About the book: year / One of the most famous humorists in world literature, O. Henry created a unique panorama of American life at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, conveyed in grotesque situations contrasts and paradoxes of their era, which opened up space for people with business acumen, whom the game of chance either lifts to the pinnacle of success, or casts down to the very bottom of life. “The people in the queue closer together; cold, cold penetrated to the bones. Here, in anticipation of a free overnight stay, alluvial deposits of the river of life have accumulated, settling aground in the place where Broadway and Fifth Avenue merge. They tapped their cold soles on the ground, looked at the empty benches in the park opposite, from which Santa Claus had driven them, and quietly spoke to each other in a mixture of languages ​​and dialects. And on the other side of the square, above them in the frosty haze, the “Iron” skyscraper rose, sacrilegiously pointing its top into the very heavens, as if it really was the Tower of Babel, from where this idle multilingual people were brought here by the personal winged representative of the Lord God…»