Gender Readings. Top Ten. Ренц Т.Г - 80 стр.

      The young man pushed his hands into his pockets and walked
slowly back along the sidewalk. At the corner his foot struck a small,
paper-covered volume lying there. By its picturesque cover he recogn-
ised it as the book the girl had been reading. He picked it up careless-
ly, and saw that its title was New Arabian Nights, the author being of
the name of Stevenson. He dropped it again upon the grass, and stood
hesitating, for a minute. Then he stepped into the automobile reclined
upon the cushions, and said two words to the chauffeur:
      “Club, Henri.”

THE AUTHOR
      O’Henry was the pen-name of William Sydney Porter (1862—
1910), one of the most famous of American short-story writers. He
was the son of a doctor, but led an unsettled life in his early years,
working successively as his father’s dispenser, a Texas ranch band and
a bank cashier. Whilst in this last employment he was accused of
embezzlement of bank funds. He fled to South America to escape
arrest, but returned on hearing that his wife was ill. He was arrested
and sentenced to five years in prison. On his release he lived in
extreme poverty in New York, drinking heavily and writing short
stories to support himself. He died of consumption.
      Although his life was a tragic one, it gave him a profound knowl-
edge of human character, especially of dwellers in big cities who are
unfortunate in life. As a story-teller, he is remarkable for his ingenuity
in the use of ironical coincidences and for his skilful plots. In 1918
the American Society of Letters honoured his name by founding the
O’Henry Memorial Award, which gives an annual prize for the best
American short story.

READING NOTES
      O’Henry was particularly clever at writing stories with an unex-
pected ending to them. “While the Auto Waits’ is a good example of
this kind of story.
      the girl in grey. This is the subject of came (line 1). It is put at the
end of the sentence to give it special emphasis. This kind of inversion is
rather too melodramatic for modern tastes. It would be more natural
nowadays to say “there came”, and O’Henry has used there in a simi-
lar construction in the next sentence there was yet to come a half hour.

                                   – 80 –