"Alias Jimmy Valentine" by O.Henry

"Alias Jimmy Valentine" by O.Henry

 

A Short Discussion :

The Writer :

      O. Henry is the pen name of William Sydney Porter. He is a famous American Short-story writer. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. He lost his mother only at the age of three. His early education was incomplete. He had to leave the school at the age of fifteen to work in a drug store. He got married in 1887 and went to Texas in search of job. There he worked as a journalist and then as a bank-teller. Unfortunately he was convicted for fraudulence as a bank-teller and undergo three years' imprisonment. He started to write short-stories in prison. After getting release from the convicted life, he settled in New York and continued his writing career. Me married again in 1907 but could not live long. He died of consumption on 5th June, 1910.      

      His notable works are --

1. Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking (1899)
2. Cabbages and Kings (1904)
3. The Four Million (1906)
4. The Trimmed Lamp and Other Stories (1907)
5. The Gentle Grafter (1908)
6. Roads to Destiny (1909) etc.

 

The Source :

     Alias Jimmy Valentine is actually the name of a film made in 1928 based on the short-story A Retrieved Reformation by O. Henry. The story is a popular one which describes the events leading up to the reformation of an ex-convict.

 

The Story :

      Jimmy Valentine is a safe-cracker, and he is released from prison after ten months though he was sentenced to four years of imprisonment. He goes to his old house, takes his tools and leaves the place. A few days later, a number of cash robberies are reported. Ben Price, a detective who met Valentine in jail, comes to work in the new cases of robberies. After investigating the cases, he realizes that the robberies have a touch of Jimmy's style.

 

       Valentine is seen in Elmore, Arkansas after some days. He pays a visit to the town bank with a plan to rob it later. Accidentally, his eyes fall on the banker's beautiful daughter, Annabel Adams. He is so much attracted by her beauty that he decides to give up his criminal career to begin a new life with her. He takes up the identity of Ralph D. Spencer, a shoemaker and lives in the town. When he makes a social position there through business, he becomes engaged to Annabel.

 

       Price, on the other hand, takes Jimmy down and arrives at the bank when Jimmy and Annabel's family are inside. Annabel's father shows them the bank's new safe. Annabel's nieces start to play with it immediately and one of them shuts the other inside and locks the door. Everybody is in great tension. Annabel requests Jimmy to help. Jimmy opens the door applying his technique though he knows well that it will prove his true identity.

 

      However, the child is saved. Price witnesses the whole incident stealthily. When Valentine starts to leave the bank, he finds Price standing beside the door. Valentine becomes nervous and gives up hope. But surprisingly Price pretends not to recognize him and leaves the place.

WRITTEN BY DIPANKAR GHOSH