Cabbages and Kings (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

By O. Henry and O. O.

Book Overview

Henry stitched together several stories into this episodic narrative, taking his inspiration from Lewis Carroll. The setting is Anchuria, a mythical banana republic where larceny is rampant and revolution always a possibility.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140186891
• ISBN13: 9780140186895
• Release Date: July 1993
• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 5.0" x 1.0" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

I'm glad O Henry escaped prison

I am glad O Henry escaped from his Texas prison, because his period of exile in Honduras provided him with beautiful fodder for this book. Actually, it is a series of linking vignettes about a mythical town (Coralio) in the mythical Central American "Banana Republic" of Anchuria. The protagonists are American and other foreign misfits who have formed a colony along the disease ridden coast of Anchuria. Achingly funny stories populate Cabbages and Kings, especially the one about an Irish Soldier of Fortune who gets swindled by a Guatemalan general and seeks revenge. Although extremely humourous, Cabbages and Kings is historically valuable as well. It provides an accurate representation of turn-of-the-century life in Caribbean Honduras.