Squaring the Circle, by O. Henry

Audiobook

Squaring the circle (geometry)

Line of beauty

SUMMARY

The story deals about a feud between two families, or clans, along many years. The typical example of a feud is the perpetual quarrel between Capulets and Montagues in Romeo and Juliet.

In our story, the clans are the Folwells and the Harknesses. The spark of the quarrel was the death of an opossum dog, a minor incident. From that moment on, they were killing each other until only a member of each family stayed alive, Carl Harkness and Sam Folwell.

As Carl didn’t like the idea of pursuing the feud, he went away preventing Sam’s retaliation. At the beginning Sam didn’t know where Carl had gone, but when he discovered he was in New York, he decided to go there, look for him and finish the quarrel. He didn’t take the rifle: it was too conspicuous; instead he grabbed a pistol, a weapon with a more appropriate size.

So there he went. But it wasn’t easy to find Carl’s hideaway. He only knew that he drove an express waggon round the city.

Sam had lived in the country all his live, so all that he had seen was Nature, and according to the narrator’s theory, Nature is circular, and Art (or anything made by humans) goes in straight lines; so Sam was lost in New York because all the ways went in straight lines, right angles, sharp corners and squares. And the people he met while looking for his enemy weren’t nice at all; so he felt very uncomfortable there.

But at the end he found Carl coming along a street towards him. Carl was unarmed.

What was the fight’s outcoming?

 

QUESTIONS

-What is your opinion about the narrator theory in reference to circles and squares?

-What is the relation between the title and the story?

-Do you know any other classical or literary feud?

-For you, what would be the best way to stop a feud?

 

VOCABULARY

round, evened, laying out, pruning, washpot, butternut, pink, haft, rote, smote, ourn, passel, bedeckings, bootless, locust club, scowling, newsy, pelted, kith and kin

The Buyer from Cactus City, by O. Henry

Audiobook

Movie (only the first scenes)

SUMMARY, by Glòria Torner

As many others stories by O. Henry, this one, The Buyer from Cactus City, is placed in Old South settings and New York, with an exposition of the life of ordinary people, using local colours and a realistic dialogue.
The story begins with a description of Cactus City (Texas), a rich town of twenty thousand people where the important building from Navarro & Platt is located. It’s a big store full of different things you can buy.
Every year, the older partner, Navarro, is going to New York to buy new merchandises for his emporium. But this year, as he feels a little tired, he wants to stay at home. Then, he orders his junior member, called John Platt, to make the trip to the Big City, (New York) to buy for his department store goods, especially, women’s suits.
Two weeks later, Platt, a wealthy and handsome Westerner, called ironically “Mister Texas”, a ranch man who has become a businessman, arrives in New York and enters the wholesale trade from Zizzbaum & Son, located in Broadway, to purchase some things for his business. Old Zizzbaum receives Platt, who is not impressed by New York. For that reason, Zizzbaum tells his son, Abey, to show him different places of Broadway that evening.
The next day, Zizzbaum, who wants to encourage his customer in sales, calls a sophisticated model from his trade, Helen Ashley, and commands her to try on different dresses in front of Platt. The model, aware of her duty part, agrees. Immediately, he finds her very beautiful. At that moment, the narrator says: “Platt felt for the first time the wonderful bright light of romance and glory descend upon him.”
Following with his plan, Zizzbaum arranges a dinner at 7:00 p.m. between John, the customer, and Helen, her employee. Now, John notices that Helen is his ideal. He is a young, rich business Westerner in love with a model. He imagines and tells her he will buy a beautiful car and a house, but she, disgustedly, replies she “has heard that before”.  For Helen, this evening is just following her working day and, frankly, she informs Platt she is only out with him to play this role, otherwise she’ll lose her job.
Platt insists and declares his love and gives her a diamond ring he has bought. Misunderstanding him, she reacts by getting angry because she believes he wants to abuse her. Immediately, she wants to leave the restaurant telling him to take her to the boarding house where she lives. There she slaps his face. But the persistent Westerner, who only wants about marrying her, increases his infatuation looking for an honest, sincere relationship and... just then a ring falls at her feet, but it isn’t the same ring: she sees that it is actually a wedding ring.
As many times in the stories of this author, the plot goes on in one direction, and just when the reader thinks they can predict the ending, finally, it turns to another different direction.
Surprise ending?  Does she change her mind because she realizes her mistake? Is there a change of reaction when she wants to know where is Cac, Carac, Caracas City?

