The five original fairy tales included in this volume were first published by Davis Nutt in 1888. Although it is said that Wilde wrote them for his two young sons, the author himself claimed they were '. . . . not for children, but for childlike people from eighteen to eighty'. Since then the stories have been constantly reprinted and, despite the author's disclaimer, children have made the tales their own, a particular favourite being 'The Selfish Giant' - the highly moral story of the giant who banished children from his garden, so that spring never came. Charles Robinson, who produced the illustrations for a special edition first published in 1913, brought to the book a feeliong for its innate sadness that exactly fits the poetry of Wilde's text.
This book features in the following series: Children's Classics, Everyman's Library, Everymans Library Childrens Classics .
There are 96 pages in this book. This is a short story book. This book was published 1995 by Everyman .
Charles Robinson (1870 - 1937) is best known for his classic illustrations to fairy tales and other children's books, including Robert Louis Stevenson's Child's Garden of Verses and Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden. Oscar Wilde was born in Ireland in 1854 and is known for his poetry, plays and the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray . He died in Paris in 1900.
This book contains the following story:
The Happy Prince
After dying young, the Happy Prince's soul inhabits a beautiful ruby-encrusted statue covered in gold leaf which is perched high above the city. But when he sees the poverty, misery and desperateness of his people, he enlists the help of a barn swallow to remove the gilding of his statue and shower the riches on his people. In the spring, the townspeople are saved, but find only a stripped down and dull statue alongside a dead swallow. The remains are tossed into an ash heap, but an emissary of God recognizes their sacrifice, and escorts them into the gardens of Heaven.
