İş Bankası Modern Klasikler serisindeki Mutlu Prens kitabını yıllar önce okumuştum, bu kitapta tekrar okumama rağmen hiç sıkılmadım hatta unutmuş olduğum ayrıntıları tekrar okumak beni sevindirdi diyebilirim. Oscar Wilde gerçekten ilginç bir sanatçı. Yüksek estetik anlayışı ve muhafazakâr görüş/değerlerle işlediği masalları, okurken bazen sıkıcı bir hava uyandırabiliyor, bazen yarım/eksik veya anlamlandıramadığım yönlere kayabiliyor fakat her defasında beni şaşırtmayı, bazen hayallere daldırmayı, sempati ve mutluluk duyarak tebessüm ettirmeyi başarıyor. Masallarından/öykülerinden aldığım keyfi farklı türdeki eserlerinden de alacağımı umuyorum ( buna inanıyorum ) . Bu eserindeki en sevdiğim öyküleri Harika Fişek, Balıkçı ile Ruhu, Canterville Hortlağı ve mensur şiirlerinden Hüküm evi idi.

4.25
It was such a fun read, I loved it although some short stories I didn't connect with as much as some others, but overall I love Wilde's writing.

(3.5 stars) after the almost ten months that have passed since i began reading this collection i think i finally need to mark it as one that i won’t finish.

it’s definitely a personal issue that i couldn’t, my attention span is terrible and i can’t focus on one thing for too long, and this collection is VERY much the same thing over and over again. but that thing is great!!! these stories are fantastic. beautiful and pure and self-indulgent and magical and lovely. “the happy prince” made me literally put down the book for a minute after reading because it was so wonderful and i needed time to recover. the stories that i did read were so much fun, the fact that i didn’t finish it is absolutely not a testament to the writing itself but simply the volume of stories and the time each one took to read.

i loved the way wilde didn’t choose humans to be the focal point of most of the stories, instead writing about nature and animals, creating these adorable characters and storylines with the purest voice ever.

oscar wilde is just so wonderful, i don’t think it’s possible for me to dislike anything he writes. the intertextuality between this collection and his other work was fascinating, being able to see the particular morals and ideas that remain consistent across them really speak volumes about wilde’s character and opinions himself.

i wish i could have finished the entire thing, but short stories are already sort of “not my thing” and a 320 page book of short stories with almost identical themes and an extremely flowery writing style is just not for me. if you’re a casual reader who would be able to read one short story at a time, slowly, whenever you felt the urge, then you’d probably love working your way through this collection. god i wish that were me.

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime - 4 stars
The Sphinx without a Secret - 4 stars
The Canterville Ghost - 4 stars
The Model Millionaire - 4 stars
The Happy Prince - 4 stars
The Nightingale and the Rose - 4 stars
The Selfish Giant - 4 stars
The Devoted Friend - 4 stars
The Remarkable Rocket - 3 stars
The Portrait of Mr. W. H. - 3 stars
The Young King - 4 stars
The Birthday of the Infanta - 3 stars
The Fisherman and his Soul - 4 stars
The Star-Child - 4 stars
The Artist - 2 stars
The Doer of Good - 3 stars
The Disciple - 3 stars
The Master - 3 stars
The House of Judgment - 2 stars
The Teacher of Wisdom -3 stars

4.5 ⭐

La prosa de Oscar Wilde es muy bella. Llena de ese misticismo y delicadeza para dar a conocer su afición por el arte, la literatura, el hombre y sus conflictos. Y desde la mera crítica a su sociedad conservadora hasta el perfeccionamiento de su escritura a través de poemas de amor, autocritica y alegorías bíblicas, nos transporta a su mente y a como la burguesía estaba en su contra pero a la vez, en contrariedad, hacía parte de su complejo ser.

Fueron lecturas muy buenas, de análisis. Y aunque algunas se tornaba pesadas en su mayoría me hicieron maravillarme con ese don que tenía Wilde para expresarse de una forma tan perspicaz e inteligente moralmente.

