Cabbages and Kings (novel)
Cabbages and Kings is a 1904 novel written by O. Henry, set in a fictitious Central American country called the Republic of Anchuria.[1] It takes its title from the poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter", featured in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. Its plot contains famous elements in the poem: shoes and ships and sealing wax, cabbages and kings.
In one of the chapters, "The Admiral", inspired by the author's experiences in Honduras where he had lived for six months,[2] he refers to Anchuria as a "small maritime banana republic"; naturally, the fruit was the entire basis of its economy.[3][4] According to a literary analyst writing for The Economist, "his phrase neatly conjures up the image of a tropical, agrarian country. But its real meaning is sharper: it refers to the fruit companies from the United States that came to exert extraordinary influence over the politics of Honduras and its neighbors."[5][6] The expression Banana republic has been used widely since that time, particularly in political commentaries.[3]
Cabbages and Kings is not a novel and not quite a collection of short stories. In the last chapter of the book (18), "The Vitagraphoscope," O. Henry suggests it's a vaudeville which is "intrinsically episodic and discontinuous." Some characters do their turn – the vaudeville term for an act – and disappear, and others reappear if only briefly. It adds up to a book, a good read, that readers need to take on O. Henry's terms.
Chapters:
- THE PROEM: BY THE CARPENTER
- "FOX-IN-THE-MORNING"
- THE LOTUS AND THE BOTTLE
- SMITH
- IV. CAUGHT
- CUPID'S EXILE NUMBER TWO
- THE PHONOGRAPH AND THE GRAFT
- MONEY MAZE
- THE ADMIRAL
- THE FLAG PARAMOUNT
- THE SHAMROCK AND THE PALM
- THE REMNANTS OF THE CODE
- SHOES
- SHIPS
- MASTERS OF ARTS
- DICKY
- ROUGE ET NOIR
- TWO RECALLS
- THE VITAGRAPHOSCOPE
References
- ^ Henry, O (1904). Cabbages and Kings. ISBN 9781438790787.
- ^ Malcolm D. MacLean (Summer 1968). "O. Henry in Honduras". American Literary Realism, 1870–1910. 1 (3): 36–46. JSTOR 27747601.
- ^ a b https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/01/is-the-us-on-the-verge-of-becoming-a-banana-republic/267048/
- ^ O. Henry (1904). Cabbages and Kings. New York City: Doubleday, Page & Company. pp. 132, 296.
- ^ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/where-we-got-term-banana-republic-180961813/#geHDsKSeDYOltxOK.99
- ^ Where did banana republics get their name?, The Economist
External links
- Cabbages and Kings at Project Gutenberg
Cabbages and Kings public domain audiobook at LibriVox
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