The Happy Prince and Other Tales

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This article is about the Wilde's short story collection. For the Christopher Wheeldon ballet with a libretto from this collection, see The Nightingale and the Rose (ballet).
Not to be confused with The Little Prince, by Saint-Exupéry.

The Happy Prince and Other Tales (also sometimes called The Happy Prince and Other Stories) is an 1888 collection of stories for children by Oscar Wilde. It is most famous for The Happy Prince, the short tale of a metal statue who befriends a migratory bird. Together, they bring happiness to others, in life as well as in death.

The stories included in this collection are:

  • The Happy Prince
  • The Nightingale and the Rose
  • The Selfish Giant
  • The Devoted Friend
  • The Remarkable Rocket

The stories convey an appreciation for the exotic, the sensual and for masculine beauty.

Contents

[edit] The Happy Prince

The protagonist of the story is a gilt and bejeweled statue of a prince, who stands on a tall column overlooking a city. A swallow, rather proud and flighty, and who has delayed his migration to Egypt for the love of a reed, rests on the statue's plinth, only to be disturbed by a falling tear from the statue above. The statue is that of the Happy Prince, erected above the city and covered with gold, but hardly joyful, as the statue (unlike his real-life counterpart) can now view all the sadness, misery and ugliness of the human world. The Prince weeps at the injustices he can now observe, having been isolated from the realities of his society while he was alive. The Prince asks the swallow therefore to remove the ruby that adorns his sword, and give it to a poor seamstress with a sick child, and the swallow, moved by his descriptions, does so. The swallow stays with the Prince over the ensuing weeks, each week almost departing for the marvels of Egypt, but each time held by the statue's pleas (each prefaced with "Swallow, swallow, little swallow...") removing the jewels and gold covering the prince's body, and distributing them in turn among those in need. Each deed brings the swallow to a closer understanding of the beauty and brevity of human life. Eventually through the long and bitterly cold winter, the Prince is completely denuded of gold and jewels, even as his friendship with the swallow deepens. The swallow, finally, and having stayed for far too long to survive the bitter winter, realizes that he is dying from cold. He returns to say farewell to the Prince, who wishes him joy, and bades the swallow to kiss him on the lips, in farewell. The swallow then does so -- but dies, falling at the feet of the statue, even as the Prince's leaden heart breaks into pieces. ("It certainly was a dreadfully hard frost.") The next day, the Mayor of the city observes the dismal state of the statue, and seeing that it is no longer beautiful, he orders it to be removed and melted down. The Prince's heart will not melt in the furnace, however, so it is discarded on to the same dust-heap upon which the swallow's body lies:

"Bring me the two most precious things in the city," said God to one of His Angels; and the Angel brought Him the leaden heart and the dead bird.

"You have rightly chosen," said God, "for in my garden of Paradise this little bird shall sing for evermore, and in my city of gold the Happy Prince shall praise me."

[edit] Adaptations

[edit] The Nightingale and the Rose

A nightingale overhears a student complaining that his professor's daughter will not dance with him, as he is unable to give her a red rose. The nightingale visits all the rose-trees in the garden, and one of the white roses tell her that there's a way to produce a red rose, but only if the nightingale is prepared to sing the sweetest song for the rose all night, and sacrifice her life to do so. Seeing the student in tears, the nightingale carries out the ritual, and impales herself on the rose-tree's thorn so that her heart's blood can stain the rose. The student takes the rose to the professor's daughter, but she again rejects him because another man has sent her some real jewels, and "everybody knows that jewels cost far more than flowers." The student angrily throws the rose into the gutter, returns to his study of metaphysics, and decides not to believe in true love anymore.

[edit] Adaptations

Main article: Music based on the works of Oscar Wilde

There are many adaptations of this story in the form of operas and ballets, including:

  • One act opera by Renzo Bossi, an Italian composer, (Como 1883 - Milan 1965) in one act, op. 18, 1910 (libretto by Bossi, after Oscar Wilde: The Nightingale and the Rose), Italian Radio Turin, August 9, 1938; staged Parma, Teatro Regio, January 9, 1940); see the link.
  • A cantata by Henry Hadley, an American composer and conductor, (Somerville, Massachusetts, 1871 - New York, 1937) The Nightingale and the Rose, (libretto E.W. Grant), op. 54, S, SSAA, orchestra (New York, 1911); see the link.
  • A ballet by Harold Fraser-Simson, an English composer, (London, 1872 - Inverness, 1944) The Nightingale and the Rose, (based on Oscar Wilde) (1927); [www.fullerswood.fsnet.co.uk/fraser-simson.htm see the link].
  • One act opera by Margaret Garwood, an American composer (born Haddonfield, NJ, 1927) The Nightingale and the Rose, (libretto by Garwood, after Oscar Wilde), Chester, Widener College Alumni Auditorium, 21 Oct 1973
  • One act ballet by David Earl, a South African composer (b 1951) - The Nightingale and the Rose, 1983

