A series of stories which each explore some individual aspect of life in a paralytically sleepy Central American town while each advancing some aspect of the larger plot and relating back one to another in a complex structure which slowly explicates its own background even as it painstakingly erects a town which is one of the most detailed literary creations of the period.In this book, O. Henry coined the term ‘banana republic’.
Set in a fictitious Central American country called the Republic of Anchuria, this is a classic tale that has been loved by many for generations, a great addition to the collection.
William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American short story writer. O. Henry’s short stories are known for their surprise endings.
He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. He changed the spelling of his middle name to Sydney in 1898.
PROEM (excerpt)
They will tell you in Anchuria, that President
Miraflores, of that volatile republic, died by his own hand in the
coast town of Coralio; that he had reached thus far in flight from
the inconveniences of an imminent revolution; and that one hundred
thousand dollars, government funds, which he carried with him in an
American leather valise as a souvenir of his tempestuous
administration, was never afterward recovered…
It is characteristic of this buoyant people that
they pursue no man beyond the grave. ‘Let God be his
judge!’—Even with the hundred thousand unfound, though greatly
coveted, the hue and cry went no further than that.
To the stranger or the guest the people of Coralio
will relate the story of the tragic end of their former president;
how he strove to escape from the country with the public funds and
also with Doña Isabel Guilbert, the young American opera singer; and
how, being apprehended by members of the opposing political party in
Coralio, he shot himself through the head rather than give up the
funds, and, in consequence, the Señorita Guilbert. They will relate
further that Doña Isabel, her adventurous bark of fortune shoaled by
the simultaneous loss of her distinguished admirer and the souvenir
hundred thousand, dropped anchor on this stagnant coast, awaiting a
rising tide.
They say, in Coralio, that she found a prompt and
prosperous tide in the form of Frank Goodwin, an American resident of
the town, an investor who had grown wealthy by dealing in the
products of the country—a banana king, a rubber prince, a
sarsaparilla, indigo, and mahogany baron…
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