Plot: Oscar Wilde’s complete short stories is exactly what it sounds like on the cover. It is a variety of stories following different narratives, all of which have a key focus on morals and teachings. Appearing to make them designed for children rather than adults. The stories all vary in length with some being 1 or 2 pages long and others such as the happy prince were longer with more detail. The happy prince was properly my favourite story as the morals were so prominent with the focus point being everyone deserves to be looked after and wealth should not be the main factor to life. It follows the story of a statue who is embossed with rich jewels and a bird. The statue wants to help the people of his city who are struggling in there day to day lives and the statue looks to the bird to help him. There is a constant theme of magical realism which is present throughout the different stories and in Oscar Wilde’s stories in general appear to have this element of magical realism.

'“Erskine,” I answered, “it is your duty to give this theory to the world. If you will not do it, I will. By keeping it back you wrong the memory of Cyril Graham, the youngest and the most splendid of all the martyrs of literature. I entreat you to do him justice. He died for this thing,—don’t let his death be in vain.”
Erskine looked at me in amazement. “You are carried away by the sentiment of the whole story,” he said. “You forget that a thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. I was devoted to Cyril Graham. His death was a horrible blow to me. I did not recover it for years. I don’t think I have ever recovered it. But Willie Hughes? There is nothing in the idea of Willie Hughes. No such person ever existed. As for bringing the whole thing before the world—the world thinks that Cyril Graham shot himself by accident. The only proof of his suicide was contained in the letter to me, and of this letter the public never heard anything. To the present day Lord Crediton thinks that the whole thing was accidental.”
“Cyril Graham sacrificed his life to a great idea,” I answered; “and if you will not tell of his martyrdom, tell at least of his faith.”
“His faith,” said Erskine, “was fixed in a thing that was false, in a thing that was unsound, in a thing that no Shakespearean scholar would accept for a moment. The theory would be laughed at. Don’t make a fool of yourself, and don’t follow a trail that leads nowhere. You start by assuming the existence of the very person whose existence is the thing to be proved. Besides, everybody knows that the Sonnets were addressed to Lord Pembroke. The matter is settled once for all.”
“The matter is not settled!” I exclaimed. “I will take up the theory where Cyril Graham left it, and I will prove to the world that he was right.”
“Silly boy!” said Erskine.”Go home: it is after two, and don’t think about Willie Hughes any more. I am sorry I told you anything about it, and very sorry indeed that I should have converted you to a thing in which I don’t believe.”
“You have given me the key to the greatest mystery of modern literature,” I answered; “and I shall not rest till I have made you recognise, till I have made everybody recognise, that Cyril Graham was the most subtle Shakespearean critic of our day.”
As I walked home through St. James’s Park the dawn was just breaking over London. The white swans were lying asleep on the polished lake, and the gaunt Palace looked purple against the pale-green sky. I thought of Cyril Graham and my eyes filled with tears.'


3.8 overal

My favorite stories:

1. THE PORTRAIT OF MR. W. H.
2. LORD ARTHUR SAVILE’ S CRIME
3. THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE
4. THE BIRTHDAY OF THE INFANTA
5. THE SPHINX WITHOUT A SECRET
6. THE HOUSE OF JUDGMENT
7. THE DEVOTED FRIEND
8. THE REMARKABLE ROCKET
9. THE FISHERMAN AND HIS SOUL

Stories like The Happy Prince or The Selfish Giant and the rest are for sure, with respect, great too, but not my cups of tea I guess, for the super simple morale and classic themes of spiritual and religious/devine-sounding kind of goodness and grace they have to present which truly dims the imaginativeness and fascination for me.

By the way, I found literally half of the quotes in his book 'Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast' in these stories within the dialogues.

Ultimately a mixed bag, I didn’t finish some of the longer ones but I read 95% of it. The decadent writing style he’s famed for was a bit of a hindrance at times but for stories like the Fisherman and His Soul I feel like it worked really well, especially considering how layered the plot was (#teammermaid, the witch was kind of a dick but aside from (trying) to persuade the fisherman to worship satan ig she was fine...)