QUESTIONS

-Do you think a mercenary marriage could be happy? And a marriage without romantic love?
-In your view, is the girl in the story, Helen, treated like an object by her boss? In your opinion, are some jobs (like models) offensive for people’s dignity?
-Helen doesn’t mind going away to live in an unknown place. What conditions you wouldn’t agree with for a marriage, or for a job?

VOCABULARY

obtain, be sneezed at, tan, shied, whirl, lay-down collar, wholesale, smuggled, crowbait, incidentally, oilily, evening gown, tulle, Don’t get fresh 

Transients in Arcadia, by O. Henry

Audiobook

Summary and analysis

SUMMARY

This is the story of a woman who spends a holiday week in a luxury hotel on Broadway, NY The hotel  is the Lotus, and the woman goes under the name of Mme Héloise D’Arcy Beaumont. The place is splendid, and the first pages of the story are a description of all the amenities, facilities and staff of the establishment: rooms, saloons, waiters, cooks, etc. And nevertheless the fact the building is in Manhattan, inside it you feel so far from the city bustle that you can imagine you are in the country or around the mountains. And madame Héloise is so sophisticated and elegant that all the employees are happy to wait on her, the best guest of the few that sojourn in the hotel.

On the third day of her stay, another guest came in to register in the reception counter. His name was Harold Farrington, a name of aristocratic resonances. He also was elegant and classy, and dropped some hints to the receptionist about travelling. He also looked for a place to relax and enjoy quietness.

On the next day, after dinner, when Harold passed by Mme Héloise, she dropped her handkerchief. He immediately picked it up and gave it back to her owner. A conversation followed afterwards, and, from that moment on, they spend all of their time together. They liked each other.

On the last day of her residence at the hotel, they were sitting at the same table. It was in the evening, and it was the moment of telling the truth: they tell each other who really they were, but they didn’t show much surprise.

From now on, what kind of relationship would they have?

 

QUESTIONS

-What is the relation between the title and the story?

-What do you know about the Lotus-eaters (they appear in the Odyssey)?

-When you are travelling, what kind of accommodation do you prefer? Why?

-While travelling, the accommodation is usually the only thing (besides the journey ticket) we pay. Why is that we don’t make profit of it, and try to spend all the day away from it?

-What kind of holidays do you prefer? Travelling or staying at home? Mountains, beaches, cities? Relax or bustle? On your own or with family / friends? On your own or with a touristic guide?

-What is your opinion about this saying: “You don’t know a person until you’ve travelled with them”?

-What would you like to save a big amount of money for?

-Do you think children have too many holidays?

 

VOCABULARY

trout, venison, game warden, lairs, caravansary, forego, pellucid, rapiers, purlieus, haven, acme, tossed, chatelaine purse, hosiery, instalment, per

The Ransom of Mack, by O. Henry

Audiobook

Movie

Old Zip Coon (song)

Buffalo Gals, Can't You Come Out To-night (song)

SUMMARY

Two middle-aged miners decided to stop their business. They had earned a lot of money and wanted to enjoy their fortune in an easy way. Thus, one of the miners, Mack, would be able to spend his time reading a thick book of History, and the other, Andy, would learn to play the banjo. Once they had decided to take this sabbatical time, they deposited their money in a small bank and rented an elegant but small house, that is, a cabin, in Piña, near Denver, and hired a Chinese man as a cook. Their dream of tranquillity had come true.

In one of their conversations in this lapse of relax, they came to talk about women and the possibility of contacting and socializing with them, but they discarded this option because they realized that the fair sex was really an unfathomable mystery. So it seems it was clear for both of them that they would rather be bachelors than married men.

One day, Andy had to go away to solve a problem with some business. He was away for two months and, at the end of which, he missed very much his mate and their restful home.

