Cabbages and Kings

O. Henry (1862 - 1910)

This work is O. Henry's first published volume and is considered to be his only novel. The plot is composed of several short stories, which were inspired by the author's six-month stay in Honduras in the late 1890s.

"The incidents embracing as they do, a variety of subjects, hang loosely together, so loosely in fact, that at times one finds no apparent connection between them at all, and yet in the end one sees how each is intimately related to the other. ...Written by a less able hand than O. Henry's the book might have been a sad jumble, perhaps comprehensible to none but the Walrus--but as it is, one finds a joy in its every obscurity." -- The New York Times Book Review, Dec. 17, 1904)

Great mysteries are ofen meta-mysteries. For over a century this novel has masqueraded as a collection of loosely connected short stories. Looking backwards through a prism (now a commonplace critical contortion) Cabbages and Kings foreshadows many shadings: "At Swim-Two-Birds", "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote", "Tyrants Destroyed", "The Continuity of Parks". -- Elliot Gage

O. Henry spent his first years as a writer in Austin, Texas, and the University of Texas maintains a 219-item collection of his works at the Portal to Texas History (reference to publicly-available items which may not be in public domain offered to enthusiasts). — Eric W. Metzler

Genre(s): Short Stories

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 00 THE PROEM: BY THE CARPENTER Elliot Gage
00:09:57
Play 01 "FOX-IN-THE-MORNING" Eric Metzler
00:18:40
Play 02 THE LOTUS AND THE BOTTLE Eric Metzler
00:24:45
Play 03 SMITH Eric Metzler
00:22:55
Play 04 CAUGHT Eric Metzler
00:24:18
Play 05 CUPID'S EXILE NUMBER TWO Eric Metzler
00:11:55
Play 06 THE PHONOGRAPH AND THE GRAFT Eric Metzler
00:25:23
Play 07 MONEY MAZE Eric Metzler
00:21:18
Play 08 THE ADMIRAL Eric Metzler
00:16:23
Play 09 THE FLAG PARAMOUNT Eric Metzler
00:21:00
Play 10 THE SHAMROCK AND THE PALM Eric Metzler
00:34:55
Play 11 THE REMNANTS OF THE CODE Eric Metzler
00:19:30
Play 12 SHOES Eric Metzler
00:19:22
Play 13 SHIPS Eric Metzler
00:17:08
Play 14 MASTERS OF ARTS Eric Metzler
00:31:29
Play 15 DICKY Eric Metzler
00:23:49
Play 16 ROUGE ET NOIR Eric Metzler
00:18:48
Play 17 TWO RECALLS Eric Metzler
00:16:10
Play 18 THE VITAGRAPHOSCOPE Eric Metzler
00:07:17