The Furnished Room
by O. Henry
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See Also
- Theory of Short Fiction (Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition)
- O. Henry (Critical Survey of Mystery & Detective Fiction, Revised Edition)
- O. Henry (Cyclopedia of World Authors, Fourth Revised Edition)
- O. Henry (Dictionary of World Biography: The 19th Century)
- O. Henry (Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: O. Henry
- First Published: 1904
- Type of Plot: Psychological
- Time of Work: 1904
- Setting: New York City
- Characters: An unnamed young man , Miss Eloise Vashner, Mrs. Purdy
- Genres: Psychological fiction, Short fiction
- Subjects: New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Love or romance, Suicide, New York City, Singing or singers, Landlords or tenants, Apartment houses, Visions, epiphanies, or revelations, Houses, mansions, or manors, Odors
- Locales: United States, North America, New York, New York
The Story
An ordinary young man moves among the proliferation of boardinghouses on the West Side, determinedly on the prowl for a vacant room. Again and again, he tries each of the clustered homes on the brownstone street. On his twelfth attempt, one Mrs. Purdy, an unwholesome appearing housekeeper, answers. She invites this prospective tenant into her home to inspect a recently vacated room. Happy after so many disappointments, the young man follows the woman into an ambience of foul and tainted air, a house reinforcing the hovering gloom he had experienced on the streets. Mrs....
(The entire page is 1767 words.)
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