The Happy Prince, and Other Tales
These are not the fairy tales you remember from childhood, or perhaps they are, if your childhood held more shadow than sweet. Oscar Wilde's 1888 collection contains five stories that ache with beauty and sacrifice. A golden statue weeps for the suffering he can only watch from his pedestal, and with the help of a small swallow, gives away his eyes, his gold, his very self. A nightingale dies for a rose that a student will discard. A giant learns that spring cannot come to a closed heart. These are moral fables, but they taste of tears. Wilde layers exquisite prose over devastating truths about kindness, love, and what we sacrifice for beauty. Adults read these stories and hear what children cannot: the grief beneath the lesson. Children return to them years later and understand. This is a book that grows with you, or perhaps it simply waits for you to catch up.
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“I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.””
— Oscar Wilde
“Life is one fool thing after another whereas love is two fool things after each other.””
— Oscar Wilde
“Dear little Swallow,’ said the Prince, ‘you tell me of marvelous things, but more marvelous than anything is the suffering of men and of women. There is no Mystery so great as Misery.””
— Oscar Wilde
“Love is not fashionable anymore; the poets have killed it.””
— Oscar Wilde
“Travel improves the mind wonderfully, and does away with all one’s prejudices.””
— Oscar Wilde
“Because sometimes you have to do something bad to do something good.””
— Oscar Wilde
“I hate people who talk about themselves, as you do, when one wants to talk about oneself, as I do. ””
— Oscar Wilde
“Death is a great price to pay for a red rose,” cried the Nightingale, “and Life is very dear to all. It is pleasant to sit in the green wood, and to watch the Sun in his chariot of gold, and the Moon in her chariot of pearl. Sweet is the scent of the hawthorn, and sweet are the bluebells that hide in the valley, and the heather that blows on the hill. Yet Love is better than Life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?””
— Oscar Wilde
“What a silly thing love is!' said the student as he walked away. 'It is not half as useful as logic, for it does not prove anything, and it is always telling one of things that are not going to happen, and making one believe things that are not true. In fact, it is quite unpractical, and, as in this age to be practical is everything, I shall go back to philosophy and study metaphysics.' So he returned to his room and pulled out a great dusty book, and began to read.””
— Oscar Wilde
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<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/the-happy-prince-and-other-tales-0a132762-7f83-44d7-ac9d-f571b1e3cc28"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read The Happy Prince, and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/the-happy-prince-and-other-tales-0a132762-7f83-44d7-ac9d-f571b1e3cc28)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/the-happy-prince-and-other-tales-0a132762-7f83-44d7-ac9d-f571b1e3cc28][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read The Happy Prince, and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/the-happy-prince-and-other-tales-0a132762-7f83-44d7-ac9d-f571b1e3cc28Cite this book
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Wilde, Oscar. The Happy Prince, and Other Tales. Lex, lex-books.com/book/the-happy-prince-and-other-tales-0a132762-7f83-44d7-ac9d-f571b1e3cc28.Wilde, O. (n.d.). The Happy Prince, and Other Tales. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-happy-prince-and-other-tales-0a132762-7f83-44d7-ac9d-f571b1e3cc28Wilde, Oscar. The Happy Prince, and Other Tales. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-happy-prince-and-other-tales-0a132762-7f83-44d7-ac9d-f571b1e3cc28.
