This is actually the first time I've read Oscar Wilde. I started The Picture of Dorian Gray a long time ago, but never finished it for some reason. His compete fairy tales were wonderful! I loved them all. They were all quite unique, but revisited common themes seen in children's fairy tales. The moral lessons were the same.
The book is broken up into two separate collections. The first is called The Happy Prince and the second is A House of Pomegranates. Wilde must have loved pomegranates as I think they are mentioned in nearly every fairy tale in the book.
The Happy Prince consists of 5 tales:
The Happy Prince: A statue of a prince asks a bird friend to deliver precious gems on his body to people who are in need in the town so that they may survive and in turn is deemed to be no longer beautiful.
The Nightingale and the Rose: A Nightingale makes the ultimate sacrifice in the form of a song so that a a boy may win the heart of a maiden.
The Selfish Giant: A grumpy giant closes his courtyard off to children so Spring refuses to come back leaving Winter to constantly blunder him. This one has a very bizarre ending in my opinion.
The Devoted Friend: A friend accepts a small favor and is expected to do entirely too much in return.
The Remarkable Rocket: A rocket (firecracker) who is quite arrogant ends up being the bottom of the bunch.
and A House of Pomegranates consists of 4 tales:
The Young King: A King has a series of dreams which lead him to no longer want the royal treatment once he sees what it costs others.
The Birthday of the Infanta: A dwarf who performs for the Infanta on her birthday becomes obsessively in love with her and is disillusioned on his way to finding her.
The Fisherman and His Soul: A fisherman gives his soul to be with a mermaid and learns the hard way the price that he has paid for doing so.
The Star-Child: A Child falls from the sky, is taken in by a family, and grows to have a horrible attitude. When he tries to redeem himself, he finds that it may be too late to do so.
Wilde's writing was remarkable and a pleasure to read. Fairy tales from this era are my favorite! The tone, the setting, and above all, the language is just perfect. The English language was at the perfect point for fairy tales at that time. Many of the stories had Christian themes to them, something that I didn't expect from Wilde. I found that interesting. This is definitely a collection that I hope to one day be able to read to my own children as they fall to sleep. Beautiful stories with classic lessons.
