Way". My only gripe was the overwriting which sometimes was not worth the effort to plow through with a dictionary, especially when one of O. Henry's trademark endings fell short. Overall, these stories were great, and a fine introduction to the Western genre.
If Westerns are not your cup of tea, I still recommend this anthology of stories. There were many that left me brooding long into the (Hurricane Dorian) night.
I had a sudden inclination to dive into the Western genre, and through O. Henry's short stories I went.
His writing—often verbose—can be a real chore, but his unique plot twists give his readers light at the end of the tunnel. The drawling, no-nonsense dialogue of cattlemen, sheepherders, and marauders acted as a much-needed buffer against his flowery language. These breaks in dialogue allowed me to come up for air and digest all this beautiful early 1900 vocabulary. Some memorable stories include "Telemachus, Friend", "Hygeia At The Solito", and my favorite, "The Caballero's Way". My only gripe was the overwriting which sometimes was not worth the effort to plow through with a dictionary, especially when one of O. Henry's trademark endings fell short. Overall, these stories were great, and a fine introduction to the Western genre.
If Westerns are not your cup of tea, I still recommend this anthology of stories. There were many that left me brooding long into the (Hurricane Dorian) night.
November 24, 2022
I recall O. Henry's stories that dealt beautifully with irony. The Gift of the Magi is my favorite and I suspect the favorite of many. I had no idea that he had written tales of the Wild West. Did you? In any case, some of these stories have touches of irony, but there's considerable humor, and quite a few are love stories of a sort. His vocabulary of now archaic words is impressive. I marked about 25 words that I'd never heard of. He also invents words and it was often hard for me to tell the difference between the archaic and the invented.
Some of his passages used idioms that may have been common in the West at the time but made no sense at all to me. For the most part, that blank spot didn't detract from understanding the tale. And these certainly are tales often worthy of humorous episodes of TV Westerns. I have to wonder if some of the stories haven't been used as frameworks for such shows.
All in all, I enjoyed the book. I'd recommend it to a limited audience.
Some of his passages used idioms that may have been common in the West at the time but made no sense at all to me. For the most part, that blank spot didn't detract from understanding the tale. And these certainly are tales often worthy of humorous episodes of TV Westerns. I have to wonder if some of the stories haven't been used as frameworks for such shows.
All in all, I enjoyed the book. I'd recommend it to a limited audience.
April 3, 2022
Heart of the West is a collection of nineteen short stories by O.Henry. The stories take place in and around Texas. The western theme serves as a backdrop for the stories and the reader is provided a window into the culture and mindset of the people of the time. The stories are verbose and can be very difficult to read and process. Despite the physical setting of the stories, the author ultimately writes about human nature and tends to veer towards romance. Stories end with a twist which is characteristic of the author but they aren't great for many of the stories in this collection. A few stories which include The Ransom of Mack, The Pimienta Pancakes and The Princess and the Puma are enjoyable while Cupid A La Carte, The Handbook of Hymen and A Call Loan tend to be thought provoking. A classic which is often referenced from this collection is The Caballero's Way which lives up to its hype.
May 2, 2023
I reviewed all by their title except "THE HIGHER ABDICATION" which I could not find a place to be reviewed. I enjoyed O. Henry's "The Heart of the West". I was really surprised that the Cisco kid was a bad hombre! O. Henry always delights in his special storytelling way.
Heart of the West This is O. Henry’s fourth collection and contains 19 short stories, first published in 1907.
-HEARTS AND CROSSES
-THE RANSOM OF MACK
-TELEMACHUS, FRIEND
-THE HANDBOOK OF HYMEN
-THE PIMIENTA PANCAKES
-SEATS OF THE HAUGHTY
-HYGEIA AT THE SOLITO
-AN AFTERNOON MIRACLE
-THE HIGHER ABDICATION
-CUPID A LA CARTE
-THE CABALLERO’S WAY
-THE SPHINX APPLE
-THE MISSING CHORD
-A CALL LOAN
-THE PRINCESS AND THE PUMA
-THE INDIAN SUMMER OF DRY VALLEY JOHNSON
-CHRISTMAS BY INJUNCTION
-A CHAPARRAL PRINCE
-THE REFORMATION OF CALLIOPE
Heart of the West This is O. Henry’s fourth collection and contains 19 short stories, first published in 1907.
