Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde (Signet Classics)

Anyone who's seen the Oscar Wilde biopic starring Stephen Fry as the great wit will have noticed him narrating "The Selfish Giant" to his children. At first, I thought he was telling a story someone else had written, but when I heard a brief narration of a story in the movie Tesis, and discovered that it was from an Oscar Wilde story, I wondered if the giant story had been written by him. Discovery of this book confirmed that fact for me.This collection comprises both the Happy Prince compilation and the House of Pomegranates compilation of Oscar Wilde's short stories. The Happy Prince contains these stories:The Happy PrinceThe Nightingale and the RoseThe Selfish GiantThe Devoted FriendThe Remarkable RocketThe House Of Pomegranates contains these stories:The Young KingThe Birthday of the InfantaThe Fisherman and His SoulThe Star-ChildThese stories are suitable for adults as well as children. Wilde's adherence to Fabian socialist philosophy is seen in many of the tales here. Basically, equal distribution of wealth, accompanied by tolerance, humility, and natural love would lead to true individualism. Many figures will have to become Christ-like martyrs to achieve such a world, regardless of whether the receiver of the gift will appreciate their sacrifice, as is the heartbreaking story of "The Nightingale And The Rose."Examples of this include The Happy Prince, where the prince, a living statue, gives up the jewels of his sword, the jewels making up his eyes to those less fortunate and finds himself happier as a result. The same motif can be found in "The Selfish Giant", who builds a wall around his garden to keep the children from playing in it; as a result, Spring never comes to the garden and it's perpetual Winter. The giant realizes his selfishness and tears down the wall. And like the giant, the title character in "The Star-Child" goes from being proud of his good looks and standing, adopting a philosophy like the Remarkable Rocket (see below), then undergoes humility and suffering when those are taken from him, and becomes selfless and repentant as a result of his suffering.Other main characters never see beyond their selfish egotism. The Infanta in "The Birthday of the Infanta" is amused by a dancing dwarf, who is hunchbacked and ugly to behold. She and her companions are doubled with laughter at his entertainment. The poor dwarf, whom the Infanta has given a rose, thinks the Infanta loves him, and also, raised in the forest, is blissfully unaware of his countenance. It is only when he looks in the mirror that he dies of a broken heart. The Infanta then declares that no one should have a heart.A denunciation to the upper class of the British Empire, who have an aura of self-importance around them, is given in "The Remarkable Rocket" The Rocket's philosophy, "the only thing that sustains one through life is the consciousness of the immense inferiority of everyone else" is telling of the misguided romantic mentality of this up

A good friend of mine mentioned "The Happy Prince" as one of his favorite stories which he'd seen on TV as a cartoon Christmas special some years ago.When I came across the book in a bookstore, my interest was piqued and I bought it up to take a look.As I read through the stories, the memories came back to me of the short cartoon skits I'd seen as a kid. The cartoons never hit me as heavily as the book did. The impact of these simple children's stories is remarkable and I found myself profoundly moved by the various characters acting out of love, devotion and their sense of ideals. "The Happy Prince", "The Selfish Giant" and "The Nightingale and the Rose" were especially touching.It isn't an easy job to write a story for children that carries over on another level when the reader is an adult, yet Oscar Wilde has done it with an entire collection. I'm very impressed and can recommend it to anyone.

I read this compilation as a little kid - I'm in high school now and am happy to see it available again. It has some wonderful reading in it which I hope more people will experience.