The Skylight Room Summary
O. Henry

The Skylight Room Overview

A classic example of the O. Henry twist ending, “The Skylight Room” tells the story of a New York City typist, Miss Elsie Leeson, who is rescued from her struggle against poverty and starvation by a guardian angel. As a part of the author’s 1906 short story collection The Four Million, which also included his most famous story, “The Gift of the Magi,” “The Skylight Room” helps to prove the thesis of the collection as a whole, that instead of the elitist opinion that there are only 400 people in New York City worth knowing, there are actually at least four million. By showing his protagonist to have a life that is at once desperately ordinary and extraordinarily star-studded, “The Skylight Room” helps to cement O. Henry’s reputation as a champion of the common person, and a close observer of everyday life in New York City.