-HEARTS AND CROSSES
-THE RANSOM OF MACK
-TELEMACHUS, FRIEND
-THE HANDBOOK OF HYMEN
-THE PIMIENTA PANCAKES
-SEATS OF THE HAUGHTY
-HYGEIA AT THE SOLITO
-AN AFTERNOON MIRACLE
-THE HIGHER ABDICATION
-CUPID A LA CARTE
-THE CABALLERO’S WAY
-THE SPHINX APPLE
-THE MISSING CHORD
-A CALL LOAN
-THE PRINCESS AND THE PUMA
-THE INDIAN SUMMER OF DRY VALLEY JOHNSON
-CHRISTMAS BY INJUNCTION
-A CHAPARRAL PRINCE
-THE REFORMATION OF CALLIOPE
June 10, 2022
An interesting collection of stories. It seems the men of the old west had no clue about women. Some rejected women until they encountered one that was "different." A different woman could be one that could shoot straight and well or one that had no interest in men or that said nothing. In the old west honor held a leading light to many men, including desperadoes. The number of shots a person could take surprised me. Sometimes one shot ended a person's life, sometimes the shots missed vital organs and a man could just continue on his quest. The men in these stories represented the best and the worst and something in between. I enjoyed the stories. It was definitely spending time in the past.
December 26, 2024
I had no idea O. Henry was so diverse or funny. This book of short stories had me captivated. I loved his depiction of the eccentric cowboy characters that made up the West. The conversations were hilarious.
Thus: "Mr. Green, says I, you having been a friend of mine once, I have some hesitation in confessing to you that if I had my choice of society between you and a yellow, 3-legged cur pup, one of the inmates of this here cabin would be wagging a tail just at present."
Tales of love, adventure, cow-poking, troubles at the bank, attempting to enjoy San Francisco with a buddy who only wants to eat beans...every story was a gem to me.
I'm not a short-story person, but will definitely keep this book at hand and read it every couple of years.
Thus: "Mr. Green, says I, you having been a friend of mine once, I have some hesitation in confessing to you that if I had my choice of society between you and a yellow, 3-legged cur pup, one of the inmates of this here cabin would be wagging a tail just at present."
Tales of love, adventure, cow-poking, troubles at the bank, attempting to enjoy San Francisco with a buddy who only wants to eat beans...every story was a gem to me.
I'm not a short-story person, but will definitely keep this book at hand and read it every couple of years.
April 13, 2025
Heart of the West, as a collection of short stories, fell a bit on the weaker side.
O. Henry is perhaps one of the best short story writers of all time. And that's reflected in this book too. The style of writing, although a bit old-fashioned, masterfully incorporates irony and humour in the set-ups. That makes for a rather pleasing read.
However, I found the plot of a lot of stories rather weak. One could see the resolution coming from miles, and the convoluted writing did not help in that case. I am also not the biggest fan of co-incidences.
That being said, there are a lot of gems in here, and my favourites include:
Heart and Crosses, Cupid A La Carte, A Chaparral Prince and The Reformation of Calliope.
O. Henry is perhaps one of the best short story writers of all time. And that's reflected in this book too. The style of writing, although a bit old-fashioned, masterfully incorporates irony and humour in the set-ups. That makes for a rather pleasing read.
However, I found the plot of a lot of stories rather weak. One could see the resolution coming from miles, and the convoluted writing did not help in that case. I am also not the biggest fan of co-incidences.
That being said, there are a lot of gems in here, and my favourites include:
Heart and Crosses, Cupid A La Carte, A Chaparral Prince and The Reformation of Calliope.
December 23, 2018
A collection of hard-hittin’, sharp shootin’ gut punchin’ western yarns by that master storyteller, O. Henry. Knowing O. Henry’s modus operandi, you can expect lots of surprise endings and a lot of difficult vocabulary. But as for the hard words, don’t waste your time looking them up–most of them aren’t in the dictionary anyway. Your best strategy is to simply kick back and enjoy these rip roarin’ tales. One word of warning, though: Take a pass on “The Caballero’s Way.” The surprise is so obvious that you think the story is going to double back the other way, but it doesn’t, and the result is very disturbing.
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January 18, 2022At present I am finding myself quite immersified in the most engaging and creative realm of that most distinguished American of yore, Mr. O. Henry. He of the twist-type ending, while causing no lack of amusement in the course of the reading entertainments, is not to be considered a let down if you was to take a poke around and into his most gratifying world. I am quite taken by the old-timey patois of the inhabitants of Mr. Henry's fine imaginings. The tales are tall yet simultaneous they are quite short! You should read up some on this here tome entitled "Heart of the West" originating itself in year of our Lord 1904 but still very graspable in these here modern times.
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