The Happy Prince And Other Tales (1995) - Plot & Excerpts
Wilde's anthropomorphizing parables are beautifully written, emotionally moving and exquisitely poignant; praising the laudable virtues of the Catholic Church and warning of the shameful outcomes of the seven deadly sins. Themes of friendship and charity feature heavily with Christian overtones, which normally I find off-putting, but I didn't here. (I'm an athiest.) I think my favourite would have to be The Nightingale and the Rose. I'd definitely give this to children despite the unhappy endings. The Happy Prince - Sins & Virtues: humility & charity A formerly human prince is now a gold plated, jewel-encrusted statue watching over the city. His privileged human life didn't prepare him for the misery of the poor and unfortunate. Despite his nickname as the Happy Prince, he is sad and wishes to bring joy to those in need but is unable to as an inanimate object. A migrating swallow comes by on his way out of the city for his annual migration south to Egypt for the winter and is taken by the Prince's tears, feeling compelled to act out the statue's wishes by taking the Prince's decorative riches and delivering them to those in need. When the Prince is left blind and unadorned having given up his treasures for the greater good, the swallow vows to stay and become the Prince's faithful companion despite the deadly cold. The Nightingale and the Rose - Sins & Virtues: lust & charity A kind, charitable and beloved nightingale makes the ultimate sacrifice for what she thinks is love between a young man and a well-off young woman. If the man can produce a red rose out of season then the woman will dance with him. Only a heart's blood can create a red rose. The nightingale dies believing she has done a good deed, producing an everlasting legacy. The young lady lied and the rose is discarded without a second thought. What a waste.The Selfish Giant - Sins & Virtues: greed & charity A beautiful garden is the playground of children until a selfish giant shoos them out. 'The birds did not care to sing in it as there were no children, and the trees forgot to blossom.' Spring visits everywhere but the garden, leaving it barren and in the throes of winter. Until a child enters the garden and birdsong and blooming, perfumed flowers return stunning the giant into realising the repercussions of what he's done, and again allows children to play and share in the joys of his garden.The Devoted Friend - Sins & Virtues: pride, acedia, sloth & diligenceA Linnet tries to teach a self-important Water-rat about the reciprocity of relationships via a story about an unequal friendship between two friends with radically different beliefs in what what friendship means. Hans is hardworking but poor. He is generous to a fault and never asks for anything in return. The other, is the wealthy and selfish Miller. His one generous act towards his so-called friend is used as blackmail for further favours, favours that Hans cannot afford to fulfil but does anyway because he doesn't want to let the Miller down. The Miller takes advantage and believes he's the best friend a man could ever have; sitting in his large, warm house sitting on his butt with a full stomach while Hans is impoverished and hungry, working his fingers to the bone, struggling to survive the harsh winter. "Why, if little Hans came up here, and saw our warm fire, and our good supper, and our great cask of red wine, he might get envious, and envy is a most terrible thing, and would spoil anyone's nature. I certainly will not allow Hans' nature to be spoiled."The Miller stands by while he works Hans into his grave. And the moral entirely escapes the Water-rat.The Remarkable Rocket - Sins & Virtues: pride & vaingloryA vain and an unjustly boastful rocket believes he is better than every other firework and rebuts any indication that he is not with more prideful boasting, and is met with a most undignified end still under the delusion that he is the best of the rest.*Available for free from Project Gutenberg.
A Beautiful Collection for All AgesEach little story is a beautifully told allegory touching to the heart. You will never be too old or too young to appreciate the marvellous moral in each story.The stories in this collection are: The Happy Prince, The Nightingale and the Rose, The Selfish Giant, The Devoted Friend, and The Remarkable Rocket. Many of my favourite epigrams come from this collection. Here are a few gems (of many):"Surely Love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals. Pearls and pomegranates cannot buy it, nor is it set forth in the marketplace. It may not be purchased of the merchants, nor can it be weighed out in the balance for gold.""Everyone quoted it, it was full of so many words that they could not understand.""I like hearing myself talk. It is one of my greatest pleasures. I often have long conversations all by myself, and I am so clever that I sometimes don't understand a single word of what I am saying."Wilde shows his softer side, yet retaining his ironic humour, exploring themes such as compassion, friendship, altruism, selfishness, love, self-awareness, and kindness. The fairy tales are simple yet engaging, with some very likeable characters, and also some very detestable characters we can all relate to. The characters, often animals or inanimate objects feel so real and natural with clear personalities exactly like people in society. We have probably met a real-life version of the boastful, pretentious, and arrogant Remarkable Rocket (the type of person I want to punch in the face!); and of the very kind and innocent little Hans. This is true for the minor characters as well as the major ones: such as the yes-men Town Councillors, the ignorant Water-rat, and the extremely materialistic girl.It is this realness of the characters which really captivated me. Wilde's subtle yet cynical satire of society is still perfectly relevant today. With such short stories, it is a wonder how Wilde managed to integrate such accurate and distinguished characters.The short stories evoke great emotion too. I felt happy, sad, annoyed and disappointed at times, sharing the characters' experiences. The stories may not leave you with a happy feeling, but that is precisely why they make such good reading: a story that can make you feel very sad or very annoyed is a good story, since it evokes a strong emotional response. These tales certainly do that. Precious few writers can do this, let alone in simple fairy tales. For me, no one writes as charismatically as Oscar Wilde. He makes great writing look so simple and easy. This work is elegantly written with fine little details and plenty to be admired again and again. My personal favourite in this collection is The Happy Prince, although it was extremely difficult to choose amongst these lovely little stories.If you do yourself one favour today, have a read of one these fairy tales. They are such a joy to read. If you love these stories as much as I do we can be best friends. I cannot recommend this book highly enough!
