O. Henry was an American short story author named William Sydney Porter, raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. Henry's rich canon of work reflected his wide-range of experiences and is distinctive for its witticism, clever wordplay, and unexpected twist endings. Set in the American Midwest during the early 1900s, A Retrieved Reformation concerns the surprising fate of Jimmy Valentine, a skilled young safecracker who returns to society after he is paroled from prison. He goes to his old apartment, packs up his tools, and leaves. In the following weeks, a few cash robberies are committed, and the detective who landed Valentine in jail in the first place, Ben Price, is called to work on the new case. He realizes that the robberies are committed in Jimmy's style. Valentine shows up sometime later in Elmore, Arkansas. He goes to the town bank with the intention of checking it over before robbing it. However, as he walks to the hotel. In a conversation with the hotel clerk, Jimmy learns that Elmore does not have a shoe store and that business is good in the town. At the end of the year, Jimmy has risen socially and in business and has become engaged to Annabel. Two weeks before the wedding, he writes a letter to a friend, telling the friend to pick up the safe-cracker's tools that Valentine will not need anymore. Enjoy free online English audiobook “A Retrieved Reformation”, the breathtaking short story which regarded as one of O. Henry's greatest works.
