A Retrieved Reformation

"A Retrieved Reformation" is a short story by American author O. Henry first published in The
Cosmopolitan Magazine, April 1903.[1] It describes the events which lead up to the reformation of an
ex-convict. The story was adapted into the film, Alias Jimmy Valentine in 1928, MGM's first all-talking
film. The popularity of the story as a motion picture added greatly to the author's vogue, though in
the English, French, and Spanish versions O. Henry's name was not mentioned. [1] The character of
Jimmy Valentine is taken from life but there is a close parallel to the leading incident in chapter XLII
of Hugo's Les Miserables.[1]

Story[edit]
Safecracker Jimmy Valentine is released from prison after serving less than 10 months of a four year
sentence, due to his criminal connections. 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, he catches the eye of the banker's beautiful daughter, Annabel Adams. He falls in
love with her immediately, and Valentine decides to give up his criminal career. He moves into the
town, taking up the identity of Ralph D. Spencer, a shoemaker.

At the end of the year, Jimmy has risen socially and business-wise 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 won't need anymore.

By this time, however, Price has tracked him down and shows up at the bank while Jimmy and
Annabel's family are inside. Carrying the tool case, Jimmy watches as Annabel's father shows them
the bank's new safe. Annabel's nieces are fascinated by it, and as they are playing, one accidentally
shuts the other inside and locks the door, without the time lock's clock having been wound nor any
combination set. Everyone panics, and Annabel begs Jimmy to do something. Jimmy, knowing that it
will reveal his true identity, uses his case of tools to open the door and save the child. Unbeknownst
to Valentine at that time, Price has witnessed the whole incident.

Valentine starts to leave the bank afterwards, and he sees Price standing by the door. Sheepishly,
he gives himself up, but much to his surprise, Price pretends not to recognize him and walks away.
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A Retrieved Reformation Summary
Synopsis

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. The story begins at the prison shortly
before Jimmy Valentine if set free; the majority of the narrative occurs in Elmore, a small
backwoods town in Arkansas where he settles. Major characters include Jimmy
Valentine; Mike Dolan, his partner in crime; detective Ben Price, Jimmy’s nemesis; and
Annabel Adams, the girl with whom Jimmy falls in love. Minor characters are the prison
warden; Cronin, a prison guard; Mr. Adams, Annabel’s father; Annabel’s sister;
Annabel’s two young nieces, May and Agatha; a hotel clerk; and a young boy who lives
in Elmore.

As the story begins, Jimmy is called to the warden’s office. The warden hands Jimmy
his pardon from the governor and advises him to stay out of trouble: “You’re not a bad
fellow at heart,” he says. “Stop cracking safes, and live straight.” Jimmy laughs, feigning
surprise, denying he had ever cracked a safe or committed the bank robbery that had
sent him to prison.

Jimmy leaves prison the next day and takes a train to another town where he meets up
with Mike Dolan, a friend and confederate. After picking up his key from Mike, Jimmy
returns to his room above Mike’s restaurant where he had lived before detective Ben
Price arrested him. Jimmy finds his safe cracking tools still hidden in the wall where he
had left them. A week later, a string of bank safe burglaries in the Midwest comes to
Ben Price’s attention; he knows Jimmy Valentine is back in business and sets out to
catch him again.

Meanwhile, carrying his burglar tools in a suitcase, Jimmy arrives in small, remote
Elmore, Arkansas, where he plans to rob the bank. Walking toward the hotel, he
encounters a beautiful young woman. Their eyes meet, and in that instant, Jimmy
undergoes a complete reformation: “Jimmy Valentine looked into her eyes, forgot what
he was, and became another man.” After talking to a boy on the street, Jimmy learns
she is Annabel Adams, whose father owns the bank. Jimmy continues on to the hotel,
where he registers as “Ralph D. Spencer.” 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.
Jimmy Valentine does not rob the bank; instead, “Ralph Spencer” settles in Elmore,
opens a profitable shoe store, becomes a social success, and makes the acquaintance
of Annabel Adams.
A year elapses. Still using his “Ralph Spencer” alias, Jimmy enjoys great success. His
business is growing, he and Annabel are soon to be married, and Annabel’s father and
sister have accepted him as one of the family. To cut completely the ties with his past,
Jimmy writes a letter to one of his former friends, asking the man to meet him in Little
Rock. Jimmy plans to give the man his set of safe cracking tools. The day before Jimmy
is to leave for Little Rock, Ben Price arrives in Elmore, spots Jimmy Valentine, and
learns he is about to marry the banker’s daughter. Ben Price has other ideas.

The next day before leaving town, with his burglar tools in his suitcase, Jimmy goes to
the bank with Annabel, Annabel’s sister, and the sister’s two little girls, May and Agatha.
Annabel’s father wants to show off the new burglar-proof safe he has recently installed.
While all are admiring the safe, Ben Price comes into the bank and watches the scene;
he tells a bank teller “he was just waiting for a man he knew.” Jimmy is unaware of the
detective’s presence.

Without warning, May playfully locks Agatha in the bank vault, throwing the bolts and
spinning the combination lock as she had seen her grandfather perform the maneuver.
The safe cannot be opened, Mr. Adams exclaims in horror, since the timer and the
combination had not been set. Furthermore, Agatha will soon run out of air in the vault.
Jimmy and the others can hear Agatha crying out in panic. Annabel turns to Jimmy,
begging him to do something, at least to try.

Jimmy looks at Annabel with a “soft smile.” He asks her for the rose she is wearing.
Confused, Annabel hands him the rose. Jimmy puts the rose in his vest pocket, throws
off his coat, and pushes up his shirtsleeves: “With that act Ralph D. Spencer passed
away and Jimmy Valentine took his place.” Using his tools, Jimmy opens the safe in
record time, freeing the sobbing child.

Once Agatha is safe, Jimmy puts on his coat and walks away; he hears Annabel call out
to him, but he does not stop. When he encounters Ben Price, who has witnessed the
dramatic scene, Jimmy tells the detective, “Well, let’s go. I don’t know that it makes
much difference, now.” Price, who seems to be acting rather oddly, replies, “Guess
you’re mistaken, Mr. Spencer . . . Don’t believe I recognize you.” With that, the detective
leaves.

“A Retrieved Reformation” was published in 1909 in O. Henry’s book of short

stories, Roads of Destiny. It features several of the narrative elements for which O.
Henry’s short stories are well known. The surprise ending is especially characteristic of
O. Henry’s tales, as are the story’s numerous gentle ironies. Jimmy Valentine leaves
prison with no thought of leading a conventional, respectable life, and he comes to
Elmore to rob the bank. Instead, he falls in love with the banker’s daughter, finds a new
family, runs a flourishing shoe store (having learned to make shoes in prison), and
becomes a pillar in his new community. Furthermore, the special skills he had used in
his criminal pursuits enable him to save a little girl’s life. His unlikely reformation is
“retrieved” by the detective most determined to arrest him.

The tone of the story, with its gentle humor and sentimentality, is representative of much
of O. Henry’s work. Although Jimmy Valentine has no intention of abandoning his life of
crime, love magically transforms him in an instant. Also, many of O. Henry’s stories
develop themes which, in their simplicity, can be summed up as “the moral of the story.”
In the case of Jimmy Valentine, goodness is rewarded. Cracking Mr. Adams’ safe does
not send him back to prison; it prevents his being arrested—the final irony and one that
satisfies because, as the warden observes, Jimmy is “not a bad fellow at heart.”