Cover of Cabbages and Kings, 1904 edition

''Cabbages and Kings'' is a 1904 novel made up of interlinked short stories, written by

O. Henry William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer known primarily for his short stories, though he also wrote poetry and non-fiction. His works include "The Gift of the ...

and set in a fictitious

Central American Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Cen ...

country called the Republic of Anchuria. It takes its title from the poem " The Walrus and the Carpenter", featured in

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...

's ''

Through the Looking Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' (also known as ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'' or simply ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a novel published on 27 December 1871 (though indicated as 1872) by Lewis Carroll and the ...

''. Its plot contains famous elements in the poem: shoes and ships and sealing wax, cabbages and kings. It was inspired by the characters and situations that O. Henry encountered in Honduras in the late 1890s.

Chapters

::The Proem: By the Carpenter ''Cabbages and Kings'' can be classified as a

fix-up A fix-up (or fixup) is a novel created from several short fiction stories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published. The stories may be edited for consistency, and sometimes new connecting material, such as a frame s ...

novel. In the last chapter of the book, "The Vitagraphoscope", O. Henry suggests that it is a "vaudeville" that is "intrinsically episodic and discontinuous". Some characters do their turn — the vaudeville term for an act — and disappear, and others reappear if only briefly.

New York Times Book Review, Dec 17 1904

"The incidents embracing as they do, a variety of subjects, hang loosely together, so loosely in fact, that at times one finds no apparent connection between them at all, and yet in the end one sees how each is intimately related to the other. ... Written by a less able hand than O. Henry's the book might have been a sad jumble, perhaps comprehensible to none but the Walrus—but as it is, one finds a joy in its every obscurity."

"Banana republic"

In one of the chapters, "The Admiral", inspired by the author's experiences in Honduras, where he had lived for six months, he refers to Anchuria as a "small maritime banana republic"; naturally, the fruit was the entire basis of its economy. According to a literary analyst writing for ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'', "his phrase neatly conjures up the image of a tropical, agrarian country. But its real meaning is sharper: it refers to the fruit companies from the United States that came to exert extraordinary influence over the politics of Honduras and its neighbors." The expression "

banana republic In political science, the term banana republic describes a politically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the export of natural resources. In 1904, the American author O. Henry coined the term to describe Honduras and neighboring c ...

" has been used widely since that time, particularly in political commentaries.

Adaptations

It has been adapted four times in the USSR and Russia: * ''Prezidenty i banany'' (''Президенты и бананы – Presidents and Bananas'') – operetta by Moscow Operetta Theater of 1939. * ''Kogda more smeyotsya'' (''Когда море смеётся – When the Sea Laughs'') — telefilm of 1971, neat adaptation of the book. * — grotesque movie of 1978. * — stop-motion animated film of 1996.

References

External links

* {{O. Henry 1904 American novels Books by O. Henry American novels adapted into films