I fully didn’t understand the point of the Portrait of Mr W H. like I actually have no clue what the moral there was. Passion is dangerous? idk

The Happy Prince and the Nightingale and the Rose were both pretty dope tragedies, that got me a bit emotional.

Overall, a pretty good book.

I don't know enough about Shakespeare apparently

I've picked away at this collection over the years, which includes a number of prose poems. Having just completed "The Fisherman and his Soul" (Wilde's longest work of short fiction) I now feel that I have read this whole collection.

There is quite the range here, everything from tales often considered to be for children, such as "The Happy Prince" and "The Selfish Giant", as well as a deep dive into the mysteries of Shakespeare's muse, "The Portrait of Mr. W.H."

There is a strong fairy tale quality to most of these short pieces, tales of princes and giants, of nightingales and young kings. There are even a couple of ghost stories.

a lot of really good stuff inhere, much of which i had read before. what i hadnt read was sphinx without a secret, the nightingale and the rose, the remarkable rocket, the birthday of the infanta and the star child, as well as the poems in prose. Out of these my favourite was definitely the remarkable rocket, it is still so humerous today and its surprising to me that no one has adapt this story at all cause i think theres a lot of potential. The poems in prose were really good for the most part; tbh i enjoy when wilde's works end in a punchline, like sphinx without a secret, importance of being earnest, the disciple, and the star child. its such a good way to end a story - where you think everythings wrapped up nicely and then they gutpunch you and make you reconsider it all. or end on such a funny note that you have to laugh at ohh thats what this was all building up to? that??

I've only read a few other authors short stories and I found only a few to be worthy of significant praise and attention while many can be all but forgotten. From Oscar Wilde almost all, in this book at least, were something to marvel at. The first 3/4 of the stories are magnificent, full of extravagance and wit, with no shortage of moral teachings and grave but appreciative warnings. The last quarter were less to my liking, with Lord Arthur Savile's crime being the hardest to rally behind but even so this whole collection is beautiful.

Not what I was expecting.
A few of the stories demonstrated the social commentary I was expecting, but on the whole the stories were more Aesop than Saki.
Beautiful writing, and interesting if one is a fan or scholar of Wilde, but a bit of an odd hodgepodge.

Absolutely loved one of the stories - Model Millionaire! Delightful humor!

Oscar Wilde really can do no wrong.

These stories - most of them in the style of fairy tales - capture that same sense of awe you’d get from the bedtime stories your mother recounted to you as a child. Reminds me of the joy of stories, what a privilege they are to experience. I wouldn’t think that these very moral, very Christian, tales would connect to me much as a modern reader but Wilde’s timeless wit and delectable prose make this an absolute pleasure to read.

(Also, I feel like I could write a whole thesis paper on the gay angst in The Portrait of Mr. W.H. - and I’m sure people already have.)

Yetişkinlere yönelik öyküler ve masallar, kesinlikle çocuklar okumamalı. Verdiği mesajlardaki eleştirel yanlar güzel. En çok Genç Kral'ı beğendim. Yalnız, Oscar Wilde'ın yakışıklı ve güzel oldukları için başkalarını küçümseyen insan takıntısı var sanırım, öykülerde bu tekrar ediyor sürekli.
"İnsan eğer zengin değilse çekici olmasının hiçbir faydası yoktur. Romantizm işsiz güçsüzlerin işi değil, zenginlerin ayrıcalığıdır. Sürekli geliri olmak büyüleyici olmaktan iyidir."
"Biz ressamların işi dünyayı gördüğümüz gibi kavramaktır, tanıdıkça ıslah etmek değil"
"Savaşta güçlüler zayıfları, barışta da zenginler fakirleri köle yapar."
"-Üzümleri biz çiğniyoruz, şarabı başkası içiyor. Ekinleri biz biçiyoruz ama soframız bomboş. Sabahları bizi sefalet uyandırır, geceleri utanç bizimle oturur.
-Zenginlerle yoksullar kardeş değil mi?
-Evet kardeştirler fakat zengin kardeşin adı Kabil'dir."
"-Sizin için dans edemeyecek çünkü kalbi kırılmış.
-Bir daha benimle oynamaya geleceklerin kalbi olmasın!"

Absolutely stunning!!