| Title | : | Cabbages and Kings |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1406923745 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781406923742 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 148 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1904 |
Cabbages and Kings Reviews
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Taking its title from a line in "The Walrus and the Carpenter" in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, this is O. Henry's only novel and its main claim to fame is that he coined the phrase "banana republic" in its pages.
It's a novel in the form of linked short stories, like Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kittredge, recounting the schemes of a cast of American ex-pats and local villagers living in Coralio, in the fictional Central American country of Anchuria, orbiting around the attempt by President Miraflores to flee the country with a beautiful companion and a big part of the national treasury. The novel seems to wander, but wraps up pretty well at the end, with O. Henry's signature plot twists.
Anchuria is based on Honduras, where William Sydney Porter, whose pen name was O. Henry, himself fled in an unsuccessful effort to avoid prosecution for embezzlement from an Austin, Texas bank where he had worked. He eventually was convicted and served three years in prison in Columbus, Ohio.
You might be put off by the casual racism and offensive terms used throughout. -
This is one of my all-time favorite books, one that I re-read often. The language is brilliant and humorous, the setting is tropical, and the characters are memorable. Each chapter could stand alone as a short story, but they string together to form a novel. I read it when I need to remember that life shouldn't be taken quite so seriously. I can't recommend this one enough.
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A fairly well-knit collection of short stories, each displaying O. Henry's knack for concealing while he puts on a show. The book has a comic portrayal of the tropics, both its volatile political climate and its meteorological one. The book shows its age by opining race-based comments about the inhabitants, but the white characters don't exactly get the buff and polish either.
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I am a sucker for the short story and O. Henry is a master. I started reading this a few days ago and could not put it down. Some stories are better than others, but that is always the case. What I most enjoyed with this collection was the idioms and old-style slang. A bonus was the unexpected twists and turns as well as the absolute lack of political correctness.
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When I started with this collection of inter-connected short stories, I was not very impressed. I could not find the charm and attraction that I found in his other famous short stories like the very well known 'The Gift of the Magi'. But slowly and surely, this collection slipped a tight grip around me. I started enjoying his wit and got adjusted to the archaic English. Although it did slow me down a lot, because I cannot proceed without knowing the meaning :) the archaic English as well as the construction of the dialogues themselves is a major part of the narrative. The more I read, the more convinced I became of O Henry's brilliance as a writer. I cannot believe that this is his first work of writing. It is just too good!
The collection has been structured beautifully and it builds towards a worthy ending. Even after the book has ended, you are left with the vivid knowledge of the imaginary Caribbean island nation of Anchuria. You start feeling at home in Coralio, the town where most of the action unfolds and you become possessive about all those well fleshed-out characters.
Apparently, this collection is considered to contain some of O Henry's best work which also happens to be his least known! So I would recommend this highly to all O Henry fans. And I would suggest to be patient with it, and give it time... -
A collection of stories set in a fictional "banana republic" of Anchuria, likely modeled after Honduras, where the author, O. Henry, spent some time evading the law after embezzlement and tax evasion charges. The characters are largely American businessmen and government officials, who are all to happy to pull fast cons and loaf about in hammocks, pining for their lost loves and failed dealings in the States. There is humor, primarily slapstick style, in the vaudevillian antics of the expats. The reader can easily glean O. Henry's political leanings and prevalent opinions regarding American expansionism / manifest destiny, race, and corporate business in the Caribbean/Central America.
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ვაპირებდი დამეწერა: "მოთხრობები ჯობია" - მეთქი, მაგრამ ისე ლამაზად აეწყო პაზლი, რომ ახლა მხოლოდ იმას ვწერ, თუ რის დაწერას ვაპირებდი.
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My favorite stories were "The Shamrock and the Palm", "Shoes", "Ships", and "Masters of Arts".
