The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, Vol. 1: The Selfish Giant & The Star Child (v. 1) [Paperback]

Oscar Wilde (Author), P. Craig Russell (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2003

One of comic art¹s most respected and pioneering artists, well known for his opera adaptations and beautiful fantasy work, P. Craig Russell is in the process of adapting Oscar Wilde¹s famous fairy tales in a series of landmark volumes.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

While Oscar Wilde is best known as the author of The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest, he was also a teller of fairy tales. After polishing his tales through private readings over the years, Wilde eventually published them in two collections between 1888 and 1891. Although these stories have remained engaging throughout the years, this volume allows acclaimed artist P. Craig Russell to breath a vivid freshness into them. Like any good illustration, the art never gets in the way of the story; Russell's depiction of the characters always remain real enough to believe in, but never so real that they take you out of the fantasy world. Russell makes illustrating look easy, and the result is pure enjoyment. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

This is the first of a five-volume series of Russell's adaptations of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales into a comics format. The two retellings here, The Selfish Giant and The Star Child , adeptly capture Wilde's ability to bring a gentle, unexpected note of pathos to the conventional fairy-tale mix of anthropomorphic fantasy and whimsical moral guidance. In The Selfish Giant , the eponymous creature kicks a bunch of frolicking youngsters out of his garden, only to find that frosty winter moves in to take their place, refusing to leave because of his selfishness. In The Star Child, a beautiful but mean , narcissistic boy becomes physically repulsive when he rebuffs a ragged beggar who turns out to be his long lost mother. Russell matches Wilde's literary skills with his estimable artistic talent. His colors are brilliant and pure; his linework sure and fluid, at once cartoonlike and elegantly representational, reflecting both his art-nouveau and pre-Raphaelite influences and the inherent charm of Wilde's material. Ages 5-up.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing (September 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561633755
• ISBN-13: 978-1561633753
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.3 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,405,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #89 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( W ) > Wilde, Oscar

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful adaptation of my favorite fairy tale..., September 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, Vol. 1: The Selfish Giant & The Star Child (Hardcover)

I have a vivid memory of a film strip adaptation of "The Selfish Giant" that I saw several times in kindergarten and first grade. I didn't really understand the Christian allegory at the time, but I was entranced by the beautiful, melancholy nature of the story. Years later I still find it deeply moving, and P. Craig Russell's adaptation is as perfect a retelling as I can imagine. Though a non-Christian, I find that the story loses none of its impact or beauty. This is a story for anyone with an open mind and a love of well-told children's tales. Russell is one of the modern masters of cartooning, and his artwork and sense of design really compliment the story. His second collection of Wilde's fairy tales is also highly recommended, as are his adaptations of various operas and the fantasy stories of Michael Moorcock.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest Children's Story I Have Ever Read., December 16, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, Vol. 1: The Selfish Giant & The Star Child (Hardcover)

The Selfish Giant is without a doubt the most touching, deeply moving, powerful, uplifting, but sad, children's story I have ever read. I recommend this book to all adults, students, and children who haven't cried for a while, or need a great, quick, life-changing read.

5.0 out of 5 stars Graphic Fairy Tales Gone Wilde, November 25, 2011

By 

Christina E. Taylor (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, Vol. 1: The Selfish Giant & The Star Child (Hardcover)

"The Selfish Giant"

When a curmudgeonly giant walls off his lovely garden so the neighborhood children mightn't enjoy it, he incurs Spring's disdain and the dire consequences of life without seasonal renewal. Having seen the error of his ways, the giant redeems himself by opening both his heart and his earthly paradise to the children and gains his eternal reward. Russell employs a cartoon style with a muted color pallet to not only complement Wilde's tale with illustrations but also extend its tale with subtle symbolism. The color choices reflect not only the colors of the seasons but the spiritual and emotional qualities that are often associated with each season such as punishment, hope, rebirth, and redemption. This work is a masterful use of archetypes and symbolism.

"The Star Child"

The Star Child, the adopted son of a poor woodcutter, is the beneficiary of charity and kindness. Ironically, his better nature is sullied by a sense of entitlement that stems from a vain love of his own good looks. Upon meeting an old tattered mendicant who claims to be his mother, he casts her aside and withholds his love. Consequently, he is punished by the powers that be, stripped of the attractiveness of which he is so proud, and set upon the path to redemption. Henceforth, the Star Child wanders the earth seeking his mother and her forgiveness until he unknowingly happens upon his birthplace and is forced to perform a series of Herculean labors. Accomplishing these tasks while learning the true meaning of self-sacrifice, charity, and kindness earns the Star Child the forgiveness that he seeks and solves the mystery of his origin. Throughout the tale, Russell's charicatural style simultaneously reinforces the story's elements of fantasy while bolstering the audience's suspension of disbelief as the Star Child is cloaked in a heinous visage that reflects the inner blackness of his heart until he comes to know humility.

Russell's rendering of these tales would make an excellent introduction to Fairy Tales as a genre or to the work of Oscar Wilde. Similarly, they are an excellent exemplar of the hero cycle as explained by Peter R. Stillman in Introduction to Myth.