The Birthday of the Infanta (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Leonard Lubin (Author) "IT WAS THE BIRTHDAY OF THE INFANTA SHE WAS JUST TWELVE YEARS OF AGE, AND THE SUN WAS SHINNING BRIGHTLY IN THE GARDENS OF THE..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Gr. 5^-8. Russell, a well-known name in the comics-graphic novel universe, has made several other graphic novels out of well-known stories. Here, he transmutes Wilde's darkly sardonic tale, using much of Wilde's abundantly rich language. The Infanta, on her twelfth birthday, is a spoiled princess who resembles the famous Velazquez painting "Las Meninas." Her father, the king, still broods over her mother's death, but for the birthday celebration, dancing bears and Gypsies and jousts are brought out for her entertainment. So also is a little dwarf (who looks like the cartoon version of Quasimodo as a boy), whose dancing amuses the princess and the crowd, for he is misshapen and ugly. The princess gives him the white rose from her hair, and he searches the palace when she departs, looking for her. But the sight of himself in a mirror breaks his heart, and he dies. "For the future let those who come to play with me have no hearts," proclaims the princess when she learns that he died of a broken heart. The art, in classic comics-graphic novel style, has the text in word balloons and the full-color pictures in frames, with expressive line and acid color, full of visual references. Older children will appreciate the edgy story and the mouth-filling language as well as the format. GraceAnne A. DeCandido --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Description

A grotesque dwarf falls in love with the beautiful Infanta.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 55 pages
• Publisher: Viking Juvenile; 1st edition (September 10, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670169749
• ISBN-13: 978-0670169740
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 6.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,949,778 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A tragic fairy tale, March 14, 2005

By	Gary Selikow (Great Kush) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, Vol. 2: The Young King & The Remarkable Rocket (Signed & Numbered Edition) (Hardcover)

A tragic fairy tale for older children, about the lavish birthday celebrations of the Spanish Infanta (Princess) and a hideous misshapen dwarf who is brought to perform for her birthday celebrations. He dreams of being the companion of the beautiful Infanta, but then in the palace he sees how ugly he is in a mirror, and dies of a broken heart.

Exquisitely written, in the poetic prose of Oscar Wilde:

'The Lizards also took an immense fancy to him, and when he grew tired of running about and flung himself down on the grass to rest, they played and romped all over him, and tried to amuse him in the best way they could. "Every one cannot be as beautiful as a lizard," "That would be too much to expect. And, though it sounds absurd to say so, he is not really so ugly after all, provided, of course, that one shuts one's and does not look at him." The Lizards where extremely philosophical by nature, and often sat thinking for hours and hours together, when there was nothing else to do, or when the weather was too rainy for them to go out."