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The Voice of the City — cover
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Aeneas Press edition Victorian

The Voice of the City

by O. Henry 1862–1910

The book, and the century it came out of.

New York talking to itself: a shop girl deciding how to spend her lunch hour, a millionaire’s son on a park bench, a waiter who was once a gentleman, and the Fool-Killer walking up a Southern road looking for custom. O. Henry wrote these at the rate of a story a week for the New York World, from hotel rooms and bar tables, and died two years after the book appeared, at forty-seven and in debt. Complete and unabridged, Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Evenepoel, Bellows and Morisot among them.

Twenty-five years ago the school children used to chant their lessons.
The first sentence of The Voice of the City
A note on this edition

The Voice of the City, by O. Henry, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 160 pages
Reading time
about 3 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785501953383
The plates

60 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

Stag at Sharkey’s, George Bellows
Stag at Sharkey’s George Bellows 1909
Gallantry, Miguel Ângelo Lupi
Gallantry Miguel Ângelo Lupi 1881
Schaftuur (Schafttijd), Jacques Zon
Schaftuur (Schafttijd) Jacques Zon 1909
On the Beach, Eugène Louis Boudin
On the Beach Eugène Louis Boudin 1894
Bank of the river in Spring, Jean-François Raffaëlli
Bank of the river in Spring Jean-François Raffaëlli 1909
The Yellow House, Vincent van Gogh
The Yellow House Vincent van Gogh 1888
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of The Voice of the City as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of The Voice of the City as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

The Voice of the City, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Comedy & Satire shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501953383, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of The Voice of the City?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. O. Henry's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 160 pages, which is roughly about 3 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
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The Voice of the City
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