[edit] The Selfish Giant

The Selfish Giant of the title owns a beautiful garden, in which children love to play. On the giant's return from visiting an ogre, he takes offence at the children, and builds a wall to keep them out. As a consequence of this, the garden is condemned to perpetual winter. One day, the giant is awakened by a linnet, and discovers that spring has returned to the garden, as the children have found a way in through a gap in the wall. He sees the error of his ways, and resolves to destroy the wall - however, when he emerges from his castle, all the children run away, except for one boy, who is crying so much that he does not notice the giant. The giant helps this boy into a tree that he wants to climb; the boy kisses him in return. The giant announces: "It is your garden now, little children," and knocks down the wall; the children once more play in the garden, and spring returns. But the boy that the Giant helped does not, and the Giant is heartbroken. Many years later, the Giant is old and feeble, and awakes, one winter morning, to see the trees in one part of his garden in full blossom. He descends from the castle, to discover the boy that he once helped lying beneath a beautiful white tree that the Giant has never seen before. The Giant sees that the boy bears the stigmata. He does not realize at first that the boy is actually the Christ Child. The Giant is furious at the idea that somebody has wounded him.

“ "Who hath dared to wound thee?" cried the Giant; "tell me, that I may take my big sword and slay him."

"Nay!" answered the child; "but these are the wounds of Love."

"Who art thou?" said the Giant, and a strange awe fell on him, and he knelt before the little child.

And the child smiled on the Giant, and said to him, "You let Me play once in your garden, to-day you shall come with Me to My garden, which is Paradise."		 ”

Shortly afterwards the happy giant dies; that same afternoon his body is found lying under the tree, covered in blossoms.

[edit] Adaptations

The Selfish Giant is used as a leitmotif throughout the 1997 film Wilde, starring Stephen Fry.

A record album was produced (again in the 1940s by American Decca), narrated by Fredric March, with a full unnamed supporting cast.

Main article: The Selfish Giant (film)

In 1972, Peter Sanders wrote and produced an animated version of The Selfish Giant, which was nominated for an Academy Award. [2]

In the 1990s, the Australian team of composer Graeme Koehne and choreographer Graeme Murphy created a children's ballet based on The Selfish Giant.

In the 1997 film Wilde, based on the life of the author, portions of the The Selfish Giant are woven in, with Wilde and his wife telling the story to their children, the portions reflecting on his relationship with them and others.

[edit] The Devoted Friend

Hans is a gardener, the devoted friend of a rich miller. On the basis of this friendship, the miller helps himself to flowers from Hans' garden, and promises to give Hans an old, broken wheelbarrow, to replace one that Hans was forced to sell so that he could buy food. Against this promise, the miller compells Hans to run a series of arduous errands for him; one stormy night, the miller asks Hans to fetch a doctor for his sick son. Returning from the doctor, Hans is lost on the moors in the storm, and drowns in a pool of water. After Hans' funeral, the miller's only emotion is regret, as he has been unable to dispose of the wheelbarrow.

The story is told by a linnet to an intellectual water-rat, who fancies himself a literary critic; the water-rat is sympathetic to the miller rather than Hans, and storms off on being informed that the story has a moral.

[edit] The Remarkable Rocket

This story concerns a firework, who is one of many to be let off at the wedding of a prince and princess. The rocket is extremely pompous and self-important, and denigrates all the other fireworks, eventually bursting into tears to demonstrate his "sensitivity". As this makes him wet, he fails to ignite, and, the next day, is thrown away into a ditch. He still believes that he is destined for great public importance, and treats a frog, dragonfly, and duck that meet him with appropriate disdain. Two boys find him, and use him for fuel on their camp-fire. The rocket is finally lit and explodes, but nobody observes him - the only effect he has is to frighten a goose with his falling stick.

The Remarkable Rocket, unlike the other stories in the collection, contains a large number of Wildean epigrams:

“ "Conversation, indeed!" said the Rocket. "You have talked the whole time yourself. That is not conversation."

"Somebody must listen," answered the Frog, "and I like to do all the talking myself. It saves time, and prevents arguments."

"But I like arguments," said the Rocket.

"I hope not," said the Frog complacently. "Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everybody in good society holds exactly the same opinions."		 ”

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

Oscar Wilde portal

[edit] External links

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