The Fool-Killer, by O. Henry

 Audiobook

SUMMARY

Rudolph Kerner was the son of a very rich man. He wanted to be an artist, and he was in love with a beautiful working girl, so a poor girl. His father didn’t like his son’s ideas about vocation and marriage, but Kerner was stubborn as artists and lovers have to be.

However, the story begins by telling us about a bogeyman, a spirit or a ghost that people allude in order to frighten or threaten children; or parents make use of his name to make their children obey. Our bogeyman is Jesse Holmes, otherwise called the Fool-Killer, because his aim are fools; it is a terrific and bloody character.

But the core of our story is a dinner at Farroni’s. Kerner and the narrator had dinner there, and after dinner, they drank an absinthe drip. This is a kind of cocktail, and absinthe is a strong liquor: it has 65% of alcohol. The narrator got drunk and started to see strange things. He saw Jesse Holmes coming to their table and sitting with them, although he wasn’t sure if the character was real or only a product of his intoxicated imagination.

There, the Fool-Killer threatened to kill Kerner for being a fool, that is, for disdaining his father’s fortune by wanting to live the poor life of an artist and by marrying a poor girl. But Kerner doesn’t seem to see or to hear the Fool-Killer. Once this bogeyman had said his ultimatum, he went out of the restaurant. Our narrator, understanding the danger his friend was in, ran after Jesse Holmes and tried to persuade him to forgive or forget Kerner. The bogeyman yielded at last and asked him to fetch Kerner on the street. He was afraid for his friend, but Kerner thought he was only drunk; he was to take him home, when, on the street, the Fool-Killer stopped them and addressed Kerner.

What did he tell him? Did he kill him?

 

QUESTIONS

-Do you think it is necessary (or useful) to have a bogeyman to make children obey?

-In every culture, they have their own bogeyman. What can be the reason for this creation?

-According to the cliché, a real artist has to be poor. On your point of view, how true is this cliché?

 

VOCABULARY

Southrons, parlor rifle, slosh, crinkly, dipper, limned, kalsomining, street-sprinkler, jag, clay-eaters, give in

The Indian Summer of Dry Valley Johnson, by O. Henry

 

Audiobook

SUMMARY

Dry Valley Johnson was a shepherd and had lived in the country all his life. Then, when he was 35 (or 38), he decided he wanted to change his life and live gently as a villager, so he moved to Santa Clara, a small town, and bought a house there.

Dry Valley, although he wasn’t old, was regarded as an old bachelor who had no interest in women; he even avoided their presence. However, according to the school mistress, he was handsome enough.

Short after settling in his new abode, someone gave a strawberry to taste, and, as he found the fruit astonishing, he decided to dedicate all his time and his energy to grow this plant in his garden. He prepared the ground and bought a lot of books about strawberry farming.

His garden had a picked fence around, but his neighbours were a family with a lot of children, and so possible poachers. In order to protect better his crops, he brought a long, strong whip to drive away any predator. He exercised with the weapon until he got a fine aim.

One day, when he was away from home, the children raided his garden and ate as many strawberries as they could. When he was back and saw the attack, he took his powerful whip and chased the invaders away. All of them but Panchita flew away; she was a beautiful girl of nineteen with brilliant thick black hair. Instead of running away, she kept her post and looked defiantly with a strawberry between her white teeth at Dry Valley and scorned to move, even knowing he had hit the mark with her brothers.

Dry Valley got paralysed with love. He didn’t know the feeling and was stupefied.

That vision made him change his lifestyle; now he bought the most fashionable clothes in town and an elegant and modern carriage. Afterwards, he went to his neighbours to ask a date with Panchita. Panchita said yes, and the large family were delighted with the prospect of marrying one of their children. And in order to make himself agreeable to the girl, Dry Valley tried to behave as a younger man.

But one day, after sprucing himself up, when he was at the door of Panchita’s to pick her up, he saw her disguised as himself making fun of him for her brothers, who were having a great time with the mockery. Suddenly, Dry Valley saw he had made a fool of himself pretending to be young and fashionable. He went back home, changed to his old country clothes, gave his new clothes to his cook and tried to forget all about Panchita.

The girl, seeing that her suitor didn’t come for her, went to see if something had happened to him, because all the time he had been punctual. But when Dry Valley saw Panchita, threw her out of his house, saying he regretted being caught by his infatuation and telling her keeping off him.

However, that evening, someone got through his fence and trespassed on his garden. The man was on the watch and took his sharp cracking whip…

 

QUESTIONS

-Do you know any very curious recipe (or remedy) taken from a magazine or told you by some old people?

-Why do you think that a “bachelor with a hobby” could be an encumbering (or “earthcumbering”) thing?

-“Someone gave him his first strawberry to eat, and he was done for.” This sentence carries a biblical sense. Have you experienced something that has changed your life forever?

-What do you know about the song “Strawberry Fields Forever”, by John Lennon?

-Have you ever “seen yourself in a mirror”, in the sense of our story?

-Would you give, as Faust, your soul (or something less valuable) to recover your youth? What would you give?