But when he got back, he found Mack a bit changed. Instead of casual clothes, he was wearing a handsome suit, and he appeared a bit agitated. He said something had happened while Andy was away. The thing was that he had been elected justice of peace, and that he was going to marry a girl called Rebosa that evening.

Andy was astonished and decided to do something to prevent this marriage because of the singular opinion they had about women. He went and talk to Rebosa, and tried to convince her she was making a mistake, that Mack was too old for her. Then he asked her if there was someone in the village that she would like to marry. She said she liked a young man called Eddy Bayles, but the problem was that he didn’t earn much money. Andy offered her a deal: he would give Eddy a thousand dollars to buy a store for himself if she decided to get married to him at 5 o’clock, one hour before her projected wedding. After some moments of reflection, Rebosa accepted the deal.

Andy was satisfied because he thought he had prevented Mack’s marriage, and went to have a walk around the woods.

When he got back home at 6 o’clock, Mack was calm and easy as ever, but he wasn’t dressed as if he had to go to a wedding.

So, at the end, who did the girl get married to and why?

 

QUESTIONS

-What do you know about Buckle’s History of Civilization?

-Who was Sep (Septimus) Winner?

-Can you tell us a brief summary of The Two Orphans?

-What do you think it will be the future of the marriage / family institution?

 

VOCABULARY

hustling, nabobs, buck, faro, peck, I’m onto, grub, smirking, warping, scarify, ribaldry, patent leather, ptomaine, winds up, Indian summer, wildwood

The Coming-Out of Maggie, by O. Henry

Jimmy's Hall, by Ken Loach

Audiobook

Summary and analysis (video)

SUMMARY
The Clover Leaf Social Club (CLSC) organized balls in the Give and Take Athletic Association (G&TAA) rooms. The G&TAA was a sports club, all its members were males and in its premises there were the rooms you usually could find in a gym. In general, only members of these two clubs attended these balls.
Maggie Toole, our star, used to go to the ball with a couple of friends, Anna and her boyfriend Jimmy, because she was a plain girl, and no one had ever asked to take her to the ball.
But Maggie didn’t like this situation, and one Saturday she told her friend it won’t be necessary their company to go to the ball because somebody was escorting her there. Anna was very happy for Maggie because that was something good for her, and she was curious to know who was her partner and what was he like; but Maggie would rather keep it secret until they meet him at the ball.
When Maggie and her escort got to the assembly rooms, everybody was astonished, because the man was really handsome, stylish, tall and attractive. Every girl admired him. But boys showed here some jealousy, and, moreover, they begin to notice that Maggie wasn’t so plain as they had thought until now.
However, the G&TAA boys and its leader Dempsey got suspicious of Maggie’s partner. The question was that she introduced him as Terry O’Sullivan, and when Dempsey asked Big Mike O’Sullivan, another well-known member of the G&TAA, if he knew Terry and he answered he didn’t, the mistrust was total, because they said all the O’Sullivans knew each other in that city. Dempsey then insulted Terry, and a formal challenge ensued.
But the G&TAA had very strict rules, and one of these rules was that when somebody had to settle their differences they had to go to a back room where they would combat, but using only the weapons the nature had given them.
No woman ever had seen that back room because that kind of show wasn’t appropriate for the fair sex, although they knew what happened there.
Maggie noticed her partner had disappeared, and somebody told her the boys had taken him to the back room to settle their differences with Dempsey. Maggie got extremely alarmed and darted to the back room, and although everybody tried to block her passage, she got there at last. And there…

QUESTIONS

-Who was Beau Brumell? In you opinion, is it a good idea for a club / institution to have a Master of Cerimonies?

-Do you think we can understand somebody’s character according the way he or she dances?

-How prejudices shape our tastes and ideas?

-Who is more to blame, the pretender, or we, that are blind by our prejudices / first impressions?

-A classical way to settle differences is a duel. Can you tell us about famous duels? What do you think it's the best way to settle diferrences?

