Man About Town

by O. Henry

Genre: Comedy
Setting:
Format of Original Source: Short Story
Recommended Adaptation Length:

Candidate for Adaptation? Not Reviewed

EXCERPT:

But the canvas of my imagination, when it came to limning the Man About Town, was blank. I fancied that he had a detachable sneer (like the smile of the Cheshire cat) and attached cuffs; and that was all. Whereupon I asked a newspaper reporter about him.

“Why,” said he, “a ‘Man About Town’ something between a ’rounder’ and a ‘clubman.’ He isn’t exactly–well, he fits in between Mrs. Fish’s receptions and private boxing bouts. He doesn’t–well, he doesn’t belong either to the Lotos Club or to the Jerry McGeogheghan Galvanised Iron Workers’ Apprentices’ Left Hook Chowder Association. I don’t exactly know how to describe him to you.

COMMENTS:

A one-beat story about a fella who’s trying to find a typical “man about town” and what that means. A literary conceit or newspaper column, not a story.

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