【正文】 love, manhood. The novel reveals the American values: one is hero plex, the other is American dream. His adventures are the realization of American dream. On the other hand, the book records the rising Age of American Bourgeois system. It also bears the irony and satire toward the religion and bythen popular rigid, didactic children education, which curbs the imagination of children and their innate nature for freedom and adventures and molds them into a stereotype of lifeless man. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and especially its sequence Adventures of Huckleberry Finn proved themselves to be the milestone in American literature, and thus firmly established Twain’ s position in the literary world. The childhood of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in the Mississippi is a record of a vanished way of life in the PreCivil War Mississippi valley. The books are noted for their unpretentious, colloquial yet poetic style, their wideranging humor, and their universally shared dream of perfect innocence and freedom. significance ? He portrayed uniquely American subjects in a humorous and colloquial, yet poetic, language. His success in creating this plain but evocative language precipitated the end of American reverence for British and European culture and for the more formal language associated with those traditions. His adherence to American themes, settings, and language set him apart from many other novelists of the day and had a powerful effect on later writers. William Sydney Porter (18621910) Facts on William Sydney Porter He was born September 11, 1862 in North Carolina, where he spent his childhood. An acclaimed master of short stories and tales. Starting in 1895 he wrote a column for the Houston Daily Post. In early 1898 Porter was found guilty of embezzlement charges and sentenced to five years in an Ohio prison. Three years and about a dozen short stories later, he emerged from prison as O. Henry to help shield his true identity. Facts on William Sydney Porter O. Henry wrote with realistic detail based on his firsthand experiences both in Texas and in New York City. In 1907, he published many of his Texas stories in The Heart of the West. He moved to New York City, where over the next ten years before his death in 1910, he published over 300 stories and gained worldwide acclaim as America39。s favorite short story writer. Porter died on June 5, 1910 in New York City at the age of forty seven. An alcoholic, he died virtually penniless. O. Henry (18621910) was a prolific American shortstory writer, a master of surprise endings, who wrote about the life of ordinary people in New York City. A twist of plot, which turns on an ironic or coincidental circumstance, is typical of O. Henry39。s stories. His pseudonym It is believed that Porter found his pen name while in jail, where one of the guards was named Orrin Henry. Other sources say that the name was derived from his calling Oh Henry! after the family cat, Henry. Guy Davenport wrote that the name was a condensation of Ohio Penitentiary O. Henry stories are famous for their surprise endings, to the point that such an ending is often referred to as an “ O. Henry ending” . His stories are also well known for witty narration. Stories Most of O. Henry’ s stories are set in his own time, the early years of the 20th century. Many take place in New York City, and deal for the most part with ordinary people: clerks, policemen, waitresses. Fundamentally a product of his time, O. Henry39。s work provides one of the best English examples of catching the entire flavor of an age. O. Henry had an inimitable hand for isolating some element of society and describing it with an incredible economy and grace of language. Major Works The Gift Of The Magi 麥琪的禮物 A Service Of Love 愛的奉獻 The Last Leaf 最后的常春藤葉 The Cop And The Anthem 警察和贊美詩 Lost on Dress Parade 華而不實 An Unfinished Story 沒有完的故事 The Man Higher Up 黃雀在后 After Twenty Years 二十年以后 Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen 兩位感恩節(jié)的紳士 A Service of Love 愛的犧牲 Shearing The Wolf 虎口拔牙 The Unknown Quantity 未知數(shù) While The Auto Waits 汽車等待的時候 The Whirligig of Life 生活的波折 Withes‘ Loaves 女巫的面包 Hearts and Hands 心與手 The Hypotheses of Failure 失算 The Green Door 綠色門 The Handbook of Hymen 婚姻手冊 “ Next To Reading Matter” “ 醉翁之意” A Service of Love 愛的犧牲 The Gift of the Magi is the story of a young married couple. It is Christmas Eve and all the money that Della has saved for Jim’ s gift totals one dollar and eightseven cents. Della and Jim have two possessions that are the treasures of the household, Della’ s hair, which is their pride and joy and Jim’ s watch, which is an inheritance from his grandfather. Summary Della leaves the house and sells her glorious hair for $20. Then she races around town and spends $21 buying a platinum watch chain. She hurries home and tries to fix her hair so that Jim will not be too upset by her appearance. Click this to read the whole story: When Jim es home, he seems dumbstruck. Finally, Jim gives her the gift he bought for her. It is a pair of tortoise shell bs that Della has long coveted. Della is thrilled but her joy is quickly followed by sorrow as she realizes she has no hair to wear the bs in. She resolves her feelings by telling Jim that her hair grows fast. Suddenly, Della remembers her gift to Jim. Jim’ s response is to smile and tell Della that he sold the watch to buy the bs and that perhaps they should put their gifts up and save them for a later time. Henry James (1843— 1916) Life a wealthy cultured family father an eminent philosopher and reformer brothera famous philosopher and psychologist