VOCABULARY

hop, comely, beseeched, sandpaper, pinned, prowess, bow legs, fob, dumbbells, terpsichorean, sneer, buds, stiletto, 

While the Auto Waits, by O. Henry

A play (by students)

Audiobook

Review

Summary

Analysis

SUMMARY
The star of this story was a delicate pretty young woman who wore a simple grey dress and covered her face with a veil, and pretended to be wealthy. Every evening she went to the park in search of rest and calm and sat on a bench to read her book, because she wanted to be where normal people go.
This girl had a kind of stalker-suitor, a young man called Parkenstacker. He knew about the girl’s habits and wandered around the places where she sat.
On the day of our story, when the young man was around, the girl droppped her book. Immediately, Parkenstacker, who was watching her, picked it up and took it to her. But she said she didn’t mind very much because there was not a good light to read and that she’d rather talking, and openly invited the boy to sit down next to her.

Parkenstacker made a flattering compliment, but the girl checked his advances.

The girl was very extrovert and talkative, and they did some polite small talk. From their conversation we can see that the girl wanted to exhibit her  high position in society, although she didn’t feel comfortable being a patrician because she had to do all the trivial things rich people do, as going to parties, restaurants, etc. She also had a lot of admirers, and this was very annoying for her; we also can see she was sophisticated and snob because she never said the boy’s name correctly, meaning she didn’t mind him at all.

As she said she was fed up with rich suitors and she’d rather have a poor one, a working man, Parkenstacker could see a possibility for himself as he said he worked as a cashier in the restaurant across the street in the night turn. But now, all of a sudden, the young woman said she had to go: her car with the chauffeur was waiting for her in a corner of the park. When the young man asked to see her again, she answered that it would be impossible. She crossed the park heading to the car, but when she arrived to the vehicle…

 

QUESTIONS

What do you know about the book she was reading, New Arabian Nights, by R. L. Stevenson?

Why the narrator repeats she is dressed in gray?

The girl forgets her book as she didn’t mind about it. In your view, why?

The girl is very seductive. What do you think it’s the best way to seduce somebody (for an affair, for business...)? In your opinion, will the arts of seduction disappear (because of the applications that help you to look for a partner)?

 

VOCABULARY

impeccancy, hovered, joss, beat, chairmen, bowled over, cue, surmise, palls, fad, kid, drone, whim, box, bondage, turf

An Unfinished Story, by O. Henry

Review

Summary and analysis

Audiobook

SUMMARY

Our narrator is having a dream. In his dream, a group of very prosperous looking spirits (or souls) are arranged waiting for the last judgement. A policeman asks the narrator if he belongs to this group… But, to know the ending of his dream, we have to read Dulcie’s story first.
Dulcie is a shop assistant working in a big department store. She doesn’t like much her job (the narrator says in that store they could sell everything), and she earns a very small salary for her work. Also, she lives poorly in a very small lodging (a furnished room) and she is all the time under the watch of her landlady. In her apartment there are the usual simple pieces of furniture, and on the walls some pictures of historical figures. The one she has more reverence for is general Kitchener’s. She doesn’t know who exactly was.

One day, a man they call Piggy asks her for a date. They are going to go out to a restaurant, to the cinema or the theatre, etc. Piggy (his real name is Willy) is an elegant man and appears to have a lot of money. Every girl has to be happy to have a date with him, but at the same time girls say he is a prowler in search of beautiful girls, a womanizer who only wants to seduce and forget. Dulcie is elated about the date and she wants to dress beautifully, but she calculates all the money she has until the last cent, and she realizes she doesn’t have enough to buy the things she would like to shop for. So she feels a big disappointment with her life.

The appointed time comes, and Piggy goes to pick Dulcie up, but at the last moment Dulcie looks for an excuse (that she’s ill, or something) to not go out with him. Feeling miserable, she sits to have her poor dinner, alone and pitiful. But perhaps another day she’ll go out with Piggy, who knows.

This is Dulcie’s story.

But what about the dream? How does it finish?

 

QUESTIONS

Do you think there is a heaven or a hell? How do you imagine them? Nietzsche said hell or heaven is our life lived over and over again after we die.

Why do you think Dulcie doesn’t want to go out?

Who are the people in the pictures on the wall? General Kitchener, William Muldoon, the Duchess of Marlborough, O’Callahan.

