The Furnished Room


Book Description

"The Furnished Room" is a short story about love and dedication, about exhaustion and despair. A young man is in search for a girl he fell in love with. He rents a room near the theaters where she is to be seen and he devotes his days to the dream of finding her. When all of a sudden the sweet fragrance of her perfume fills his room ... Is he finally blessed with success? Or this is an evil ghost from the past? Will he get to embrace the girl he loves or she will drag him to the verge of sanity? William Sydney Porter, better known as O. Henry, was an American writer who lived in the late 19th century. He gains wide popularity with his short stories which often take place either in New York or some small American towns. The plot twists and the surprise endings are a typical and integral part of O. Henry’s short stories. Some of his best known works are "The Gift of the Magi", "The Cop and the Anthem", "A Retrieved Reformation". His stories often deal with ordinary people and the individual aspects of life. As a result of the outstanding literature legacy that O. Henry left behind, there is an American annual award after his name, given to exceptional short stories.




The Furnished Room


Book Description

Joe Beckett drifts from job to job and woman to woman in a seedy world of bedsitters and all-night cafes. Living in the wasteland between Notting Hill and Earl's Court, he heats up tins on gas rings and smuggles girls past the landlady. He has no values or beliefs. A chance encounter with a roadhouse braggart brings him the opportunity to murder someone to shock himself back to life. The Furnished Room was filmed as West 11.Laura Del-Rivo was an associate of Bill Hopkins and Colin Wilson, who described The Furnished Room as one of the significant novels of the 1960s.




The Gift of the Magi


Book Description

"The Gift of the Magi" is a short story by O. Henry first published in 1905. The story tells of a young husband and wife and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. As a sentimental story with a moral lesson about gift-giving, it has been popular for adaptation, especially for presentation at Christmas time.




41 Stories


Book Description

Including his most famous works, such as “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Furnished Room,” this collection of forty-one O. Henry short stories demonstrates his extraordinary technical genius. “There are stories in everything. I’ve got some of my best yarns from park benches, lampposts, and newspaper stands.”—O. Henry Readers the world over recognize O. Henry as the best short story writer of the early twentieth century—even today a masterful surprise at the end of a story is described as “an O. Henry twist,” and a prominent short fiction award bears his name. Widely known as a master of irony, O. Henry also displayed in his stories dazzling wordplay and a wry combination of pathos and humor. Cunningly arranged according to geographic location, these tales display the wide range of O. Henry’s world, from the streets of his beloved New York City to the heat of Honduras and other exotic locales. With his wonderful plot turns, unexpected climaxes, and deep insights into human nature, O. Henry’s works will live on as prime examples of the well-told tale. Includes an Introduction by Burton Raffel and an Afterword by Laura Furman




Books Do Furnish a Room


Book Description




The best of O. Henry


Book Description




The Room


Book Description

“The daily grind got you down? Escape into this Swedish dark comedy about a scaldingly contemptuous office drone who discovers a secret room in his workplace.”—O: The Oprah Magazine The inspiration for the upcoming feature film Corner Office, starring Jon Hamm Björn is a compulsive, meticulous bureaucrat who discovers a secret room at the government office where he works—a secret room that no one else in his office will acknowledge. When Björn is in his room, what his co-workers see is him standing by the wall and staring off into space looking dazed, relaxed, and decidedly creepy. Björn’s bizarre behavior eventually leads his co-workers to try and have him fired, but Björn will turn the tables on them with help from his secret room. Debut author Jonas Karlsson doesn’t leave a word out of place in this brilliant, bizarre, delightful take on how far we will go—in a world ruled by conformity—to live an individual and examined life.




Unfinished Story


Book Description

An Unfinished Story by O. Henry focuses on the life of Dulcie, a shop girl, and on the way shop girls in general must live on their small salaries. O. Henry's short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings.




A Retrieved Reformation


Book Description

Do you believe that people can change? Can a bank robber marry the banker’s daughter without having any hidden thoughts and intentions? "A Retrieved Reformation" tells the story of Jimmy, a formal prisoner, who decides to quit violating the law in the name of love. He takes up a new identity and starts a new life as an honorable man. However he is about to face a choice which can cost him his future. Will he sacrifice himself in order to save a child in danger or he will prefer to keep his old identity in secret? William Sydney Porter, better known as O. Henry, was an American writer who lived in the late 19th century. He gains wide popularity with his short stories which often take place either in New York or some small American towns. The plot twists and the surprise endings are a typical and integral part of O. Henry’s short stories. Some of his best known works are "The Gift of the Magi", "The Cop and the Anthem", "A Retrieved Reformation". His stories often deal with ordinary people and the individual aspects of life. As a result of the outstanding literature legacy that O. Henry left behind, there is an American annual award after his name, given to exceptional short stories.




A Room of One's Own


Book Description

Virginia Woolf's playful exploration of a satirical »Oxbridge« became one of the world's most groundbreaking writings on women, writing, fiction, and gender. A Room of One's Own [1929] can be read as one or as six different essays, narrated from an intimate first-person perspective. Actual history blends with narrative and memoir. But perhaps most revolutionary was its address: the book is written by a woman for women. Male readers are compelled to read through women's eyes in a total inversion of the traditional male gaze. VIRGINIA WOOLF [1882–1941] was an English author. With novels like Jacob’s Room [1922], Mrs Dalloway [1925], To the Lighthouse [1927], and Orlando [1928], she became a leading figure of modernism and is considered one of the most important English-language authors of the 20th century. As a thinker, with essays like A Room of One’s Own [1929], Woolf has influenced the women’s movement in many countries.