O’ Henry: The Master Behind the Master-Piece “The Last Leaf” and “The Gift of the Magi” as Model Short Story

Abstract

Beginning from the days of the Bible short story remains very popular till date. With
the modern age fast life coupled with widening circulation of magazines and the skilful
practitioners throughout few centuries, this short prose narrative has established itself as a
definite genre of creative literature. The awarding of the Nobel Prize in 2013 to Canadian Alice
Munro for her mastery over the modern short story and the Japanese short story writer Haruki
Murakami’s enlisting in the ‘shortlist’ for Nobel Prize award-2013 qualify the argument in
favour of the genre. In the introduction to The Cambridge Introduction to the American Short
Story (2006), Martin Scofield, quoting the famous Irish short story writer Frank O’Connor, has
commented that, “The short story in America has for almost two centuries held a prominent,
even pre-eminent place in the American literary tradition. For the Americans the short story had
become ‘a national art form’” (Scofield: 2006). This short story, carrying close affinities with
many novelistic elements, is perfect in the hand of New York based O’ Henry1. Taking two of his
most celebrated stories “The Last Leaf (2007)” and “The Gift of the Magi2 (2006)” this short
paper attempts to see him as a master of masterpiece in the field of ‘the art of storytelling’.