Always enjoyed watching Oscar Wilde’s work performed, though I have never enjoyed reading his work until now. This collection of fables, fairy tales, short stories and poems as prose provide remarkable insight into a remarkable person. They reveal a man deeply sentimental, deeply sensitive, and reluctantly cynical. He expects so much of humanity and yet is disappointed when we fall short time and time again. Seems to me his famous wit was a wall protecting the vulnerable man inside from what he viewed as a shallow and often cruel world. The fables and fairy tales started off a little slow, but by the time I worked my way through all the stories and the prose I gained a new appreciation for the layers of meaning I missed initially. Also, the stories are frequently very funny, especially The Canterville Ghost and The Remarkable Rocket. 4.5 stars (this isn’t the edition I read but close enough)

⭐️3.75

I was not expecting the religious aspect to be so prominent in this collection of short stories, but I did enjoy myself most of the time. The sassiness and sarcasm were probably my favorite parts but the gentle touches here and there, in the characters’ descriptions or in their acts, did make me feel quite giddy.
I will forever be curious of the novels Wilde could have written if he was publishing books in the 21st century.
He could have written so MANY bangers.

“and they gave to her face something of the frame of a saint, with not a little of the fascination of a sinner. early in life she had discovered the important truth that nothing looks so like innocence as an indiscretion”

What predominates Wilde’s short stories, at least the conventionally original ones, is his how didactic theme and how keenly moralistic they are. There woven in the pages a moral stereotyping that prevails and lends much needed characterization for the short stories, ones directed at children especially. Yet the problem lies when that moral pillar becomes obsolete and no longer serves the same ubiquitous message it used to produce that moral stories become empty shells, and which I fear it’s the case here.

The Happy Prince (4 stars)
The happy prince is a noble attempt to create a wholesome story of praising good values that comes in expense of it being convoluted. Adopting biblical narrative style, its told through symbols and supernatural. The prince’s statue, made of gold and fine jewelries, rues the pitiful state of his people and regretfully reminisces his short reign by the time he got to live a prince on those very people that thought of him so highly and built him this statue, he regrets not having served them well. And consequently, the prince’s statue weeps for his negligence and powerlessness to do his people good, but no one notices his tears. Until and a little bird in a shape of … alight his flight and notices the drops that wet his feather that comes from the eyes of the statue. What ensues is conventional three tasks the statue labors the bird to perform to redeem his grief. Each labor subsequently involve trading a piece of the statue for the wellbeing of a commoner, and with each operation the bird puts off his flight and joining his flock.

The people appalled by the sudden change in the statue’s appearance clutch hands for once. The story ends in a satirical note, the statue removed by the people as it no longer serves the attraction role it once occupies, showcasing a contrast in the prince’s concerns and the greed that blind people as to where the issue really lies.


The Nightingale and The Rose (4 stars)
Parody of John Keats’s Nightingale, written in mischievous intent. It has one of most romantic build-ups to its ultimate reveal.

The selfish Giant (5 stars)
Blend of phantasm and human kindness, in clockwork following the seasons, Oscar pours his inventive genius in a matter-of-fact way. The wanton garden of the giant with endowed with a cover of grooves and mats of leaves brought back the child with in. Meadows, trees, and walls to walk, jump, and roll over. The perfect playground is owned by a grumpy giant whose pride and possessive nature prevents him from sharing his place with the neighboring children. Growing furious with their constant intrusions, he firmly locks the garden in. As time pass by, the garden loses its charm. What once was magnet of children laughter and joy has turned the ghastly place. And only eventually the giant learns his selfish grasp has blocked the beautiful cogwheel of the seasons. He recedes his decision and open the garden’s gates, but his long possessiveness has already taken its toll and it would be long time for children’s cries to fill those vacant meadows. Until a little child in a one winter day, alarmed the now old giant’s winter soul, showed up on a tree trunk in the farthest corner of the Giant’s groove. Thus far, the trees were barren. The stagnant air that filled the garden was stopping the trees from flowering to their bloom. Nothing could've replaced what was lost, or so how it seemed. Amid that vicious winter, the tree the little boy was lying on miraculously produced flowers and blossomed to the surprise of the giant, who had been observing up to this point with awe and aggravated wonder. Done with being locked alone inside, and despite the hurling blizzard, the giant, determined, met the boy in his recluse. The boy battered with cuts and wounds spread his hands and redeemed the giant and sent him to paradise.

The Devoted Friend (2 stars)
The things Granny used to tell kids about collected by above-average literature student.

The Remarkable Rocket (5 stars)
Overblown characterization of insatiate vanity, and humorous story on its own. The Rocket could easily run a show in today settings, benefiting from media egocentric following. Starring he, himself, the one and only R.R.

