Strictly Business: More Stories of the Four Million

O. HenryDoubleday, Page & Company1910

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Chapters: 23

Summary

Strictly Business: More Stories of the Four Million is a short-story collection by the American writer O. Henry (born William Sydney Porter, 1862–1910), published in 1910 by Doubleday, Page & Company in New York. It contains 23 stories across roughly 310 pages. The subtitle "More Stories of the Four Million" marks it as a sequel to The Four Million (1906): "the four million" refers to the population of New York at the time, and the author turns his eye on the city's ordinary citizens rather than its few great figures. The opening story, "Strictly Business," follows two itinerant performers as they navigate the stage and their livelihood, sounding the urban logic that everything, in the end, is business; "A Municipal Report" traces a writer's journey south to a small Tennessee town and turns on a final revelation; "The Venturers," "The Duel," "The Girl and the Graft" and "A Night in New Arabia" revolve around money, marriage, speculation, respectability and loyalty, with characters ranging from actors and reporters to salesmen, clerks and tramps, forming a social panorama of early twentieth-century New York. O. Henry's witty dialogue, deft use of slang and surprise endings are fully on display here. Note that this entry corresponds to the original English edition (or its facsimile and public-domain reprints), not to any Chinese translation; Chinese readers are most familiar with individual stories scattered through various O. Henry anthologies, and a complete Chinese translation of this collection has had limited circulation. If your copy is an e-book omnibus or a public-domain reprint, the text should comprise these 23 stories, though pagination, layout and appendices will vary.

Editor's review

读欧·亨利，最容易犯的错是只记住那些「神反转」。这本 1910 年的集子会让你看到反转之外的功夫：他写纽约城里那些靠一张嘴、一副好脾气和一点小聪明过活的人——跑码头的演员、跑新闻的记者、跑推销的年轻人——写得又刻薄又心软。副题「More Stories of the Four Million」是理解全书的钥匙。所谓「四百万」，是当年纽约的人口总数；欧·亨利偏不写豪门，专写租金、饭钱、面子与爱情之间的算计。二十三篇里，《一份市政报告》的结尾常被选本收录，《新阿拉伯之夜》则把「天方夜谭」搬进了曼哈顿的公寓楼，荒诞里带着准头。对英语学习者来说，这本书的难度中等偏上：句子短、对话多、节奏快，但俚语、双关和当年的纽约地名不少，需要边读边查。它早已进入公有领域，古登堡计划等平台都有全文，可以配合纸质公版影印本对照阅读。若你手上是「英文原著大合集」那类电子书目中的一本，请留意它只是这套合集里的一册，读之前先确认正文是否为完整的 23 篇。

Who it's for

A good fit for

已读完一两本欧·亨利选集、想系统通读其单行本原著的读者
英语中高级学习者，希望借短篇练语感与俚语理解的人
喜爱二十世纪初纽约城市风俗与市井人情的文学读者
研究美国短篇小说技巧、关注反转结构与叙事节奏的写作者

Not a good fit for

刚开始读英文原著、词汇量有限的入门学习者，俚语与时代背景会造成较大障碍
只想要一部完整中译本、不愿读英文原文的读者
期待长篇连续情节与人物成长的读者，本书为彼此独立的短篇

Reading tips

先读《A Municipal Report》和《Strictly Business》两篇较短的，熟悉作者的语调与结构习惯，再按目录顺序推进。
遇到俚语、人名地名先做标记不要停顿，读完一篇再回头查，避免打断节奏、也更容易体会结尾的翻转。
可对照古登堡计划（Project Gutenberg 第 2141 号）的电子文本核对篇目与段落，公版文本与纸质影印本偶有标点差异。
每读完三五篇写两三行笔记，记录结尾手法与人物套路，读完整本后回看，能清楚看出欧·亨利的惯用招数。

About the publisher

Doubleday, Page & Company

Doubleday, Page & Company is a publisher whose output centers on literature, essays and miscellaneous writings; public information is limited, and the press's founding background is not recorded in detail in our database. Judging from the seven titles held, the company focused on foreign literature, biography and general biographical works, with authors including Karel Čapek, David Grayson, O. Henry, Robert E. Lee Jr. and Frank Norris. Representative titles include Letters from England, The Friendly Road: New Adventures in Contentment, Strictly Business: More Stories of the Four Million, Options, Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee, and The Pit: A Story of Chicago. These works span travel essays, rural sketches, urban short stories, reflections on life's choices and personal memoirs, with styles leaning toward narrative prose and realistic fiction, reflecting the press's emphasis on literary reading and biographical writing.

Strictly Business
The Gold That Glittered
Babes in the Jungle
The Day Resurgent
The Fifth Wheel
The Poet and the Peasant
The Robe of Peace
The Girl and the Graft
The Call of the Tame
The Unknown Quantity
The Thing's the Play
A Ramble in Aphasia
A Municipal Report
Psyche and the Pskyscraper
A Bird of Bagdad
Compliments of the Season
A Night in New Arabia
The Girl and the Habit
Proof of the Pudding
Past One at Rooney's
The Venturers
The Duel
"What You Want"

FAQ

这本书和《The Four Million》是什么关系？

它是《四百万》（1906）的续集，副题「More Stories of the Four Million」即「四百万人的更多故事」。「四百万」指当时纽约的人口，两书都聚焦城中普通市民的生活，但篇目完全不同，本书共收 23 篇。

这本书有通行的中文译本吗？

本书完整中译本在国内流传不广，读者更常见的是收入各种欧·亨利选集的中译篇目，如《一份市政报告》《新阿拉伯之夜》等。本条目对应的是 1910 年英文原版及其公版重印本，并非某一中译本。

英文难度大概如何，需要什么水平？

句子偏短、对话密集，整体不算艰深，但二十世纪初的纽约俚语、双关和地名较多。大致需要能较顺畅阅读英文报刊的水平，读时备一本词典或电子查阅工具会更省力。

为什么 ISBN、字数和评分都是空的？

本书初版于 1910 年，属于公有领域作品，市面流通的多为公版翻印本、电子书或影印本，ISBN 与字数因版本而异，无法给出统一数值；中文读者评分也缺乏可靠统计，故按规范留空，不做估算。

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About the author

O. Henry Author

O. Henry was an American short-story writer, born William Sydney Porter. Public information is limited, and details of his birth and death dates and nationality are not clearly recorded in the database. He is known for short stories about everyday life in New York City, whose characters are mostly ordinary citizens, clerks, and marginalized people. The database includes two of his works, Strictly Business: More Stories of the Four Million and Options, both belonging to the "Four Million" series and focusing on the joys and sorrows of ordinary people in the big city. His style is marked by clever twist endings and a humorous yet slightly sentimental tone; his language is concise and vivid, and he excels at creating dramatic tension in a short space. This "O. Henry ending" has had a broad influence on later short-story writing, and he is regarded as one of the representative writers of the short story in foreign literature.