Customer Reviews

Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde: In Aid of the Royal Theatrical Fund

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Anyone who's seen the Oscar Wilde biopic starring Stephen Fry as the great wit will have noticed him narrating "The Selfish Giant" to his children. At first, I thought he was telling a story someone else had written, but when I heard a brief narration of a story in the movie Tesis, and discovered that it was from an Oscar Wilde story, I wondered if the giant story had been written by him. Discovery of this book confirmed that fact for me.

This collection comprises both the Happy Prince compilation and the House of Pomegranates compilation of Oscar Wilde's short stories. The Happy Prince contains these stories:

The Happy Prince
The Nightingale and the Rose
The Selfish Giant
The Devoted Friend
The Remarkable Rocket

The House Of Pomegranates contains these stories:

The Young King
The Birthday of the Infanta
The Fisherman and His Soul
The Star-Child

These stories are suitable for adults as well as children. Wilde's adherence to Fabian socialist philosophy is seen in many of the tales here. Basically, equal distribution of wealth, accompanied by tolerance, humility, and natural love would lead to true individualism. Many figures will have to become Christ-like martyrs to achieve such a world, regardless of whether the receiver of the gift will appreciate their sacrifice, as is the heartbreaking story of "The Nightingale And The Rose."

Examples of this include The Happy Prince, where the prince, a living statue, gives up the jewels of his sword, the jewels making up his eyes to those less fortunate and finds himself happier as a result. The same motif can be found in "The Selfish Giant", who builds a wall around his garden to keep the children from playing in it; as a result, Spring never comes to the garden and it's perpetual Winter. The giant realizes his selfishness and tears down the wall. And like the giant, the title character in "The Star-Child" goes from being proud of his good looks and standing, adopting a philosophy like the Remarkable Rocket (see below), then undergoes humility and suffering when those are taken from him, and becomes selfless and repentant as a result of his suffering.

Other main characters never see beyond their selfish egotism. The Infanta in "The Birthday of the Infanta" is amused by a dancing dwarf, who is hunchbacked and ugly to behold. She and her companions are doubled with laughter at his entertainment. The poor dwarf, whom the Infanta has given a rose, thinks the Infanta loves him, and also, raised in the forest, is blissfully unaware of his countenance. It is only when he looks in the mirror that he dies of a broken heart. The Infanta then declares that no one should have a heart.

A denunciation to the upper class of the British Empire, who have an aura of self-importance around them, is given in "The Remarkable Rocket" The Rocket's philosophy, "the only thing that sustains one through life is the consciousness of the immense inferiority of everyone else" is telling of the misguided romantic mentality of this upper class.

But only in the psyches of certain individuals does true social consciousness arrive, such as "The Young King" whose dreams of the horrible cost of ordinary people who have suffered so that the upper class may prosper, deeply distresses him to the point that he refuses wear the luxurious signs of power symbolizing the raiment of the king. "...on the loom of sorrow, and by the hands of Pain, has this robe been woven. There is Blood in the heart of this Ruby, and Death in the heart of this pearl." "Shall a man not eat bread till he has seen the sower, nor drink wine till he has talked with the vinedresser" adds the King, in a foretelling of the sweatshops and maquiladoras of today.

And BTW, for those who have seen Alejandro Amenebar's Tesis, "The Birthday Of The Infanta" is the story Chema tells Angela as they are walking down the hallway of the college's movie archives.

Reading these stories and realizing how the Fabian society's dreams of a compassionate world is far from been fulfilled should give one pause to think what kind of world we live in.

Thank you, Amazon!

I have been trying to find this collection for more than 30 years and have never been successful either at a bookstore or a library.

I first read this collection when I was in my early 20s and working toward a teaching degree. I never forgot the beauty of the images Wilde evokes and the way his little stories tug at the heartstrings.

I suppose this wonderful collection has been buried so long because of Wilde's sexual orientation. That's so sad because it means that millions of children growing up over the past several decades have missed experiencing these tales. I'm glad to see that the collection is back in print and that Amazon is carrying it. I hope moms and dads and aunts and uncles looking for beautiful stories for their children don't fail to consider these.

A good friend of mine mentioned "The Happy Prince" as one of his favorite stories which he'd seen on TV as a cartoon Christmas special some years ago.

When I came across the book in a bookstore, my interest was piqued and I bought it up to take a look.

As I read through the stories, the memories came back to me of the short cartoon skits I'd seen as a kid. The cartoons never hit me as heavily as the book did. The impact of these simple children's stories is remarkable and I found myself profoundly moved by the various characters acting out of love, devotion and their sense of ideals. "The Happy Prince", "The Selfish Giant" and "The Nightingale and the Rose" were especially touching.

It isn't an easy job to write a story for children that carries over on another level when the reader is an adult, yet Oscar Wilde has done it with an entire collection. I'm very impressed and can recommend it to anyone.

This version comprises all 9 of Wilde's fairy tales, which were
originally published as two separate anthologies: THE HAPPY PRINCE (5 tales) and THE HOUSE OF POMEGRANATES (4). At least three of these tales have appeared as individual storybooks with colorful illustrations: The Happy Prince, The Selfish Giant and The Star Child. The stories in the first collection are shorter and more likely meant--on the surface at least--for younger readers.

The gifted son of literary Irish parents, Oscar
Wilde was steeped in fantasy and Irish folklore. Exposed to the talents of raconteurs during his youth, he naturally developed an interest in the supernatural and appreciation for a well-turned phrase. He was fascinated by the power of specific words to evoke ideas, as well as visual scenes. His style includes a vast vocabulary and the frequent use of ironic wit to express his themes: self-sacrifice for Love or Art; disgust for the arrogance of the Court or High Society; the crucial need for reform for the suffering lower classes; the sacred duties of Power; the need for compassion from humanity in general; casual ridicule for the pendantry of teachers, lecturers and editors. The writer's craft was a particular target of his sardonic humor, for he used his pen like a sword.

