The Happy Prince and Other Tales

by Oscar Wilde

Genres: Childrens

Paperback

Published January 1, 1906

About the author

Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.

Reviews

[Juliet KD · Rating 3 out of 5]

First things first, I have to specify that what I’m going to write is based off the edition of Penguin Popular Classics, in which The Happy Prince and Other Stories is actually merged with A House of Pomegranates, so it’s basically a review for both collections. Obviously, you might be wondering why I gave only three stars to the best dandy in town, but let me say it is more than enough. Why? Well, because regardless of the fact that A House of Pomegranates was not intended as a children’s book by its own author, I felt like I wouldn’t read neither of the two volumes to my future kids – if by kids we mean elementary school students max. Except for a couple of them, such as “The Happy Prince” and “The Selfish Giant”, if I could go back in time I personally wouldn't want such a dark, and at times gory, storytelling as my bedtime ritual. However, Wilde’s style and language are great, so I have nothing to say about that. My best wish for you is to pick up these fairy tales and find out for yourself if I am right or wrong. Again, probably neither of the two.

[Masoud · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of perfect proses containing five short stories (fairytales):
The Happy Prince
The Nightingale and the Rose
The Selfish Giant
The Devoted Friend
The Remarkable Rocket
My favorite one is The Happy Prince, which I have read two times and I give it five stars. Even though the stories are full of moral lesson such as self-sacrifice, acts of devotion, but Overall, I think most of the stories are very sad, heart wrenching, and are not suitable as bed stories for children. However, for an adult reader who is into children's literature, it holds a deep pleasure.

[Ted Gao · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do not really like the sentiment in The Happy Prince and, to a certain extent, The Nightingale and the Rose. Discourses on self-sacrifice, when exaggerated beyond proportion, become repulsive. However, I thoroughly enjoy the satire in The Devoted Friend and The Remarkable Rocket—they are truly first-rate. The Selfish Giant is mostly a platitude, though some sentences are appreciable.

[Inês · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed The Happy Prince dearly. The other tales are enjoyable too but not extraordinary. As always, Oscar Wilde uses sharp elegant and witty satire to mock London society and arrogant, self-centered people - or creatures in these cases.

[Irene Recio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bro, everyone dies at the end of every tale or what?

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Happy Prince and The Devoted Friend 💔

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took a while to get through cause OF THE MERMAID ONE. but loved the happy prince :0

[Sige Cleve · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5*