there are some good stories and some mediocre ones. not the biggest fan of the House Of Pomegranates stories

n  n    The Happy Prince And Other Storiesn  n (3.6/5)

● n  The Happy Princen 5/5
In the sha-ha-sha-ha-llow
In the sha-ha-sha-la-la-la-llow
In the sha-ha-sha-ha-llow
We're far from the shallow now

● n  The Nightingale and the Rosen 5/5
ugh what a dumbass bird. as a child i used to hate this story because uughhh but rereading it now as an adult i get it and i like it

● n  The Selfish Giantn 3/5
the fuck, get out his swamp.

● n  The Devoted Friendn 3/5

● n  The Remarkable Rocketn 2/5


n  n    A House Of Pomegranatesn  n (2.5)

● n  The Young Kingn 1/5
king shit

● n  The Birthday of the Infantan 1/5
girlie what the fuck

● n  The Fisherman and his Souln 5/5

● n  The Star-Childn 3/5
''it is all the fault of the government''

2.5
spodziewałam się czegoś innego:(

nobody gives descriptions like oscar does, i am enamored

There are two truly beautiful stories here: "The Happy Prince" (which I've read numerous times in other collections) and "The Selfish Giant" (which I've never encountered anywhere and I think it is one of Wilde's best works.) A children's book? Yes. A book for everyone? Absolutely!

Actual rating: 4 stars
The Happy Prince: 5 stars
The Nightingale and the Rose: 5 stars
The Selfish Giant: 4,5 stars
The Devoted Friend: 3 stars
The Remarkable Rocket: 2,5 stars

I have found that any author I was forced to read in my ancient school days tends to be ignored these days when I can choose my own reading. Oscar Wilde certainly fits that statement. I remember having to dissect The Picture Of Dorian Gray for some class or other, and the only other work of his I have read since then was The Importance Of Being Earnest. I enjoyed that, but it did not inspire me to discover any more about or by Wilde.

But a few days ago I noticed a review by fellow GR group member Rick, discussing a graphic novel edition of two of Oscar Wilde's short stories. That review sent me to Gutenberg to see what I could see. I wanted especially to read the story The Remarkable Rocket. And that is how I found this book, which has five short fables and some elegant illustrations by Charles Robinson.

The stories included here are The Happy Prince, The Nightingale And The Rose, The Selfish Giant, The Devoted Friend, and The Remarkable Rocket. I was completely charmed by them all. Written in a deceptively simple style that begs for being read aloud, each story is a gold nugget wrapped in layers of silver-tongued wit that any thinking adult will appreciate. Life lessons are there waiting to be unwrapped: the importance of Love, the true value of being unselfish, the power of friendship.

I had no idea that Oscar Wilde wrote such stories. I want to read more of them, and get to know the man and his work better. Thank you, Rick!

Here is a link to the Gutenberg book I read https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And here is Rick's review of the book he read; the review that piqued my curiosity more than any school teacher ever could. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

This is a beautiful little collection of stories. I thought I'd never read any of them, but I'd definitely read "The Selfish Giant" before, and some of the others seemed familiar. The stories are all a little like fairy tales, though, so that's probably part of it.

My favourites were "The Nightingale and the Rose" and "The Fisherman and His Soul", I think. All of them are lovely, though. I especially like the beginning of Star-Child. Some of the lines in it are gorgeous, like: "And when they came to the Mountain-Torrent she was hanging motionless in air, for the Ice-King had kissed her." I remember loving "The Selfish Giant" when I was little: I was very Christian then and the ending, with the Christ imagery, used to make me cry. It's still a lovely image to me now, and I like the last line: "And when the children ran in that afternoon, they found the Giant lying dead under the tree, all covered with white blossoms."

These aren't exactly happy stories -- The Happy Prince's heart breaks, the Nightingale dies, the dwarf in The Birthday of the Infanta hates himself, and the Fisherman loses his little Mermaid -- but when you read a lot of old fairy tales you find out that actually, they aren't. I'm glad I picked this up to read.

Sir Simon de Canterville, das Schlossgespenst, verzweifelt an der amerikanischen Familie Otis und Pinkertons Universal-Fleckenreiniger - obwohl 130 Jahre alt und zigfach adaptiert und nacherzählt , ich habe gelacht.