Some funny quotes:
“He was, in reality, a categorical idealist who strove to anamorphosize the dull verities of life by means of brandy and rum”
"President Losada ordered from a French sculptor a marble group including himself with Napoleon, Alexander the Great, and one or two others whom he deemed worthy of the honour"
"You tear up ten thousand dollars like an old rag because the way you've spread on five dollars' worth of paint hurts your conscience. Next time I pick a side-partner in a scheme the man has to go before a notary and swear he never even heard the word 'ideal' mentioned."
"I was awakened by an orange that dropped from a tree upon my nose; and I lay there for a while cursing Sir Isaac Newton, or whoever it was that invented gravitation, for not confining his theory to apples." -
This is definitely not O. Henry at his best. His strength is with the individual short story - this book is a collection of short stories which is supposed to have a common thread. I began to enjoy the stories more when I stopped trying to fit them all together and read them simply as short stories, separate and distinct from one another. The resolution of the overarching story was, I admit, quite funny.
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Disgusting vile racist shit.
I vaguely recall reading O. Henry stories in high school and enjoying them.
But this shit?
Ugh
Think of every single xenophobic racist stereotype and slur and derogatory name one might use to think of/describe American Indians & black people, Italians, Irish, and South Americans... and each one was used in this wretched book... multiple times! -
არ ვაპირებდი ამ წიგნის წაკითხვას, ბოლოსკენ შემოვიტოვე, მეზარებოდა დაწყება :D საწინააღმდეგო აღმოჩნდა.
გარემო - ტროპიკული
პერსონაჟები - სამახსოვრო
თითოეული თავი - ცალკე ისტორია, რომლებიც საბოლოოდ კარგ ნაწარმოებს ქმნიან.
4/5 -
Humorous, but in a style that was a little difficult for me to follow or appreciate fully.
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Cabbages and Kings
تعرفت على أو. هنري قبل أعوام بعيدة، كانت قصصه تنشر في الصحف كجزء من مشروع ترجمي صغير، تقدم فيه قصص من بلدان ومؤلفين شتى، نسيت لاحقاً أسماء الكثير من القصصيين الذين عرفنا بهم المشروع ولكن بقي أو. هنري لا ينسى، لاحقاً - وكانت إنجليزيتي كسيحة وقتها – حصلت على مجموعة أفضل مئة قصة كتبها هنري ووضعتها في مكان بارز من مكتبتي لقراءتها عندما تتحسن لغتي وتخرج من إسار المقالات الصغيرة، مرت الأعوام وكثرت العناوين وصرت اقرأ أفضل وأكثر، وبقي مجلد المئة قصة مؤجلاً، يتنقل معي من منزل إلى آخر ومن مكتبة صغيرة إلى أخرى أكبر، وعندما قررت أنه حان الوقت للقليل من أو. هنري خطرت لي فكرة جعلت انتظار تلك المئة بلا طائل، كانت الفكرة هي لمَ الاكتفاء بمئة قصة من هذا العبقري الممتع؟ لمَ لا اقرأ أعماله الكاملة، وهكذا تركت المجلد في رقدته الطويلة وحصلت على الأعمال الكاملة على كندل بما يعادل قيمة كوب قهوة صغير، وحتى أضمن أن المجلد الحزين سيحظى بنهاية لائقة قمت بمقارنة سريعة لأتأكد أن كل القصص المئة موجودة في الأعمال الكاملة وأنني لم أتعرض لإحدى ألاعيب دور النشر والتي تبيعك عملاً منقوصاً بمزاعم كاملة.