The portrait of Mr W.H. (3 stars)
Wilde the bastard. He let me lower my fences and tempted me into dark and inconsiderate alleyways only to make fool of my curiosity and crowned me the motely bonbon (it’s a Shakespeare thesis in disguise)



The Young King (3 stars)
Another case of the rule of 3. Three dreams in succession prompt the protagonist to a drastic change in character reminiscing of the biblical tale of Joseph and the pharaoh’s heralding dream. Moral: Actions matter more than appearances.

The Birthday of The Infanta (3 stars)
Another tale of not casting judgments based on appearances. Though some effort was put to polish the infanta, the weight of story fell with how repetitive gullible protagonist trope has become.

The Fisherman and His Soul (5 stars)
Retelling of a beloved fairy tale for children to entertain most vicious and perilous questions. Hans Anderson’s Mermaid folktale turns the other horrible face where the soul is bargained for the man to question. Is the soul a burden to carry holding off from enjoying vices, or can it grow corrupt and if so, what is the way to obtain salvation. With such premises hovering round Faustian territory, with critical view of man, religion and mysticism. Wilde delivers his better abilities to its best execution. In comparison with Dorian Grey, the fisherman draws the more horrific and distinct picture.


The Star Child (3 stars)

Little tone dead to me, I couldn’t figure out what’s so special about it. A certain shooting star hits the ground, following its trail a child covered in a sheet was found lying and the ground close to landing sight. The child picked up and raised to think he was born from a star. The subsequent grandiose vanity scraps off his face, pride and loved ones. It gets to the point he denies his original mother to maintain his star-child status. The story ends in his relinquishing his vanity and acquiring paternal approbation.

Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime (4 stars)
Parody of gothic fiction. Scales with Cask of Amontillado in humor, per se

The Sphinx without a secret (5 stars)
I might’ve enjoyed this one more than I should for the simple reason of so long imagining Wild as the ultimate womanizer of the 19th century. Of his audience women were no shy to show their infatuation and of his relationships he wasn’t reportedly of the modest type to keep it to himself. To see his view of the general stereotypes that existed was an unraveling experience and humorous thing to read. However still, the underlying treasure remains in deciphering the most scandalous quote “women meant to be loved,” to which Wilde sure was progressive in its regard.

The Canterville Ghost/ A hylo-idealistic Romance (5stars)
There are ever two types of humor the one that seeps through taking its time to affect and the laugh out loud type. Flipping the traditional haunted house trope up to its heels, The Canterville’s Ghost is one endearing and fun short story that succeeds to succeed what matter the occasion.

Mutlu Prens ve devamındaki masalları önceden okumuştum (muhteşemlerdi) ama bu kitaptaki öyküleri ve en sonundaki mensur şiirleri ilk defa okuyorum. Öykülerin bazıları cidden “bunu Wilde mı yazmış” dedirtecek kadar tırttı ancak Balıkçı ile Ruhu hikayesi... Muhteşemdi. O kadar ince işlenmiş detaylar vardı ki unutmamak için bir yere not aldım, mesela büyücüyle dans ederken balıkçıyı izleyen şeytani varlık... Sadece o sahneye bile ayrı hikaye yazılır AŞIĞIM BU ADAMA ancak başta da dediğim gibi “neden böyle bir şey yazdın ki birtanem” diyebileceğim hikayeler de vardı. Gerçi kafamda Oscar Wilde ile arkadaş olduğum için bunları sert eleştiri babında değil, “potansiyelinin altında” gördüğüm için söylüyorum. Mesela tiyatro eserleri de bana aynı hissi veriyor ama kendisi hem sanat için sanat hem de toplum için sanat olayını eserlerine çok iyi yedirmiş, hangi eserinin hangi düşünceyle yazıldığı çok belli. Sanat için sanatlar favorim elbet -o zamanki toplumun istediği sanat da biraz tırt açıkçası- ama Oscar Wilde alışveriş listesi yazsa alıp onu da okurum, her şekilde başımın üstünde yeri var AAAAA BAĞIRCAM ŞİMDİ BU ADAMI ÇOK SEVİYORUM DİYE. Neyse sakinim.

Oscar Wilde is my favourite author of all time. A few of the short stories were less brilliant than others, but all in all it's a 5 star read. I was highly entertained during the entire reading experience.

I like his writing (obviously) but most of the stories were so weird and moralistic and jesus would just pop up out of nowhere and shock me which i wasn’t a fan of. I loved the canterville ghost story and i thought the beginning was hilarious so that pushed it up a star. But most of the stories were pretty ridiculous and while that did make it kind of entertaining to read, it definitely brings down my rating.