Die anderen Geschichten in diesem Flohmarktfund von 1972: Wildes traurig melancholische Kunstmärchen voll Satire und Gesellschaftskritik. Teils langweilig, teils berührend, aber keine so unterhaltsam wie das Gespenst von Canterville.

Der glückliche Prinz und andere Märchen (The Happy Prince and Other Tales), 1888
Der glückliche Prinz ★★★
Die Nachtigall und die Rose ★★
Der eigensüchtige Riese ★★
Der ergebene Freund ★★★
Die bedeutende Rakete ★★★

Ein Granatapfelhaus (A House of Pomegranates), 1891
Der junge König ★★
Der Geburtstag der Infantin ★★★
Der Fischer und seine Seele ★★★★★
(Die Liebe zu einer Meerjungfrau bringt einen Fischer um seine Seele )
Das Sternenkind ★★★
(Das Ende gefällt mir. Im letzten Satz fällt Oscar Wilde ein, dass keines seiner Kunstmärchen mit "sie lebten glücklich an ihr Ende" enden darf und er dreht die Geschichte noch um.)

Kleinere Erzählungen
Die Sphinx ohne Rätsel ★★★★
Der Modellmillionär ★★★

Gedichte in Prosa
Der Lehrer der Weisheit
Das Haus des Gerichts
Der Künstler
Der Mittler
Der Meister ★★★★★
Der Schüler

The popular author of The Book Thief, Markus Zusak aptly says in his introduction of this book: "There's something in these fairy tales that reminds me why any of us would want to be readers and writers in the first place, and that is that, the more amazing the stories become, the more I believe them, and the more I realize that I won't forget them." For me, these stories are truly unforgettable!

The Happy Prince : 5 stars (Amazing!)

A formerly rich and only child prince is now a regal statue. The town people look up at him and marvel at his beauty. One day, a swallow gets separated from his fellow birds going to Egypt since winter is forthcoming. While the swallow is about to sleep at the foot of the statue, a tear falls from the weeping statue and a series of "Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow" follows.

Heartbreakingly nice. Good deeds get their paybacks in the end.

The Selfish Giant : 3 stars (I liked it!)

A Giant is so selfish that he does not want children to play in his yard with a beautiful garden so Nature (the Wind, Hail, Snow) work against him. Winter stays forever in his yard even if, outside its wall, is already at the height of summer. The Giant becomes lonely (I know, winter could be depressing) so he breaks down the wall and let the children play again in his garden. What happens towards the end is a fitting story for the Holy Week as a character reveals His true identity.

The Devoted Friend : 1 star (I did not like it!)

I almost really liked this except that there is no redeeming value in the end. The good Little Hans seemed to have died in vain. He was fooled by Miller into believing that the latter was his friend and he would get his damaged wheelbarrow. I am okay with being friendly but not to the extent of sacrificing myself or going hungry just to make my friend happy. That's balderdash!

The Remarkable Rocket : 2 stars (It's okay)

The naive self-centered rocket thinks highly of himself. He is the drama king so he wets himself crying of joy thinking that he is being reserved by the palace for special occasion. So, he just stays there unlighted and eventually left and thrown out in the gutter.

We all know about these people. Sad but true. There are rockets around us.

The Nightingale and the Rose : 4 stars (I really liked it!)

I agree with Zusak: this is so sad, so brave of a nightingale to give her own life so that the daughter of the Professor would dance with the young student. But the nightingale is just too naive with the ways of the heart for the girl does not reciprocate the student's love. The nightingale ends up on the gutter: unappreciated and dead. Sad, Zusak but no redeeming value. Wasted heroism.

The Young King : 3 stars (I liked it!)

An illegitimate shepherd's son ends up as the only heir of a dead king. Not used to riches, he is very excited about living in the palace and wearing his robe. One night, he dreams of the poor people who work hard to come up with the gems that are to be put on his robe as decors. On the coronation day, he refuses to wear the robe so he is disowned by the nobilities. The Christlike coronation and references to Jesus should rank this tale higher than the rest of fairy tales.

The Birthday of the Infanta : 2 stars (It's okay.)