تحوي الأعمال الكاملة كل مجموعات هنري القصصية، مرتبة حسب تاريخ الصدور، وهذه المجموعة الجميلة (ملفوف وملوك) والتي صدرت سنة 1904 م لم ينشر أياً منها ضمن مجلد المئة قصة، ربما لأن هذه المجموعة مترابطة مكانياً وموضوعياً، فأحداث القصص تدور في مدينة ساحلية تدعى كورالايو، تقع هذه المدينة في بلد تخيلي في أمريكا الوسطى، رؤساء هاربين وتجار وثوريين وعشاق حالمين، تضم هذه المجموعة قصصاً ممتعة، ذكية وساخرة، تعيد بعض هذه القصص النظر في قصص أخرى وتنير بعض معانيها أو أحداثها. كانت هذه المجموعة الأولى وأعكف الآن على قراءة المجموعة الثانية من قصص أو. هنري وسأستمر حتى الفراغ من كل المجموعات، فما قرأته في هذه المجموعة يحرض على المزيد. -
This is by far my favorite short story collection by O. Henry. The tales take place in the same locale, a fictitious banana republic of the American tropics. There is an over-arcing plot that runs through the stories, concerning the ruling potentate's abdication and sudden departure with the nation's treasury funds, creating a mystery that isn't solved until the final vignette. Along the way, we meet an amusing cast of characters, each one with his own colorful background. The best part of the book, though, is O. Henry's brilliant use of the English language.
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Mock-elegant to the point of being outlandishly comic, the sense of fun is only ruined for the modern reader by the liberal use (the ill-liberal use?) of racial humor. Yeah I know, those where different times, and genteel ladies dropped the n-bomb in polite conversation on the way to church, but so much of the humor relies on the reader sharing the narrators' opinion on who the "superior race" is that it rather spoils the book for anyone looking simply to be entertained. Want to read it as a piece of social history? Be my open-minded guest. Want to admire the well constructed story telling? Sorry, but the plotting is cornball in the extreme. I admired the acrobatic vocabulary, but on the whole these stories were too goofy for my taste.
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Love love love this!!! This is a must read!everyone must read this! I read his gift of magi and found it good and wanted to read more of his writings.. i got to know this is his famous work and read it. Guess what? I totally fell in love with his writing after reading this..Oh what a fine write this is..language is complex but when you get to understand it you'll totally love it. The witty and sarcastic way of language have me. I still can't believe it is his first book..ohh such a fine write..definitely gonna reread this and I cannot reccomend this more enough..just read it! You'll love it!
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3+
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dnf-ed
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Rating - 6.4
Expected more in overall enjoyment & expected a lot more description about Banana Republics (mostly danced around the edges w only one chapter connecting; Most of the characters are forgettable
One of those books where you read a chapter a night & sum up w a 'that was decent' however nothing that made you want to read a second chapter; Maybe more stories about the working class? -
This might be one that I'll have to revisit with a future reread, but for now I've done the best I could to wrangle my takeaway thoughts into a haiku:
"Like a world apart.
The fleeing, seeking, and scammed
Have that one promise." -
This was an interesting collection of stories. The setting is the same throughout-a small coastal town in South America- with the same cast of characters-expatriates who have found themselves living there. All the characters are disreputable, on-the-make shysters with the slang usually found in old mobster movies. This is contrasted with the epic, high-flown language of the narration, which adds an extra layer of plain ridiculousness and sly humor. I enjoyed reading this, but, except for a few really fine passages, I don't feel I'm taking anything lasting out of the experience.
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A collection of stories with a common thread and an intriguing mystery at its outset. I thought the twist of the mystery trite although the clues were there and the pieces fit. But learning the resolution is nothing compared to O'Henry's brilliant storytelling. Will definitely read more O'Henry works.
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I love O. Henry. He had a unique grammar and diction. This book is a chain a short stories that could just as easily be called a novel. But I think the contrivances at the end, which are meant to tie the thing together, rather undermine the charm of the book.
Still, this is well worth reading. If for no other reason, it gives you a taste of what O'Henry's exile in Latin America was like. -
Fun story full of vignettes revolving around this small banana republic. O'Henry has the best vocabulary I've ever read. He is also sort of racist in that 1915 sort of way regarding islanders, but not as bad as I would've expected.
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I finished it, and I liked it overall, but I had a hard time keeping track of what was going on. I was also really confused by the ending. I'm now going to have to do some research, because it might be that I just missed something, but it didn't add up.
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I probably should have loved this, but I just couldn't let myself enjoy it.
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Also read other short stories by O. Henry
