歐·亨利是其筆名，原名為威廉·西德尼·波特(William Sydney Porter)。美國著名批判現(xiàn)實主義作家，世界三大短篇小說大師之一。曾被評論界譽為曼哈頓桂冠散文作家和美國現(xiàn)代短篇小說之父。他的作品構(gòu)思新穎，語言詼諧，結(jié)局常常出人意外，代表作有小說集《白菜與國王》、《四百萬》、《命運之路》等。其中一些名篇如《愛的犧牲》、《警察與贊美詩》、《帶家具出租的房間》、《麥琪的禮物》、《最后一片藤葉》等使他獲得了世界聲譽。

O. Henry was the pen name of American writer William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862–June 5, 1910), whose clever use of twist endings in his stories popularized the term "O. Henry Ending". His middle name at birth was Sidney, not Sydney; he later changed the spelling of his middle name when he first began writing as a journalist in the 1880s.

O. Henry's work is wide-ranging, and his characters can be found roaming the cattle-lands of Texas, exploring the art of the con-man, or investigating the tensions of class and wealth in turn-of-the-century New York. O. Henry had an inimitable hand for isolating some element of society and describing it with an incredible economy and grace of language.

Some of his best and least-known work is contained in Cabbages and Kings, a series of stories each of which explores some individual aspect of life in a paralytically sleepy Central American town, while advancing some aspect of the larger plot and relating back one to another.

【創(chuàng)作特色】

從題材的性質(zhì)來看，歐·亨利的作品大致可分為三類。一類以描寫美國西部生活為主；一類寫的是美國一些大城市的生活；一類則以拉丁美洲生活為對象。這些不同的題材，顯然與作者一生中幾個主要生活時期的不同經(jīng)歷，有著密切的關(guān)系。而三類作品當中，無疑又以描寫城市生活的作品數(shù)量最多，意義最大。

歐·亨利因為他本身是一個窮苦的人，因此他的文章主人公大多是一些貧窮的勞動人民，充滿了對勞動人民的同情。歐·亨利的小說語言很生動而且很精練，除了文字的幽默詼諧之外，總有一些讓費人猜測的地方，他常常讓我們以為以邏輯思維就可以猜到的結(jié)局，卻往往情節(jié)一轉(zhuǎn)，使故事的結(jié)尾變的出人意料卻又合情合理,從而造成獨特的藝術(shù)魅力,因此被譽為“歐·亨利式結(jié)尾”，這也是歐·亨利最為出名的一個方面。

歐·亨利的小說在藝術(shù)處理上的最大特點就是它們的“意外結(jié)局”。情節(jié)的發(fā)展似乎明明朝著一個方向在發(fā)展，結(jié)果卻來個出其不意。這意外的結(jié)局一般說來是比較令人寬慰的，即便是悲哀的結(jié)局，也常包含著某種光明之處，這就是所謂“帶淚的微笑”。然而，意外的結(jié)局不能不經(jīng)常依賴于某種偶然性，而太多的偶然性又不能不與現(xiàn)實產(chǎn)生距，所以“意外結(jié)局”一面使歐·亨利的小說顯示得趣味盎然，同時也使它們?nèi)狈ι疃取?/p>

【作品簡介】

"The Cop and the Anthem" about a New York City hobo named Soapy, who sets out to get arrested so that he can be a guest of the city jail instead of sleeping out in the cold winter. Despite efforts at petty theft, vandalism, disorderly conduct, and "mashing" with a young prostitute, Soapy fails to draw the attention of the police. Disconsolate, he pauses in front of a church, where an organ anthem inspires him to clean up his life—and is ironically charged for loitering and sentenced to three months in prison.

《警察和贊美詩》：一無所有、露宿街頭的流浪漢索比為了應(yīng)對即將來臨的嚴冬，千方百計地想犯點法，以求達到他的企圖：去布萊克維爾監(jiān)獄度過寒冷的冬天。令人忍俊不禁的是，往往事與愿違，他屢次故意犯法，但警察都不抓他，而當他忽然良心發(fā)現(xiàn)，準備洗心革面重新做人之時，警察卻不由分說地將他逮捕了。終于達到了他去布萊克維爾監(jiān)獄度過嚴冬的夢想。

"The Gift of the Magi" about a young couple who are short of money but desperately want to buy each other Christmas gifts. Unbeknownst to Jim, Della sells her most valuable possession, her beautiful hair, in order to buy a platinum fob chain for Jim's watch; while unbeknownst to Della, Jim sells his own most valuable possession, his watch, to buy jeweled combs for Della's hair. The essential premise of this story has been copied, re-worked, parodied, and otherwise re-told countless times in the century since it was written.

《麥琪的禮物》：在圣誕節(jié)來臨之際，一對貧窮夫妻為了互贈圣誕禮物，妻子賣掉了一頭秀發(fā)，為丈夫買來了一條白金表鏈，而丈夫卻賣掉了祖?zhèn)鹘鸨頌槠拮淤I來了一套精美的發(fā)梳，當他們都拿出各自的禮物時，卻發(fā)現(xiàn)這些禮物都失去了各自的用場，雖然他們都犧牲了自己最寶貴的東西，但他們純真美好的愛情卻得以升華。