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The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde: The Complete Collection Including The Happy Prince and The Selfish Giant
A beautiful edition featuring all nine of Wilde's poignant tales of love, loss, riches, poverty, hope and happiness. Includes The Nightingale and the Rose, The Remarkable Rocket, The Young King, The Happy Prince, and - of course - The Selfish Giant. With a special introduction by folklorist Neil Philip and sumptuous illustrations by Isabelle Brent, this enchanting book will be treasured by yound and old alike.
- GenresShort StoriesClassics
135 pages, Hardcover
Published December 15, 2020
5 people are currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
Oscar Wilde
5,483 books38.8k followersOscar 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 19, 2023
So well written -- sassy, cynical, wondrously ornate, depressingly biting view of humanity-- naive characters always end up suffering and dying in vain and selfish, evil characters triumph at every turn with naught a punishment. At the last tale, I thought -- is this ending up happily?
it wasn't
it wasn't
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November 7, 2025Am meisten Eindruck haben bei mir die Märchen The Happy Prince und The Devoted Friend hinterlassen. Das Erste, weil es mich wirklich berührt hat - dieses Geben ohne etwas zurückzuwollen. Bei dem Märchen Devoted Friend fand ich die Moral ziemlich klar: wie leicht man Freundschaft ausnutzen kann, während man sich selbst dabei noch für „gut“ hält. Beide zusammen haben für mich das Herz dieser Sammlung ausgemacht.
Ich bin ehrlich froh, dass ich mich jetzt endlich an Oscar Wilde herangetraut habe - es hat sich gelohnt!
Ich bin ehrlich froh, dass ich mich jetzt endlich an Oscar Wilde herangetraut habe - es hat sich gelohnt!
September 2, 2024
I enjoyed these original yet very traditional-feeling fairy tales from a genius writer. I was surprised and a little taken aback by how Christian many of them are, especially in light of how badly Wilde was treated by the 'good Christians' of his day.
Very surprised by how sad many of them are. Although, of course, that too is traditional.
Funny, though, they don't stay with me. Even now they're fading, like dream stories.
Very surprised by how sad many of them are. Although, of course, that too is traditional.
Funny, though, they don't stay with me. Even now they're fading, like dream stories.
July 30, 2023
Often amusing—which is not unexpected—and occasionally Christ-haunted. I especially liked The Devoted Friend and The Birthday of the Infanta.
October 9, 2021
Wonderfully written tales allegedly more suited to adult readers than to children. My favourite ones are The Happy Prince and the Devote Friend, a witty storie about a toxic friendhip.
Comentario del 22.08.21 extraído de mi diario de lecturas:
Después de comer, releí el cuento de Wilde “El ruiseñor y la rosa”, en la traducción de Julio Gómez de la Serna para Aguilar, y lo he disfrutado mucho más que en su primera lectura en inglés. Un cuento precioso y triste a la vez, que protagoniza un ruiseñor. Enseña mucho de la naturaleza humana. Se inicia con un canto al amor por parte del ruiseñor y concluye con su desmitificación por parte de un joven estudiante inicialmente enamorado. Creo que es como un puente entre otros dos relatos de Wilde: “El príncipe feliz” (el pájaro se sacrifica) y “El amigo fiel” (el sacrificio no sirve para nada). Por cierto, ¿quién ha dicho que éstos son cuentos para niños?
Comentario del 22.08.21 extraído de mi diario de lecturas:
Después de comer, releí el cuento de Wilde “El ruiseñor y la rosa”, en la traducción de Julio Gómez de la Serna para Aguilar, y lo he disfrutado mucho más que en su primera lectura en inglés. Un cuento precioso y triste a la vez, que protagoniza un ruiseñor. Enseña mucho de la naturaleza humana. Se inicia con un canto al amor por parte del ruiseñor y concluye con su desmitificación por parte de un joven estudiante inicialmente enamorado. Creo que es como un puente entre otros dos relatos de Wilde: “El príncipe feliz” (el pájaro se sacrifica) y “El amigo fiel” (el sacrificio no sirve para nada). Por cierto, ¿quién ha dicho que éstos son cuentos para niños?
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews