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    The Gift of the Magi and Other Christmas Stories
    The Gift of the Magi and Other Christmas Stories
    The Gift of the Magi and Other Christmas Stories
    Ebook90 pages1 hour

    The Gift of the Magi and Other Christmas Stories

    By O. Henry

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Four Classic Christmas Stories in One Volume! This book contains: The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
    The Heavenly Christmas Tree by Fyodor Dostoevsky
    The Story of the Other Wise Man
    Where Love Is, God Is by Leo Tolstoy

    Each story explores the true meaning of Christmas and makes an excellent family read aloud.
    This Xist Classics edition has been professionally formatted for e-readers with a linked table of contents. This eBook also contains a bonus book club leadership guide and discussion questions. We hope you’ll share this book with your friends, neighbors and colleagues and can’t wait to hear what you have to say about it.

    Xist Publishing is a digital-first publisher. Xist Publishing creates books for the touchscreen generation and is dedicated to helping everyone develop a lifetime love of reading, no matter what form it takes



    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXist Publishing
    Release dateOct 27, 2014
    ISBN9781623957193
    The Gift of the Magi and Other Christmas Stories
    Author

    O. Henry

    O. Henry (1862-1910) was an American short story writer. Born and raised in North Carolina, O. Henry—whose real name was William Sydney Porter—moved to Texas in 1882 in search of work. He met and married Athol Estes in Austin, where he became well known as a musician and socialite. In 1888, Athol gave birth to a son who died soon after, and in 1889 a daughter named Margaret was born. Porter began working as a teller and bookkeeper at the First National Bank of Austin in 1890 and was fired four years later and accused of embezzlement. Afterward, he began publishing a satirical weekly called The Rolling Stone, but in 1895 he was arrested in Houston following an audit of his former employer. While waiting to stand trial, Henry fled to Honduras, where he lived for six months before returning to Texas to surrender himself upon hearing of Athol’s declining health. She died in July of 1897 from tuberculosis, and Porter served three years at the Ohio Penitentiary before moving to Pittsburgh to care for his daughter. While in prison, he began publishing stories under the pseudonym “O. Henry,” finding some success and launching a career that would blossom upon his release with such short stories as “The Gift of the Magi” (1905) and “The Ransom of Red Chief” (1907). He is recognized as one of America’s leading writers of short fiction, and the annual O. Henry Award—which has been won by such writers as William Faulkner, John Updike, and Eudora Welty—remains one of America’s most prestigious literary prizes.

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    4.5/5

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    • 5/5
      O Henry was a master of the short-story format, and it's a pity that he's not regularly taught in high school any longer. This is the classic Christmas tale of sacrifice, love and giving. The date read here refers to when our book club discussed it; but I first read in the early 1960s and have read it several times since.
    • 4/5
      Short and sweet book with four poignant stories with spiritual and emotional content. I am surprised that Tolstoy wrote a story with a Christian theme, for example.
      I discovered in this little book one of my favourite quotes by Henry Van Dyke, an author I had never heard of before:
      Who seeks for heaven alone to save his soul,
      May keep the path, but will not reach the goal;
      While he who walk in love may wander far,
      Yet God will bring him where the blessed are.

      And it is the correct time of year to read it, to put back the spiritual content into Christmas.

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