Cabbages and Kings

O. Henry wove several stories together into this highly episodic narrative, taking his title and inspiration from Lewis Carroll's poem ';The Walrus and the Carpenter' in Alice in Wonderland.The stories are set in the fictional country of Anchuria in Central America, a banana republic where larceny is rampant and revolution is lurking in every impoverished back alley. O. Henry offers a cutting satire of contemporary politics and prejudices. Nevertheless, an essential middle-class morality prevails, in which lovers are reunited, poverty obliterated, character rewarded, and sentiment satisfied.