"The Gift of the Magi" | |
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Short story by O. Henry | |
Text available at Wikisource | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre(s) | Short story |
Publication | |
Published in | The Four Million |
Publication type | Anthology |
Publisher | McClure, Phillips, and Company |
Publication date | December 10, 1905 (newspaper); April 10, 1906 (book) [1] |
"The Gift of the Magi" is a short story by O. Henry (pen name of William Sydney Porter) first published in 1905. The story tells of a young husband and wife and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. As a sentimental story with a moral lesson about gift-giving, it has been popular for adaptation, especially for presentation at Christmas time. The plot and its twist ending are well known; the ending is generally considered an example of cosmic irony. [2] The story was allegedly written at Pete's Tavern [3] on Irving Place in New York City.
The story was initially published in The New York Sunday World under the title "Gifts of the Magi" on December 10, 1905. It was first published in book form in the O. Henry collection The Four Million in April 1906.
On Christmas Eve, a woman named Della Dillingham Young discovers that she has only $1.87 (equivalent to about $63 in 2023) to buy a present for her husband James, also known as Jim. Despite being poor, the Dillingham Youngs love each other and possess two items they value as treasures: Della's knee-length brown hair that would depreciate the Queen of Sheba's jewels, and Jim's gold pocket watch, a family heirloom that would make King Solomon envy him. Della dresses warmly and visits the nearby shop of a wig maker, Madame Sofronie, who buys Della's hair for $20 (about $700 in 2023). Della then uses the money to buy a platinum fob chain to go with Jim's watch, which he has attached with a worn leather strap. When Jim comes home from work that evening, Della admits that she sold her hair to buy him the chain. Jim gives Della her present, a set of ornamental combs, which she cannot use until her hair grows back out. Della gives Jim the watch chain, and he tells her that he sold his watch to buy the combs. While they know the gifts they gave each other cannot be used for a while, Jim and Della realize how far they went to show each other their love and how invaluable it truly is. The story ends with the narrator declaring that those who sacrifice their material possessions for the people they love are as wise as the magi.
Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character created in 1947 for The Walt Disney Company by Carl Barks. Appearing in Disney comics, Scrooge is a Scottish-born American anthropomorphic Pekin duck. Like his nephew, Donald Duck, he has a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a red or blue frock coat, top hat, pince-nez glasses, and spats varying in color. He is portrayed in animation as speaking with a Scottish accent. Originally intended to be used only once, Scrooge became one of the most popular characters in the Disney comics world, as well as Barks' signature work. Scrooge is an extremely rich duck who lives in the fictional city of Duckburg in the fictional U.S. state of Calisota, whose claimed location is in real-world California, United States.
William Sydney Porter, 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 Magi", "The Duplicity of Hargraves", and "The Ransom of Red Chief", as well as the novel Cabbages and Kings. Porter's stories are known for their naturalist observations, witty narration, and surprise endings.
In Christianity, the Biblical Magi, also known as the Three Wise Men, Three Kings, and Three Magi, are distinguished foreigners who visit Jesus after his birth, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh in homage to him. They are commemorated on the feast day of Epiphany—sometimes called "Three Kings Day"—and commonly appear in the nativity celebrations of Christmas.
Mickey's Christmas Carol is a 1983 American animated Christmas fantasy featurette directed and produced by Burny Mattinson. The cartoon is an adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, and stars Scrooge McDuck as Ebenezer Scrooge. Many other Disney characters, primarily from the Mickey Mouse universe, as well as Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio (1940), and characters from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) and Robin Hood (1973), were cast throughout the film. The featurette was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution on December 16, 1983, with the re-issue of The Rescuers (1977). In the United States, it was first aired on television on NBC, on December 10, 1984.
Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas is a 2004 American direct-to-video animated Christmas anthology fantasy film produced by Disneytoon Studios and directed by Matthew O'Callaghan. The film includes stories directed by Peggy Holmes, O'Callaghan, Theresa Cullen, and Carole Holliday.
Scrooge is a 1951 British Christmas fantasy drama film and an adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843). It stars Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge, and was produced and directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, with a screenplay by Noel Langley. It also features Michael Hordern, Kathleen Harrison, George Cole, Hermione Baddeley, Mervyn Johns, Clifford Mollison, Jack Warner, Ernest Thesiger and Patrick Macnee. Peter Bull narrates portions of Charles Dickens's words at the beginning and end of the film, and appears on-screen as a businessman.
A Christmas Carol is a 1938 American drama film adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella of the same name, starring Reginald Owen as Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who learns the error of his ways on Christmas Eve after visitations by three spirits. The film was directed by Edwin L. Marin from a script by Hugo Butler.
