The Happy Prince and Other Tales - Oscar Wilde

Life is kinda cool, you know: Sherbet lemons, and cherries; Hercule Poirot and The Magic Faraway Tree (Fanny, Dick and Co.); Eric Cantona and Andy Payton. Clouds, and coal fires, and pubs that smell nice; Cows and dogs, and butterscotch. Bread baking in an oven, Wimbledon in the summertime, long walks and seaside Donkey rides. Then there’s the cool places, with cool sounding names, like Ouagadougou (Capital Of Burkina Faso), and Wee Waa (Australia). Music, that makes you smile: Damon Albarn and Miho Hatori. French fancies, and little birthday parties that you went to when you were young (Except the dresses, now those were awful). Paris-Saint-Germain and Burnley FC. ...  Read the complete review

The Happy Prince and Other stories by Oscar Wilde really is a fantastic book in many ways and I would really recommend it. It was originally published in 1988 and is a collection of children's stories that are written by the brilliant Oscar Wilde. The book is most famous for "The Happy Prince" which is a tale of a large metal statue that happens to become freinds with a bird. The Prince asks the bird to remove a jewell from his sword and to give it to an unhappy child instead. The swallow helps the Prince to take gold and jewels from his body to give to those who are less fortunate. However, once he as given all the gold that he can give he becomes ...  Read the complete review

Wilde wrote a collection of fairytales which are sometimes tacked onto collections of his writings, but are usually published independently, as children's books. I still find it hard to read 'The Happy Prince' without a little lump developing in my throat in the last paragraph.. (no, I'm not giving it away and telling you any more, but you'll see what I mean if you read it!). It is the story of a statue of a Prince, who, although inanimate, is able to see all the people in 'his' city and endevours to try to help them, enlisting the assistance of a swallow who is a little late for migration south. Of course ...  Read the complete review

I never really saw Oscar Wilde as a children’s author, sure a wit, a raconteur, an author, playwright and a notorious man about town but a children’s author no. I was given a book by my wife Oscar Wildes Stories for Children and I wasn’t sure. What immediately caught my eye was the beautiful illustrations by P.J Lynch, delicate, rich and totally fitting to the stories. Then I read the first story in the set was “The Selfish Giant.” It is wonderful, I’m sure I couldn’t do justice to it myself but Wilde weaves words so well it appeals to both children, my 3 and a half year old is rapt, and adults equally well, ...  Read the complete review

These fairy tales are far from light reading and those who know Wilde only from his comedies will be left surprised and moved. Anyone who has seen the film Wilde will have heard the Selfish Giant, threaded through the film and following his downfall. As with much of his writing there is a religious allusion in this tale, but many more are simply based not on the tragedy of Christ but of life itself. The Nightingale and the Rose - a story of light-heated undergraduate love for which a nightingale sacrifices himself in good, futile faith - is one of the most beautiful and tragic stories I have ever read. It may not be eclipsed by the Infanta's Birthday, ...  Read the complete review