No institution or personnage was immune from his rapier wit and social scalpel. Some of Wilde's stories start with a promising plot, then seem to spin off into a tale within a tale. This editon includes 19th century style b/w illustrations, which will captivate young readers. Although he wrote some stories to amuse his own sons, Wilde did not limit his literary audience to young children. Keep a dictionnary handy--not so much for Victorian vocabulary, but as an ecyclopedia of the affluent. This is social criticism disguised as fantasy literature--with great flair!

I had no idea this collection existed before I saw it on Amazon, but I'm glad it does. I first fell in love with Wilde after reading The Picture of Dorian Grey - a book which had a huge impact on my life at the time - but today, it's his children's stories that I hold above all else. Each tale is a gem onto itself: deep and moving, yet profoundly simple at the same time. These truly are children's stories, but they're written with Wilde's trademark wit, and the gravity that comes with age. Stories like "The Selfish Giant" and "The Nightingale and the Rose" are timeless and will live long past me or you. I've always felt that the best art transcends that gap between youth and adulthood, and the stories in this beautiful little book prove it.

This is actually the first time I've read Oscar Wilde. I started The Picture of Dorian Gray a long time ago, but never finished it for some reason. His compete fairy tales were wonderful! I loved them all. They were all quite unique, but revisited common themes seen in children's fairy tales. The moral lessons were the same.

The book is broken up into two separate collections. The first is called The Happy Prince and the second is A House of Pomegranates. Wilde must have loved pomegranates as I think they are mentioned in nearly every fairy tale in the book.

The Happy Prince consists of 5 tales:

The Happy Prince: A statue of a prince asks a bird friend to deliver precious gems on his body to people who are in need in the town so that they may survive and in turn is deemed to be no longer beautiful.

The Nightingale and the Rose: A Nightingale makes the ultimate sacrifice in the form of a song so that a a boy may win the heart of a maiden.

The Selfish Giant: A grumpy giant closes his courtyard off to children so Spring refuses to come back leaving Winter to constantly blunder him. This one has a very bizarre ending in my opinion.

The Devoted Friend: A friend accepts a small favor and is expected to do entirely too much in return.

The Remarkable Rocket: A rocket (firecracker) who is quite arrogant ends up being the bottom of the bunch.

and A House of Pomegranates consists of 4 tales:

The Young King: A King has a series of dreams which lead him to no longer want the royal treatment once he sees what it costs others.

The Birthday of the Infanta: A dwarf who performs for the Infanta on her birthday becomes obsessively in love with her and is disillusioned on his way to finding her.

The Fisherman and His Soul: A fisherman gives his soul to be with a mermaid and learns the hard way the price that he has paid for doing so.

The Star-Child: A Child falls from the sky, is taken in by a family, and grows to have a horrible attitude. When he tries to redeem himself, he finds that it may be too late to do so.

Wilde's writing was remarkable and a pleasure to read. Fairy tales from this era are my favorite! The tone, the setting, and above all, the language is just perfect. The English language was at the perfect point for fairy tales at that time. Many of the stories had Christian themes to them, something that I didn't expect from Wilde. I found that interesting. This is definitely a collection that I hope to one day be able to read to my own children as they fall to sleep. Beautiful stories with classic lessons.

I read this compilation as a little kid - I'm in high school now and am happy to see it available again. It has some wonderful reading in it which I hope more people will experience.

Would you ever want to be barefoot in the snow? I read a book about a girl who did. The book is called The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde by Michel Hague. The book is about a man who saves a princess He is a warrior. He is a good guy. I like the pictures in this story because he's climbing on the wall to save the princess Then he was the king and married the princess. I think the author was trying to tell us that you should always help somebody. Read this book to see if the warrior gets hurt.

Before buying this book, I saw other folks' criticism of the original illustrations that are reproduced here, but give me a break. This is a mass market paperback on mass market paperback paper, it's not a children's book with color illustrations on glossy paper. I for one appreciated seeing the original illustrations, but most of all I appreciated that these are the complete tales, unedited, unlike most children's book versions.

As to the contents, I agree that The Happy Prince tales (the first 5 in this book) are more suited to children than the A House of Pomegranates tales (the last 4). In fact, these last four tales aren't really suited to children at all. My favorites were The Happy Prince, The Selfish Giant, and The Star-Child. I am a big fan of Oscar Wilde's, but I must say that the other tales left me with the feeling that something was lacking.

The nature of a fairy tale isn't that they end happy; it's that they end comically, rather than tragically. Oscar Wilde knew this and that is one of the reasons that his fairy tales are so memorable. He wrote "The Happy Prince and Other Tales" prior to THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY and "The House of Pomegranates" just after the novel and the development of his skill as a writer can be seen in the two different collections. The stories deal with love, art, faith, and loss. They explore what it means to truly live and whether or not faith and aestheticism can coincide. They are also full of biting social commentary and insight. The first part of this book includes "The Happy Prince", "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Selfish Giant", "The Devoted Friend", and "The Remarkable Rocket". "The House of Pomegranates" is the second collection in this book and includes the stories: "The Young King", "The Birthday of the Infanta", "The Fisherman and His Soul", and "The Star-Child". The illustrations that accompany the stories are beautiful, but because of the inexpensive way in which this collection is published, the pictures are very hard to make out. The book also has an insightful afterword by Jack Zipes which I found rather informative. My favorite stories in the collection were "The Happy Prince", "The Selfish Giant", "The Young King", and "The Star-Child". I loved reading these stories and highly recommend them.