Do you think that if all the world’s wealth will be distributed between all the people on the planet in order to make everybody equal (in the question of money), we here would be poorer? And what about “the next day will be rich people and poor people again”?

What is a fair salary? What do you think: A person has to earn according to their necessities or according to their skills or talents? Do you think if you earn more money, your work is better?

 

VOCABULARY

groan, bar-of-judgement, follow suit, bondsmen, cereus, dime, licorice, carouse, swine, marshmallows, pongee, spurious, rickety, snippy

A Service of Love, by O. Henry

Audiobook

Analysis

Summary and analysis

SUMMARY

This is a story of true love.

Joe Larrabee and Delia Caruthers wanted to be artists: the boy, a painter, and the girl, a musician. Both of them went to New York from their villages in search of opportunities.

They met in a club where people talked about art and artists, and they fell in love and got married straight away. Happier couldn’t they be: they had their art and they had each other. But they had to live in poverty. Their love was “through thick and thin”.

They attended lessons to improve their art; Joe painted in the great Magister workshop, and Delia’s teacher was Rosenstock.

But the money didn’t last as much as they would like, and they had to do something to earn their living; so Delia looked for pupils to teach piano classes, and Joe had to sell his paintings to any redneck that came from the country, for example, Peoria; but neither of them allowed the other to abandon their art.

So they went on being short of money for a while. Every day they told each other their daily routine and how they did in their jobs. But one day, Delia came home with her hand bandaged; she told her husband she got burnt serving a dish to her pupil at her house (according to Delia, the pupil was a General's daughter). But Joe knew where the cloth for the bandage came from and started questioning Delia. At the end, she had to tell the truth, and so he also had to confess his secret. Was this disclosure going to kill their love?

 

QUESTIONS

What is love? Can you give us an ultimate definition? Do you think sexual love is essentially different from friendly love?

How do we know if they had or didn’t have talent? Are there any hints in the text?

How do you know if a person has any talent?

Tell us something about Émile Waldteufel, oolong, Joseph Rosenstock, Benvenuto Cellini.

Do you believe in living “through thick and thin”? Do you have any anecdotes about this romantic ideal?

 

VOCABULARY

chipped in, atelier, A sharp, janitor, dresser, mantel, sandbag, switchman, chafing dish, hatchet, scalloped, trump, veal, goatee, freight depot, Welsh rarebit [rabbit, sic], iron, make up

The Shawl, by Cynthia Ozick

Audiobook (almost)

Summary and analysis (video)

Summary and analysis (text)

Conversartion with Cynthia Ozick

A Book Club meeting about The Shawl

BIOGRAPHY AND SUMMARY,

by Teresa Creixell

Cynthia Ozick is an American short story writer, novelist, and essayist.
She was born in New York City on April 17, 1928, and raised in the Bronx. Her parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia and owned a pharmacy.
She attended Ohio University where she completed her bachelor’s degree in English literature, focusing on the novels by Henry James.
She was married to Bernard Hallote, a lawyer, until his death in 2017. Their daughter, Raquel Hallote, directs a Jewish studies program at SUNY Purchase.
Her literary works have been acquired by Yale University.
Ozick’s fiction and essays often deal with the lives of American Jews, but she also writes about politics, history, and literary criticism. She has also written and translated poetry.
The Holocaust is also a dominant theme. For example, in Who Owns Anne Frank? she writes that the true meaning of the diary has been distorted.
She has been nominated for the Nobel Prize.
 
The Shawl
 
The Shawl is an unforgettable and heartbreaking short story published in the New Yorker in 1980. Ozick later included it in a novel about the main character, Rosa, in a single volume also titled The Shawl.
She felt compelled to write The Shawl after reading a sentence in William Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich in 1960.
In later years, Ozick said that her short story was not a document, it was an imagination.
The story is written in the third person and is full of metaphors.
 
