Reviews
The version of The Happy Prince and Other Stories I read is a Penguin 60s and only has half the stories of the original collection: "The Happy Prince", "The Young King", "The Devoted Friend" and "The Model Millionaire." The longer collection also includes: "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Selfish Giant", "The Remarkable Rocket", "The Birthday of the Infanta", "The Star-Child" and "The Fisherman and His Soul." As I have not read these stories, my review won't include them except to say, I'm glad I read a short version because the four I read were pretty tedious reading. I have read other Oscar Wilde works and have enjoyed them for their wit and humor but these stories that are something between a fairy tale and a parable were rather dull reads. The only I really enjoyed was "The Model Millionaire" which I'm sure was originally from a different short story collection. The Model Millionaire, while it contains a lesson like the other three, is still aimed at an adult audience and the moral comes in a true shaggy-dog story fashion. The other three seem to be about the importance of self sacrifice and the futility of doing good works but they are told in such a heavy handed fashion that I wanted to toss the thin book across the room on a number of occasions. As the book is only 60 pages long, I decided to persevere and finish the damn thing before I tossed it.
some stories are great, and some plot twists are frustrating, the good kind of frustrating. the ending of the star-child especially irks me. we can be hopeful for a not-so tragic ending, but Oscar Wilde won't let us sit idly with a happy ever after kind of fairy tale. not that i hate it, he only wrapped up everything with a healthy dosage of reality. anw, the long description bored me, in spite of being beautifully written, and it didn't touch me personally. it's still a nice read, 3-3.5 stars
As a child, this tore me apart. Still does, really.
“My courtiers called me the Happy Prince, and happy indeed I was, if pleasure be happiness. So I lived, and so I died. And now that I am dead they have set me up here so high that I can see all the ugliness and all the misery of my city, and though my heart is made of lead yet I cannot choose but weep.”
I love Oscar Wilde
Short stories aren’t really my thing and I only read them because they by Oscar Wilde so it’s not surprising I didn’t really enjoy this book.
every story had a moral to give the reader .. every line keeps u amused , it discuss things like love and richness , generosity and ingratitude and a lot of scenes in a magnificent way ♡♡
I LOVE IT when Wilde quotes himself and I catch it !!!!! this was beautiful 🤧 reread: best pick me up short story there is
“Any place you love is the world to you.”
This is a collection of five short stories, that are fairy-tale-like moral fables, not only for children, but drenched in subtle hints aimed at the older readers. When questioned about the maturity of the language in his stories, Wilde ridiculed the idea that "extremely limited vocabulary at the disposal of the British child" should be "the standard by which the prose of an artist is to be judged". These tales are dark and colorful at the same time, and deal mostly with selfishness, compassion, egotism, Christianity, goodwill and love.
I really like Oscar Wilde and this collection of short stories is no different. Each story has to do with themes of privilege, selfishness, and the importance of helping others when you are in a position to. My favorite is either "The Devoted Friend" or "The Selfish Giant."
*Read for class. It was touching and sad, but nothing too great, in my opinion. Still, rather sweet and I didn't hate it. So that's good!
