Сердце и крест и другие рассказы

УДК  372.8
ББК  81.2 Англ93
   О 36

ISBN 9785992505801
© КАРО, 2008

О. Генри
О 36
«Сердце и крест» и другие рассказы: Книга для
чтения на английском языке. — СПб.: КАРО,
2010. — 352 с.: ил. — («Classical literature»)

ISBN 9785992505801

Сборник включает в себя десять рассказов одного из
самых ярких американских писателей. Для облегчения
понимания оригинального текста даны комментарии
с объяснением сложных языковых конструкций и вопросы
к тексту. В конце книги приведен словарь, состоящий из слов,
встречающихся в рассказах.
Предназначен для старшеклассников и студентов, изучающих английский язык, а также для широкого круга
читателей.

УДК 372.8
ББК 81.2 Англ93

Уважаемые читатели!

Эта книга предназначена для всех, кто изучает
английский язык и хочет соприкоснуться с литературой англоязычных авторов. В настоящем сборнике вы найдете десять рассказов одного из самых ярких американских писателей, Уильяма Сиднея Портера (1862—1910), известного под псевдонимом 
О.Генри. Чтение неадаптированной литературы —
это огромный шаг на пути изучения языка: вы открываете для себя новые идиоматические выражения, очень быстро растет ваш словарный запас, вы
погружаетесь в атмосферу изучаемого языка. Но, к
сожалению, чтение такой литературы не всегда
возможно для людей со средним и невысоким
уровнем знаний. Книга, которую вы держите в руках, призвана облегчить читателям знакомство с
произведениями О. Генри. Сборник состоит из рассказов с подстрочными комментариями. После каждого рассказа даны вопросы для проверки понимания текста.
В конце книги приведен специально разработанный словарь, состоящий из слов, встречающихся
в рассказах. Также в словаре дан раздел «Имена собственные и названия». С помощью данного раздела
вы сможете проверить правильность произношения имен и названий, встречающихся в сборнике, с
помощью транскрипции. Сборник подходит как для
индивидуального чтения, так и для использования в
учебных заведениях в качестве пособия по дополнительному и домашнему чтению.
Приятного чтения!

3

O.HENRY.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

“It was beautiful and simple 

as all truly great swindles are…”

William Sydney Porter (O.Henry) was born
in Greenboro, North Carolina. His father,
Algernon Sidney Porter, was a physician.
When William was three, his mother died,
and he was raised by his grandmother and
aunt. William was an avid reader 1, but at the
age of fifteen he left school, and then worked
in a drug store and on a Texas ranch. He moved
to Houston, where he had a number of jobs,
including that of bank clerk. After moving to
Austin, Texas, in 1882, he married. 
In 1884 Porter started a humorous weekly 2

The Rolling Stone. It was at this time that he
began heavy drinking. When the weekly failed,
he joined the Houston Post as a reporter and
columnist 3. In 1894 cash was found to have

1 was an avid reader — жадно читал

2 weekly — ежедневник

3 columnist — обозреватель

O.HENRY

gone missing 1 from the bank and O.Henry fled
to Honduras. He returned to Austin the next
year because his wife was dying. In 1897 he was
convicted of embezzling 2 money, although
there has been much debate over his actual
guilt. In 1898 he entered a penitentiary at
Columbus, Ohio. 
While in prison O.Henry started to write
short stories to earn money to support his
daughter Margaret. His first work, ‘Whistling
Dick’s Christmas Stocking’ (1899), appeared
in McClure’s Magazine. The stories of adventure
in the U.S. Southwest and in Central America
gained an immediate success among readers.
After doing three years of the five years
sentence 3, Porter emerged from the prison in
1901 and changed his name to O.Henry.
According to some sources, he acquired the
pseudonym from a warder4 called Orrin Henry.

1 cash was found to have gone missing — была обнаружена пропажа наличных денег

2 was convicted of embezzling — был осужден за растрату

3After doing three years of the five years sentence —
После того, как он отбыл три из пяти лет, на которые был
осужден,

4 warder — надзиратель

It also could be an abbreviation of the name
of a French pharmacist, EteinneOssian Henry,
found in the U.S. Dispensatory, a reference
work Porter used when he was in the prison
pharmacy. 
O.Henry moved to New York City in 1902
and from December 1903 to January 1906 he
wrote a story a week for the New York World, also
publishing in other magazines. O.Henry’s first
collection, CABBAGES AND KINGS, appeared in
1904. The second, THE FOUR MILLION, was
published two years later and included his wellknown stories ‘The Gift of the Magi’ and ‘The
Furnished Room’. THE TRIMMED LAMP (1907)
explored the lives of New Yorkers and included
‘The Last Leaf’ — the city itself Henry liked to call
‘BagdadontheSubway.’ 
Henry’s best known work is perhaps the
much anthologized ‘The Ransom of Red Chief’,
published in the collection WHIRLIGIGS in 1910.
O.Henry’s humorous, energetic style shows the
influence of Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce 1.

7

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

1 Ambrose Bierce — Амброз Бирз (1842–1914), американский писательсатирик 

HEART OF THE WEST (1907) presented tales
of the Texas range. 
O.Henry published 10 collections and over
600 short stories during his lifetime. O.Henry’s
last years were shadowed by alcoholism, ill
health, and financial problems. He married
Sara Lindsay Coleman in 1907, but the marriage
was not happy, and they separated a year later.
O.Henry died of cirrhosis of the liver on June 5,
1910, in New York. Three more collections,
SIXES AND SEVENS (1911), ROLLING STONES
(1912) and WAIFS AND STRAYS (1917),
appeared posthumously 1. In 1918 the O.Henry
Memorial Awards were established to be given
annually to the best magazine stories, the
winners to be published in an annual volume. 

O.HENRY

1 posthumously — посмертно

The Four Million
The Gift of the Magi

ONE DOLLAR AND EIGHTYSEVEN CENTS.
That was all. And sixty cents of it was in
pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time
by bulldozing 1 the grocer and the vegetable
man and the butcher until one’s cheek burned
with the silent imputation of parsimony 2 that

9

1 by bulldozing — оказывая давление (зд. яростно торгуясь)

2 imputation of parsimony — обвинение в бережливости

such close dealing implied. Three times Della
counted it. One dollar and eightyseven cents.
And the next day would be Christmas.
There was clearly nothing left to do but flop
down on the shabby little couch and howl.
So Della did it. Which instigates the moral
reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles,
and smiles, with sniffles predominating.
While the mistress of the home is gradually
subsiding from the first stage to the second,
take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8
per week. It did not exactly beggar description,
but it certainly had that word on the lookout
for the mendicancy squad.
In the vestibule below was a letterbox
into which no letter would go, and an electric
button from which no mortal finger 1 could
coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a
card bearing the name ‘Mr. James Dillingham
Young.’
The ‘Dillingham’ had been flung to the
breeze 2 during a former period of prosperity

10

O.HENRY

1 no mortal finger — палец ни одного смертного

2 had been flung to the breeze — раскинулось во всю
длину