A hunchback dwarf is given as a gift to princess Infanta only to end up neglected in the end. Reminded me of The Velveteen Rabbit who thought that his master loved him. Sad but just like the Devoted Friend story there is no redeeming value. The princess says in the end "For the future, let those who come to play with me have no hearts."

The Star-Child : 4 stars (I really liked it!)

Reminds us, once again, that what goes around, comes around. That beauty is just skin-deep. What is more important is what's in our hearts. The star-child is found in the forest by two woodcutters. The first one says that they leave the poor child on the snow because, poor as they are, they don't enough food for their families to survive the winter. The other one says no and takes pity to the child. The child grows up to be a handsome man but heartless to the extent of disowning his own mother who disguises as a beggar.

The Fisherman and his Soul : 5 stars (It's amazing!)

A young man is in love with a mermaid who says that they cannot live together under the sea if the young man will not leave his soul. So, the young man asks the witch to separate himself from his soul. The soul is afraid and asks for the fisherman's heart. The fisherman cannot give his heart away since he needs it to love the mermaid.

I don't know what happened to me. This is my first time to read this story so probably that made a greater impact to me than the Happy Prince (first story). This story reminds me of Murakami's Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World where the man and his shadow are separated. Like the other stories, this is still a sad one. But Wilde's storytelling is truly remarkable that you feel with the characters even how implausible, this being a fairy tale, the plot is.

This is my second book (first was De Profundis) by Oscar Wilde and I have only one word for him: genius.

Oscar Wilde è uno dei miei autori classici preferiti e avevo già letto alcune di queste fiabe in altre raccolte.
Altre non le avevo mai lette ma il tono fatalistico che le permea è lo stesso che già conoscevo bene.

Dalla fine che fanno la statua del principe e il rondone, a quella dell’usignolo, o del piccolo Anselmo e fino al comportamento del topo di campagna nella fiaba del razzo, si potrebbe pensare che il punto di vista sia pessimistico e veda tutto nero.
Secondo me non è esattamente così.
Sicuramente la tristezza permea questi racconti lasciando un senso di fatale ineluttabilità.
Ma quel che stona e che fa aprire uno spiraglio e pensare che l’interpretazione possa essere diversa, è la fiaba del gigante, che ha tutt’altro tenore.
La mia ipotesi è che la morale sia completamente diversa perché il protagonista di cui narra non è un essere umano ma una creatura fantastica, un gigante.
L’impressione che mi hanno lasciato gli scritti di questo autore finora è stato quello di una visione profondamente negativa della natura dell’uomo e di una tragicità che la accompagna, per cui i più buoni, in questo senso i più fragili, siano indifesi e finiscano per soccombere alla malvagità degli altri.
Credo che questa convinzione possa trovare radice nelle esperienze terribili vissute da Wilde durante la propria esistenza, e in effetti come dargli torto?
Io stessa, non vivendole ma trovandomi a leggerle solo, non ho potuto non provare una estrema rabbia per le ingiustizie subite, pur sapendo come fosse qualcosa di comune purtroppo all’epoca.

E, nonostante per mia natura io non perda mai la speranza e continui a credere nei sogni e nella magia in fondo, guardando alla realtà non posso che dargli ragione per tale sfiducia nei confronti dell’essere umano e della sua natura.

I was swept away to the lands where the stories are set. And I enjoyed every moment of it.
The stories are simple fairy tales, probably meant for kids... but as an adult I found them very engaging and thought provoking.
There is a charm in the words of the authors that is just irresistible.

The Happy Prince and Other Tales is my first read for Oscar Wilde, and it won't be the last. It's combined of 5 short stories, each story carries a moral at the end of it. I'm not sure if this book is appropriate to be narrated for kids at bedtime, because... the stories are not the "and-they-lived-happily-ever-after" type of fairy tales. The endings may be disturbing for the little fellows.

n  How did I like each story?n

The Happy Prince:
3 stars, liked it.

The Nightingale and the Rose:
4 stars, really really liked it and it was my favorite.

The Selfish Giant:
3 stars, liked it.

The Devoted Friend:
3 stars, liked it.

The Remarkable Rocket:
2 stars, didn't get the moral behind the story but it was OK.