PREPARED BY:-

SUSHANT 23URVASHI 24NISHANT 26AVINABH 27SNEHA 28

BEST SELLER

By - O HENRy

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF O HENRy

O. Henry was an American writer whose short stories

are known for wit, wordplay and clever twist endings. He wrote nearly 600 stories about life in

America.

He was born as William Sidney Porter on September 11,1862 in

Greensboro, north Carolina. His father Algernon Sidney Porter, was a medical doctor. When William was three his mother died and he was raised by his grandmother and aunt. He left school at the age of 15 and then had a number of jobs, including bank clerk. In 1896 he was accused of embezzlement. He absconded from the law to New Orleans and later fled to Honduras. When he learned that his wife was dying, he returned to US and surrendered to police. Although there has been much debate over his actual guilt, he was convicted of embezzling funds from the bank that employed him, he was sentenced to 5 years in jail. In 1898 he was sent to the penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio.

While in prison he began writing short stories in order to support his young daughter Margaret. His first published story was "Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking" (1899). He used a pseudonym, Olivier Henry, only once and changed his pen name to O. Henry, not wanting his readers to know he was in jail. He published 12 stories while in prison. After serving 3 years of the five-year sentence, he was released for good behavior. He moved to New York City in 1902 and wrote a story a week for the New York World, and also for other publishers. His first collection of stories was "Cabbages and Kings" (1904). The next collection, "The Four Million" (1906), included his well-known stories "The Gift of the Magi", "The Skylight Room" and "The Green Door". One of his last stories, "The Ransom of Red Chief" (1910), is perhaps the best known of his works.

SUmmARyBest seller deals with the life of a business worker

of a plate and glass company who believes that fictions are unrealistic and according to him a man always marries a girl of the same background. The story stats with the narrator travelling in a chair car on his way to Pittsburgh where he meets John A. Pescud, an old acquaintance. John was reading a bestseller ‘THE ROSE LADy AND TREVELyAN’. John thought that these stories were imaginary. Then after a little formal chat on happenings in their lives john told that he was married.

John was travelling to Cincinnati when he saw the finest maiden of all and fell in love then he followed her all the way to her hometown keeping a sharp unpredictable distance from her eyes. He went in a hotel for the night to stay where the manager on asking said that the biggest mansion at top of the hill was of colonel Allyn then suddenly the maiden of his dreams came, he went to her and started the conversation, which ended with her revealing the truth that she knew john was following her and she was glad that he didn't talked with her and the next challenge to him was to enter the girl’s house which was none other than the colonel’s mansion.

The next morning he went there by showing his business card and by pretending that he wanted to sell those plate glasses and hence wanted to meet colonel Allyn, the place was a dead coffin and he with shaken legs, numb hands and crack voice talked to the colonel and after sometime came to the point and asked for the girl’s hand and to his surprise the colonel gave an unexpected answer by agreeing.

The colonel told him a lot of stories about his experiences, after all he got someone to listen to his stories and unwillingly he had to listen to him. The story ends as train reaches to coke town and the so called Trevelyan goes to dig petunias for his rose lady and he addresses that the old man is still in my house waiting to tell more and more stories.

Key Words

Questions and answer

the Message of this Piece of Literature

O. Henry had a very interesting friend ‘John’. At first he says that the best sellers ‘THE ROSE LADY AND TREVELYAN’ are unrealistic and believes that a man marries a girl of similar background. But his love and marriage with Jessie is similar with the best sellers. The writer wants to convey that ‘life has no geographical bound’ which means that human beings are essentially the same everywhere.