What do You think about The Happy Prince And Other Tales (1995)?
I enjoyed reading this today in the sun. I am reading a German version (with English text on one page, German on the other)...Wilde's style is astonishing. These tales are told in a simple way, for kids, but are definitely more than just that. They warm up your heart, even though they are a bit sad. (25th March 2012)31st March 2012: They are sad indeed, but they are written so beautifully and they talk about caring about others, winning over our own selfishness, believing in love and in the good that there is, about being generous...They reveal the genious behind the man that Oscar Wilde was and his deep undertsanding of the human nature, of the vice and virtues that are in all of us, but that he somehow tends to represent concentrated in the protagonists of his tales.The collection that I have read contains The Happy Prince, The Selfish Giant, The Devoted Friend, The Nightingale and the Rose and The Remarkable Rocket. The Water Rat and the Miller (of the Devouted Friend) and the Remarkable Rocket were simpy too annoying in their stubborness and selfishness and impossibility to see more realistically themselves, but - hey! -I recognised in them so many people that "keep eating your brain" (as a Spanish friend of mine says) with their righteousness, talking and talking about themselves, seeing only themselves, while not understanding anything about the world and the people that surround them, insisting on their "perfection" and superiority. At the end, you feel almost sorry for them, for their stupidity...but they are just as some people in real life that do not want to understand. And there is nothing you can do.I loved the giant, who changed his heart (and saw the arrival of Spring, by accepting Children in his garden) and was stopped only by death (but after living many many happy years)!When we were 15 we had to read The Nightingale and the Rose for school. Only now I can see how wonderful that tale is. It tells you that there are people who believe in real truthful love and are able to give their life for it, the ones that shut their heart into the world of books and theoretical knowledge, refusing to experience true sentiment, and the ones who only care about what is tangible and material, but what comes with prestige and power - ultimately money (?!). I don't think that I understood this tale when I first read it. Such a pity!And yeah, the Happy Prince. Truly Happy indeed. Despite all the ones who saw him as beautiful only when he was covered in gold. Kids should learn that what is really important is invisible through sight. And adults, too.
—Anarika
The Happy Prince and Other Tales is my first read for Oscar Wilde, and it won't be the last. It's combined of 5 short stories, each story carries a moral at the end of it. I'm not sure if this book is appropriate to be narrated for kids at bedtime, because... (view spoiler)[the stories are not the "and-they-lived-happily-ever-after" type of fairy tales. The endings may be disturbing for the little fellows (hide spoiler)]
—Eman
Wilde is a fantastic prose stylist, if you can tolerate his style, and this is one of his most accessible works, as well as a surprising one in many ways for those with certain preconceived notions of the author: Wilde here often puts his aesthetic pose second to his political and moral views - two things that 'Oscar Wilde' wasn't meant to have at all.On the other hand, this probably isn't the best demonstration of Wilde's skills. The idea of the arch-sophisticate taking on the genre of simple, childlike fairy tales is an intriguing one, and the execution is certainly worth reading (it's only five short stories, after all) - but I don't think Wilde is entirely comfortable with the form. The stories can be too simplistic, and there is a tension between Wilde's desire to tell a story and his desire to show off.The stand-out, "The Nightingale and the Rose" is, however, in my view a brilliant short story, so beautiful it made me cry. Others may find it too sugary or flowery (no pun intended) to stomach.Overall, whether you're interested in fairy tales or in Oscar Wilde or late Victorian literature, this is an interesting curio well worth the time, but one that will probably always be a footnote rather than a must-read work.My much longer and overly biographical review can be found over on my blog (which probably won't work if, like me, you're in the UK, thank you IWF...)
—Wastrel
