Jan 1, 2010

The Gift of the Magi | Critical Overview

When O. Henry published ''The Gift of the Magi," his stories were popular with the reading public and critics alike. For the last ten years of his life, and for ten years or so after that, he was hailed as a master of the short story. Critics ranked him with Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Bret Harte, and his techniques were taught in creative writing courses.

Although O. Henry's characters are often regarded more as types than as unique individuals—vagabonds, shop girls, criminals, cowboys—critics find them likeable, and the writer's use of detail creates a sense...