The Happy Prince and Other Stories (1888)

These stories are jam packed with luscious visuals of splendorous castle and magical places and beings. There is a version of the little mermaid from the perspective of the Prince! I like the way Oscar wilde paints with words , even though I wished for happier endings I was enchanted by his amazing power of description. The stories were effective at leaving me wishing for kindnes in the world.

את זה למדתי בתיכון אצל גרבלסקי והוא הצליח לעשות את​ הבלתי אפשרי, להפוך את אוסקר ווילד למשעמם​ ( )

The Happy Prince
The geniality of Oscar Wilde emerges from the first lines, when for instance, there is the description of the happy prince as a cold immovable statue; philosophically speaking what does it mean?
In my opinion, during our life we do not care about the other, we are simply governed by our selfishness, we want to be like a prince without problems of any sort.
The antithesis or better the purification of our life will be our death, being an immovable entity, like a statue we are prone to observe the environment around us, where inevitably will emerge the positivity and the negativity of the human being and its free will.
I would like to speculate on the symbolism of the “A swallow in winter” as an unpolluted creature and a synonymous of renaissance, that inevitably it will die for having being unselfish.
“I am going to the house of death. Death is the brother of sleep, is he not?”
Fortunately the good actions of the little swallow will be appreciated in the garden of paradise; “for in my garden of paradise this little bird shall sing for evermore, and in my city of gold the Happy Prince shall prise me”
The implicit message is that that the human selfishness prevails over the altruism.

The Nightingale and the Rose
In the first lines comes out the superficiality, immaturity of the humankind, they believe that the love is a goods, despite having absorbed all the philosophies, and knowledge, its opposite is the figure of the wise, that is represented by the nightingale; a bird.
The novice of this tale is the introduction of the evil even in the flora, incorrectly exempted from the free will.
In my opinion this state of mind, in the visual art could be witnessed by the scream of Munch.
“Yet Love is better than life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?” the nightingale said.

This question has a metaphysical flavour, why a bird in the name of love should lost its life, for the young student? ....Possibly because he has felt the power of a true love.
Once again the “scream” of Munch is the perfect visualisation of a uncomfortable truth: the human being is not able to love, or better the unconditional love.
Love nothing else that a physical activity; following this reasonement we must be agree to the following phrase “What I a silly thing Love is"

The Selfish Giant
The first paragraph describe a green and beautiful garden, further embellished by the naturalness of children and “here and there over the grass stood beautiful flowers like stars, and there were twelve peach-trees that in the spring time broke out into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl, and in the autumn bore rich fruit”

This heavenly environment is ruined by the Giant, who wrote on a road sign “Trepassers will be prosecuted” in other words the essence of the humanity, but something will happen, i.e. the definition of selfish bleeding, in the innocent world inhabited by children.

Reading this line I’ve been impressed by the association “flowers like stars” and “Children” maybe the implicit message it is like to say that somewhere in our galaxy there should be star that illuminate a planet, free from selfishness.

Fortunately even the selfish giant recognise his errors and most importantly the awareness of its selfishness, doing so in the spring the flowers will bloom in its garden.

In my opinion the “little boy” is the antithesis of the evil.

The Devoted Friend
“As I was his best friend” said the Miller
This is a pleasurable tale of a friendship between the little Hans and Miller.
Hans is a genuine and honest boy, for him the friendship is all, even the love is secondary.
Unfortunately the world around him is quite different, for instance does not exist at all an unconditional friendship, but the society is impregnated of exploitation and hypocrisy.

The Remarkable Rocket

In this tale emerges a magnificent descriptive voice, which tells the characteristics of a princely marriage; this passage is fundamental in order to introduce the main characters, for instance, The Remarkable Rocket, Catherine Wheel, a crackers, the Roman Candle, the Bengala Light and even a frog.

The plot is based on a dialogue btw the major key elements for a spectacular viewing of fireworks display, using a provocative and satirical language.

They will touch philosophical arguments like the supposed end of the romanticism, selfishness, and an embarrassing servility.

At the end of this tale there will be a powerful philosophical argument btw the Rocket and the Frog.

Cheers

Italo ( )

This was one of my favorite books when I was a child. My favorite story was "The Nightingale and the Rose." I cried every time I read it. Other stories include "The Happy Prince;" "The Fisherman and his Soul;" "The Birthday of the Infanta;" "The Young King;" and "The Star-Child." The edition I had was published in 1940 and beautifully illustrated by Everett Shinn. ( )

Probably my favourite piece of children's literature. Lovely stories beautifully told, though very sad (some perhaps too sad for little children). Also a pretty edition with some gorgeous illustrations. ( )