 

VOCABULARY

nux vomica, bay rum, range, cot, cross strains, morning glory, gourd vines, drove, fleet, mesquite thicket, weathered, hectic, jay-bird, desecrated, iver (=quiver), macaw, charter, trotter, damper, revelry, lawn, locoed, motley

The Count and the Wedding Guest, by O. Henry

Audiobook

A summary

Another summary

Power point

SUMMARY
Andy Donovan, a young man who lived in a boarding house, met a new boarder called Miss Conway and almost immediately felt in love with her. Miss Conway was a very discreet woman, but one day she appeared gorgeously dressed in mourning black. Mr Donovan got astounded seeing her so beautifully attired, but respected her grief and offered her to share her feelings and to listen to her sad story.
She told him she was on the point of marrying an Italian Count, Fernando Mazzini, but unfortunately, he had an accident and he died. The girl was unconsolably sorry, and Donovan felt pity for her. In telling her story, the girl even showed a picture of her late fiancé.

So, Donovan, even as he knew it would be a difficult enterprise for him to try to replace the charm of her dead boyfriend, after a month he succeeded in getting her love.

Once they announced their engagement, Donovan told her he was a bit worried because he had to invite a close friend of his to their wedding and didn’t know if she would like it. The man was "Big Mike" Sullivan and, although he was a very important person in New York, he had friends in all the social classes. But there was a reason why he couldn’t invite him to the wedding, and he couldn’t discover it. He asked her if she really loved him more than he loved Count Mazzini, and at that moment she went down and started to cry. Yes, she loved Donovan, but she lied about her past. So, she asked him if she would forgive her.

Who was Big Mike? What was the lie?

 

QUESTIONS

-What can it be the difference between pity and love? Have you read the novel Beware of Pity, by Stefan Zweig? (There is also a film)

-We don’t know anything about the life of the two protagonists. Can you imagine what kind of life they lived?

-Why is Big Mike important? What, according to you, was his job?

-What do you know about Mazzini? And about Tammany? P’pkispee? The Bowery, in New York?

 

VOCABULARY

unobtrusive, blighted, hop-skip-and-a-jump, hoisted, cinch, mullygrubs, stringing, livery, trousseau, locked, to the mustard, look swell, Bully girl!

Brickdust Row, by O. Henry

Audiobook

Script for a movie (a very free adaptation)

SUMMARY

Alexander Blinker, our hero, was a very rich man. His fortune came from “lands, tenements and hereditaments”. As he was a bachelor, and the summer was about to begin, he decided to go to the woods in the North to enjoy some holiday. He wanted to go immediately, but his lawyer said he had to stay in the city two days more in order to sign a thick collection of documents. He didn’t like the idea of spending two boring days more in the city, but he acknowledged the necessity of signing these documents.

To kill time, he went to one of his clubs, but seeing it was full of boring old fogies, all of a sudden, he said he would go to Coney Island. Coney Island is actually a peninsula in the South of Brooklyn, and it has a log beach and a big Fun Fair. Its visitors were usually ordinary people, not rich people as Blinker. To go there, he had to take a boat full of people looking for fun; but also, there was a pretty young woman sitting on a stool, alone. Blinker was not far from her; a puff of wind almost carried his hat away, but he grabbed it in a moment. The girl (whose name was Florence) acknowledged his gesture with a smile, thinking he was greeting her, and Blinker went and sit next to her. They began a conversation, and they introduced each other, although Blinker didn’t say he was very rich; instead, he said he was a bricklayer. Florence said she was a working girl, a milliner. And they started to like each other. Nevertheless, Florence was a bit suspicious about his name, but at least he didn’t say his name was “Smith”. They agree to visit the fun fair together, Florence acting as a Cicerone, as Blinker had never been there.

At the beginning, Blinker was a bit uncomfortable with so many people jostling around them and so many harsh lights and noises, but at the end he felt the place and the atmosphere romantic. They ride all the devices of the amusement park.

At the end, they had to go back home.

When they went aboard the boat, Blinker started to feel he was in love with Florence, and, when a steamer run into their boat and they were about to sink, he felt sure and declared his love. But she answered coldly to his passion and told him that all the men said the same; however, he tried to persuade her that he wasn’t like the other men. In answer, she told him she knew what men were like because she usually met other men she picked up on the street (she picked them up on the street because her place had no parlour, and so it was too small for inviting people). Blinker was now a bit puzzled.

In the end they landed safely but…

Did Florence accept his love? Did he tell her he was really a rich man?

 

QUESTIONS

-Do you think swearing / cursing is rude? Or does it depend on the situation? How do you vent your wrath?

-What kind of girl is Florence? Is she a kind of escort, or only a girl who wants some amusement?

-Perhaps this story reminds you of the film Pretty Woman. Would you be able to detail all the clichés this film has?

-In your opinion, is romanticism an essential feature of a good relationship?

-Can everybody change radically their way of life? For instance, can a robber become an honest man? How can do it? Or will our past never stop going after us?

 

VOCABULARY

estate, bay rum, thumb-handed, runabout, fogies, steward, roe, tittered, pier, brazenly, incog, bantering, millinery, trumpery, spangled, incorporated, drab, slip, yawed, rent, slats, bow, stern, wall flower