The Happy Prince and Other Stories (Puffin Classics)
Oscar Wilde
Language: English
Pages: 224
ISBN: 0141327790
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A haunting, magical fairy-tale collection, in which Oscar Wilde beautifully evokes (among others) The Happy Prince who was not so happy after all, The Selfish Giant who learned to love little children and The Star Child who did not love his parents as much as he should. Each of the stories shines with poetry and magic and will be enjoyed by children of every age. A perfect collection for children young and old, introduced by Markus Zusak, bestselling author of The Book Thief.
grave that had been dug in a deserted churchyard, beyond the city gates, a grave where it was said that another body was also lying, that of a young man of marvellous and foreign beauty, whose hands were tied behind him with a knotted cord, and whose breast was stabbed with many red wounds. Such, at least, was the story that men whispered to each other. Certain it was that the old King, when on his deathbed, whether moved by remorse for his great sin, or merely desiring that the kingdom should
yellow wine, and the vial with the holy oil. He knelt before the image of Christ, and the great candles burned brightly by the jewelled shrine, and the smoke of the incense curled in thin blue wreaths through the dome. He bowed his head in prayer, and the priests in their stiff copes crept away from the altar. And suddenly a wild tumult came from the street outside, and in entered the nobles with drawn swords and nodding plumes, and shields of polished steel. ‘Where is this dreamer of dreams?’
of the wall, and lay basking in the white glare; and the pomegranates split and cracked with the heat, and showed their bleeding red hearts. Even the pale yellow lemons, that hung in such profusion from the mouldering trellis and along the dim arcades, seemed to have caught a richer colour from the wonderful sunlight, and the magnolia trees opened their great globe-like blossoms of folded ivory, and filled the air with a sweet heavy perfume. The little Princess herself walked up and down the
that the sun was too hot, decided that it would be better that her Highness should return without delay to the Palace, where a wonderful feast had been already prepared for her, including a real birthday cake with her own initials worked all over it in painted sugar and a lovely silver flag waving from the top. The Infanta accordingly rose up with much dignity, and having given orders that the little Dwarf was to dance again for her after the hour of siesta, and conveyed her thanks to the young
October 1854 DIED: 30 November 1900 NATIONALITY: Irish LIVED: in Dublin, Oxford, London and Paris MARRIED: to Constance Lloyd in 1884 CHILDREN: two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan What was he like? Oscar Wilde was flamboyant, eccentric, daring, clever and very imaginative. He was one of the most famous and notorious celebrities of the late nineteenth century, well known for his witty remarks and his extravagant lifestyle. Believing in ‘art for art’s sake’, Oscar loved beautiful things and was