SUMMARY
 
The story takes place during the Holocaust.
A mother, Rosa, was walking with her baby, Magda, between her breasts, and her 14-year-old niece Stella. They were very hungry and were in a line of prisoners heading towards a Nazi concentration camp. The soldiers did not know that Magda existed.
Rosa breastfeeds her daughter with the little milk she has and wraps her close to her in her shawl. Stella is jealous of Magda’s shawl; she also wants to be protected.
Rosa is no longer hungry, she feels as if she is fainting, in a trance.
She looks at her daughter inside the shawl, her fair skin is so different from hers, her blue eyes and yellow hair like the star embroidered on the coat. She looks “Aryan”.
She would like to leave Magda in one of the villages they pass through, but she cannot move beyond the line or she will be shot, and she does not know if a woman would really take Magda. It’s not worth the risk.
Rosa no longer has milk, but the shawl is magical, it can feed Magda for 3 days and 3 nights. Magda doesn’t move, she’s alive but she’s very still and quiet.
At 15 months, Magda knows how to walk, and her mother knows that the soldiers will soon discover her, but it’s Stella who takes off her shawl when Magda was still in the barracks, where her mother had left her.
From outside, Rosa sees her daughter walking around looking for the shawl, and Magda shouts “maa..”
Rosa is scared, but at the same time happy because she hears her voice ―she thought she was mute.
The mother gets the shawl, Stella was cold and had covered herself with it.
She goes out to the square and, in the most tragic moment of the story, Rosa sees how, far away, a soldier throws her daughter against the electric fence. The girl is shouting “mama!”
Rosa puts the shawl in her mouth to suppress her own cries.

QUESTIONS

Besides the Holocaust, what other genocides do you know about? Tell us a bit of information about one you know.

In your opinion, how can the human being become a mass murderer?

What do you know about Hannah Arendt?

In your view, were all Germans guilty / responsible for the Nazi regime? Or only a part of them?

Is Stella responsible for Magda's death?

VOCABULARY

sore, ravenous, teetering, windingsm fled, gums, cinnamon, spindles, thighs, flopped, roll-call, devoid, windpipe, ash-stippled, lice, whimper, shins, turd-braids, whip, goblet, domino

The Roads We Take, by O. Henry

Film (audio in Russian, subtitles in English)

Another movie (audio in English, no subtitles)

Audiobook

Summay and analysis

The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost

The Road Not Taken, analysis

Hit the Road, Jack, by Ray Charles

SUMMARY
This is the story of an untrustworthy bandit, "Shark" Dodson.
He and two mates more, John Big Dog and Bob Tidball, robbed a train. In the fray of the attack, John Big Dog was shot dead by one of the train employees. The other two bandits ran away with a big booty of thirty thousand dollars, and happier they were because now they were only two to divide the amount: there wasn’t a third in the party.

They got to the place where they had left their horses and set John Big Dog’s horse free. Then they mount and went away as fast as they could. But during their flight, Bob Tidball’s horse broke its leg, and they had to kill the brute. So now they were two robbers, their booty and only a horse; in consequence, their escape was a bit more difficult, but not impossible. However, Shark Dodson decided that two people were too many people for a horse, and got rid of Bob Tidball murdering him in cold blood to secure his flight and to keep all the money for him only, even though Bob had been a staunch friend of his.

Some years later, we find Dodson  turned on a very respectable rich man with his own company. He had also friends, the  best one of them, Williams, with a big number of shares in Dodson’s company. But all of a sudden, there was a financial crisis, and Williams was on the point of losing all his money. He went to Dodson to ask for help, and Dodson…

 

QUESTIONS

Do you think everyone gets what he deserves in this world? Do you have any example (real or fictional)?

Do you think it’s possible to go up in society and become very rich following strictly legal and ethical ways?

Think about case of betrayal you know and tell us about it, as if it were a story (about love, politics, money…) Do you know any case in which treachery could be justified?

In a moment, Dodson said that he had a most remarkable dream. Do you think it's possible that the first part of the story was only a dream?

 

 

VOCABULARY
quarter-breed, pieces of ordnance, tender, ore, through the mill, currency, conductor, unwittingly, chaparral, pommel, primeval, spryest, posse, haul, sorrel, bottom, cards and spades, desperado, crowbait, boodle, hit the trail, timber, spoil, hitting the breeze, pards, vamoose, cupidity, holders-up, upholstered