---
author: O'Henry
pdate: 1907
rdate: 2022
rating: 7
genre: Short story
---
#american_literature #books #classicshortstories  #fiction 
The Last Leaf is a short story written by [[O'Henry]]. 

The plot follows the lives of two female artists, Johnsy and Sue, living in the Greenwich village neighbourhood of NYC during a pneumonia epidemic. Johnsy catches the disease, and falls ill. A doctor consults Sue and tells her that she must pull Johnsy out of a depression she has found herself in. In the meanwhile, Johnsy began counting the remaining leaves on an ivy creeper on the wall of a nearby house, thinking that she will die when the last leaf falls. To stop Johnsy from counting the leaves, Sue calls Behrman - a failed alcoholic painter who lives in an apartment under them - to paint him. During the night and the following day the leaf miraculously survives heavy rain and Johnsy comes to the realisation that "wanting to die is a sin". She eventually gets better. Behrman, however, dies of pneumonia 2 days later, and it is revealed that his death was caused by him painting the said leaf during the night.