Henry's acerbic wit, inventive plots, salty language & memorable characters."One of the most prolific and widely read short-story writers of our time, O. Henry transformed the mundane occurrences of everyday life into hundreds of stories so popular that they have never gone out of print.From "The Gift of the Magi," the heartwarming classic of selfless love, to "The Last Leaf," the unforgettable story of the twist of fate that renews one woman's will to live, O. Henry's finest work is collected here in one volume. These expertly plotted tales reveal the humorous complexities of hope and destiny, and demonstrate O. Henry's indisputable storytelling genius. His bittersweet insight and trademark surprise endings make for timeless tales that continue to delight readers throughout the world." ~from the back cover of this book~

    Today these stories -- "A Vintage Thunderbird;" "The Lawn Party, " " La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans," to name a few -- seem even more powerful, and are read and studied as classics of the short-story form. Spare and elegant, yet charged with feeling and with the tension of things their characters cannot say, they are masterly portraits of improvised lives.

    The blazing saga of Europe caught between two world wars...and a family redeemed from pride and sin by their passionate humanity.RUBIN -- who defied his upper-class English rank to love a woman his family called whore.MAGDA -- lifted from the nightworld of Bucharest and Paris by a man she was driven to betray.JEANETTE -- fated to relive her mother's sins as the wife of one man, mistress to his brother.JEAN-PAUL -- who could never give his own name to Jeanette, or to the child of their love.

    Contents: Benito Cereno; Bartleby the Scrivener; The Encantadas or Enchanted Isles; Billy Budd, Foretopman.