Resumen
Resumen de The Four Million
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You will enjoy this book if you love short stories with a sharp last line, like city life seen from the sidewalk, and enjoy a narrator who jokes and then touches your heart.
De qué trata este libro
A young woman counts her money three times. One dollar and eighty-seven cents, and tomorrow is Christmas. Across town, a man on a park bench shifts uneasily as a dead leaf lands in his lap, because he plans to get himself arrested for the winter.
These are the people of The Four Million, twenty-five short stories by O. Henry, the pen name of William Sydney Porter. The book came out in 1906. Its title points at ordinary New Yorkers, the clerks, shopgirls, cabbies, and drifters, rather than the few families who ruled high society. You get tales built to land on their last lines, with every ending kept safe for your own reading.
En este resumen
- 1A whole city of ordinary people takes the stageFree
- 2A palm reading sends two friends chasing luck
- 3Della sells her hair to buy Jim a gift
- 4Shabby rooms shelter large hopes and quiet courage
- 5Boardinghouse brawls and shy hearts make comedy
- 6Drifters and schemers try to outwit the city
- 7Costumes and pretending open the way to truth
- 8Quick portraits capture the types of New York
- 9Money, pride, and kindness drive the characters
- 10A chatty narrator and a surprise last line
Idea clave 1 de 10
A whole city of ordinary people takes the stage
The book is built on one decision. O. Henry looks past the mansions on Fifth Avenue and writes about everyone else. His stage is New York in the early 1900s, with its boardinghouses, hansom cabs, lunch counters, and rented rooms. The people have small wages and large dreams.
Della and Jim live in an eight-dollar flat. Soapy wants a winter bed in a cell. Tildy waits tables, Sarah types menus, and Towers Chandler saves a dollar a week toward one grand evening. Even a talking yellow dog gets a story. The mood runs from brawls to ghost tales, and some stories make you laugh and leave a lump in the throat at once.
O. Henry teases his characters, yet he never sneers at them. He treats the feelings of poor people as large, because to them they are. O. Henry finds a whole drama in the lives that high society never notices.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
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About 3 h 40 min to read.Empieza 90 días gratisPaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 49,600 words
- Reading timeAbout 3 h 30 min
Questions about The Four Million
What is The Four Million about?
It is a collection of twenty-five short stories about ordinary New Yorkers in the early 1900s, including shopgirls, clerks, cabbies, waiters, and drifters. Each story follows one person through a small crisis of love, money, or pride.
Why is the book called The Four Million?
The title points to the whole population of New York at the time, the everyday crowd, instead of the few hundred people who made up high society. The stories give that crowd the spotlight.
Which famous stories are in The Four Million?
The collection includes The Gift of the Magi, The Cop and the Anthem, The Furnished Room, After Twenty Years, The Romance of a Busy Broker, and The Green Door, along with many lesser-known tales.
Is The Four Million easy to read?
The stories are short and self-contained, so you can enjoy one in a single sitting. The language is playful and chatty, and the narrator speaks to you directly, which makes the book pleasant to read aloud.
What is an O. Henry ending?
It is a closing line or event that gives a story a sudden, ironic turn and makes you see the earlier scenes differently. The collection offers many examples, and each is built to land in the final lines.
Cite this edition
Henry, O. The Four Million. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-four-million.
Henry, O. (2026). The four million. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-four-million (Original work published 1906)
Henry, O. The Four Million. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-four-million.
@book{henry2026four,
author = {Henry, O.},
title = {The Four Million},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-four-million},
note = {First published 1906}
}
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Get the full summary of The Four Million, free
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