"The Little Match Girl" is a literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. The story, about a dying child's dreams and hope, was first published in 1845. It has been adapted to various media, including animated, live-action, and VR films as well as television musicals and opera.
Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas is a 1999 American direct-to-video animated Christmas anthology comedy fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. The film includes three features: Donald Duck: Stuck on Christmas, A Very Goofy Christmas and Mickey and Minnie's Gift of the Magi. Other Disney characters also make cameos in the film.
"Xmas Story" is the fourth episode in the second season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 17th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 19, 1999. The episode was written by David X. Cohen and directed by Peter Avanzino. John Goodman guest stars in this episode as Robot Santa. The plot of the episode focuses on the first Xmas that Fry spends in the future.
Old Fezziwig is a character from the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol created by Charles Dickens to provide contrast with Ebenezer Scrooge's attitudes towards business ethics. Scrooge was apprenticed under Fezziwig. Despite this, the older Scrooge seems to be the very antithesis of Mr. Fezziwig in appearance, actions, and characterisation. Mr. Fezziwig is portrayed as a jovial, anachronistic man with a large Welsh Wig.
O. Henry's Full House is a 1952 American anthology film made by 20th Century Fox, consisting of five films, each based on a story by O. Henry.
Ebbie or Miracle at Christmas: Ebbie's Story is a 1995 American television film directed by George Kaczender, written by Ed Redlich, and starring Susan Lucci in the title role. It is a gender-reversed retelling of the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, with a hard-hearted female character named Elizabeth "Ebbie" Scrooge in place of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, and the three spirits that come to visit Ebbie resemble three of her employees who she had been overly rude towards that day.
The Gift of the Magi is a chamber opera in four scenes with music by David Conte and libretto by Nicholas Giardini. Based on the 1905 short story of the same title by O. Henry, the opera focuses on Jim and Della, who are a poor married couple and cannot afford to buy each other presents for Christmas. It premiered on December 7 and 8, 1997 with a workshop production to the accompaniment of two pianos at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The orchestral version was premiered at the conservatory on December 3, 2000.
A Christmas Carol is a 2009 American animated Christmas fantasy film produced, written for the screen and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Zemeckis's ImageMovers Digital, and released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is based on Charles Dickens's 1843 novel of the same name. The film was animated through the process of motion capture, a technique used in ImageMovers's previous animated films including The Polar Express (2004), Monster House (2006), and Beowulf (2007), and stars the voices of Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, Robin Wright Penn and Cary Elwes. It is Disney's third adaptation of the novel, following Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) and The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992).
A Christmas Carol, the 1843 novella by Charles Dickens (1812–1870), is one of the English author's best-known works. It is the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a greedy miser who hates Christmas but who is transformed into a caring, kindly person through the visitations of four ghosts. The classic work has been dramatised and adapted countless times for virtually every medium and performance genre, and new versions appear regularly.
Scrooge is a 1935 British Christmas fantasy film directed by Henry Edwards and starring Seymour Hicks, Donald Calthrop and Robert Cochran. The film was released by Twickenham Film Studios and has since entered the public domain. It was the first sound film of feature length to adapt the Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol, and it was the second cinematic adaptation of the story to use sound, following a now-lost 1928 short subject adaptation of the story. Hicks stars as Ebenezer Scrooge, a miser who hates Christmas and is visited by a succession of ghosts on Christmas Eve. Hicks had previously played the role of Scrooge on the stage regularly, starting in 1901, and in a 1913 British silent film version.
Batman: Noël is a 2011 original graphic novel written and illustrated by Lee Bermejo and published by DC, featuring the superhero Batman. It is an analogous adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. In Batman: Noël, Bruce Wayne uses a poverty-stricken parent as bait for his nemesis, the Joker, on Christmas Eve.
A Christmas Carol is a 2019 British dark fantasy drama television miniseries based on the 1843 novella by Charles Dickens. The three-part series is written by Steven Knight with Tom Hardy and Ridley Scott among the executive producers. It began airing on BBC One in the UK on 22 December 2019 and concluded two days later on 24 December 2019. Prior to this, it aired in the US on FX on 19 December 2019, with all three episodes shown consecutively as a single television film.
A Christmas Carol is a 2020 British Christmas drama dance film directed by Jacqui Morris and David Morris and based on Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. It features the voices of Simon Russell Beale, Siân Phillips, Carey Mulligan, Daniel Kaluuya, Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman and Leslie Caron. It received mixed reviews from critics.