Audiobook · read by volunteers
Trimmed Lamp: and other Stories of the Four Million
O. Henry (1862–1910)
Read by Marian Brown · 25 chapters · 5 h 54
About the book
New York, in the early years of the twentieth century. Two shop girls share a rented room and dream of a good marriage, each in her own way. A young painter lies ill in a garret and fixes her hopes on the last leaf of a vine. Clerks, waitresses and dreamers: the people in these stories live on small wages and big hopes, and O. Henry follows them with a smile.
The Trimmed Lamp gathers twenty-five tales, some comic, some sentimental, all marked by the author’s fondness for the unexpected twist at the end. He writes about the crowds, the shop counters and the rented rooms of New York, the city of the Four Million of his subtitle, finding drama in what other writers overlooked.
Twenty-five stories, about six hours, to dip into whenever you like.
Introduction
O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer who became one of the most popular short story authors of his time. He published ten collections and hundreds of stories, and the pen name is generally said to date from his years in prison. After his release he moved to New York and wrote prolifically for newspapers and magazines.
The Trimmed Lamp and Other Stories of the Four Million appeared in 1907 as a companion to his earlier collection, The Four Million. That title answered the notion that only the so-called Four Hundred of high society were worth noticing: O. Henry wrote about the four million, the whole population of the city. His characters are shop assistants, clerks, hobos, waitresses and dreamers, and his tone mixes humour with unexpected tenderness.
O. Henry is best known for his endings, which often turn on irony or coincidence. That device is now called the “O. Henry ending”, and it has been imitated widely. Yet the pleasure of these stories is not only in the surprise. It is in the language, with its slang, puns and elaborate comic metaphors, and in the affection with which he describes city life.
This recording has twenty-five chapters and lasts nearly six hours, read by a LibriVox volunteer. The stories are self-contained, so you can listen in any order, one at a time or in a long stretch.
Public domain
O. Henry died in 1910: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text