book review of the happy prince

Book review: “The Happy Prince & Other Tales” by Oscar Wilde

It’s something of a surprise to be reminded that Oscar Wilde — the author of The Picture of Dorian Gray and the subject of a scandalous 1895 trial over consensual homosexual acts — wrote stories for children.  But, then again, these aren’t your usual stories for children.

As Michele Mendelssohn notes in her sparkling introduction to the new edition of The Happy Prince & Other Tales , Wilde said the pieces were “meant partly for children, and partly for those who have kept the childlike faculties of wonder and joy.”

Like classic fables, Wilde’s five tales, originally published in 1888, use fantastic characters and settings to look at age-old questions, such as: What is love?  What is the right way to live?

Unlike those fables, however, Wilde doesn’t offer clear-cut morals.  His tales are suggestive rather than prescriptive.  They are comfortable in ambiguity.  They don’t employ a lesson to close the door on thinking but throw it wide open with questions that are likely to itch at the reader long afterwards.  Indeed, in this way, they are subversive — invitations, according to Mendelssohn, to critical thinking.

In other words, perfect for the open minds of children and for anyone else with “the childlike faculties of wonder and joy.”

“A smiling giant”

This new edition, a lavish and beautifully crafted hardcover, has been published by the famed Bodleian Library and is being distributed in the United States by University of Chicago Press.  It features 12 expressive and enigmatic watercolor illustrations by Charles Robinson from 1913.

Mendelssohn, the author of the well-received 2018 biography Making Oscar Wilde , opens her 23-page introduction with a surprisingly heartwarming scene:

Picture Oscar Wilde — imposing, sophisticated, elegantly dressed in a tailored suit — on all fours.  He is down on the nursery floor, all six feet four inches of him.  Two excited little children named Vyvyan and Cyril sit astride his back…He has put all two hundred pounds of himself at their service.  He will become any animal they wish; he roars like a lion for them, then howls like a wolf and neighs like a horse.

The two boys were his sons, and Mendelssohn reports they would remember this scene for as long as they lived.  Much later in life, Vyvyan wrote that he recalled his father as “a smiling giant” who “told us all his own written fairy stories.” He was two and his brother was three when The Happy Prince & Other Tales was published.

Playful and pointed

There is a playfulness to the five stories, averaging about 14 pages, and pointedness.  Whoever is in authority or acts as an authority comes across as a fool.  To a readership in a highly structured class society, Wilde offers stories in which the poor are quiet heroes — or, at least, can be.  They are tales that seem simple but aren’t.

Consider The Remarkable Rocket , the last story in the collection. The king’s son is getting married, and the Royal Pyrotechnist has prepared a spectacular fireworks display for the end of the wedding evening.  As they wait, the fireworks — a Roman Candle, a Catherine Wheel, a Squib and so on — are talking among themselves, anticipating their big moment.

Soon, though, the conversation is dominated by the Rocket who explains to all the others his exceptionalness:

I am a very remarkable Rocket, and come from remarkable parents.  My mother was the most celebrated Catherine Wheel of her day, and was renowned for her graceful dancing…My father was a Rocket like myself, and of French extraction.

Other thoughts may push in

For another ten pages, the Rocket bullies and badgers and brags, showing at every turn his ignorance.  He’s a type that children are familiar with.  For adults, he’s a blowhard, and critics have described him as a satire on aristocratic vanity.

So, at the end, when he lets his gunpowder get wet and he’s thrown in the mud, the reader might be tempted to look for a moral — such as keep your powder dry or don’t brag. However, as glad as the reader may be that the Rocket got what was coming to him, other thoughts may push their way in.

Such as: Isn’t it tragic that the Rocket made this mistake and could not fulfill his role in life?  Yes, the Rocket was irritating, but his vanity made him blind.  It was a personality weakness.  Was the Rocket a victim of his flaw? Should he be pitied?

And, beyond that, think about the characters in this story.  They are all fireworks.  They live in order to explode for the entertainment of others.  Is this a commentary by Wilde on the human experience?  

“Timeless existential problems”

Or consider the first story in the collection, The Happy Prince .

The Happy Prince is a statue, high above the city, “gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold,” with two bright sapphires for eyes and a large red ruby, glowing on his sword-hilt. A swallow, left behind by the others who have fled south for the winter, decides to make “a golden bedroom” between the statue’s feet.

But the swallow discovers that the Happy Prince is crying because, from his height, “I can see all the ugliness and all the misery of my city.”  Soon, the two are working together to help the city’s poor. 

On orders from the Happy Prince, the swallow pries the ruby out of the sword-hilt and takes it to the mother of a sick boy.  And, on the following nights, he takes each of the sapphires to other suffering people, and then he strips each gold leaf off the Happy Prince and takes them to others who are needy.

And, then, exhausted, the swallow kisses the now-undecorated statue and falls dead at his feet. And the leaders of the city decide the statue looks ugly, “little better than a beggar,” so they pull it down and melt it in a furnace: “As he is no longer beautiful, he is no longer useful.”

Questions remain

The swallow and the Happy Prince end up in heaven, and you could say the moral of the story is that you should do good works.  Which, of course, is true.  But questions remain.

What about all those city leaders who only see the statue as having value if it is pretty?  Does the story indicate that their attitude toward the statue is the same they have toward the poor and needy?  That the poor and the needy have no value if they aren’t useful?

And, if the right thing to do is to do good works, why are there so many poor and needy people?  Why aren’t the city leaders doing good similar works?

And what does it say about the city that the two who are doing good works — the swallow and the Happy Prince — die in the effort?  And why do they seem so alone in trying to help the needy?

Wilde’s stories, Mendelssohn writes, “address timeless existential problems…[and] go to the heart of the human experience.”

They are far from simple, rich in complexity. And Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince & Other Tales is a good book to be reading today.

Patrick T. Reardon

This review originally appeared at Third Coast Review on 8.24.23.

Written by : Patrick T. Reardon

For more than three decades Patrick T. Reardon was an urban affairs writer, a feature writer, a columnist, and an editor for the Chicago Tribune. In 2000 he was one of a team of 50 staff members who won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. Now a freelance writer and poet, he has contributed chapters to several books and is the author of Faith Stripped to Its Essence. His website is https://patricktreardon.com/.

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Book Reviews on...

The happy prince, by oscar wilde.

This was the first sad book I loved. It’s really, really heartbreaking, and an extraordinary love story. It really is exquisitely written

Other books by Oscar Wilde

De profundis by oscar wilde, the complete short stories by oscar wilde, the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde, the soul of man under socialism by oscar wilde, the importance of being earnest and other plays by oscar wilde, our most recommended books, middlemarch by george eliot, war and peace by leo tolstoy, on liberty by john stuart mill, nineteen eighty-four by george orwell, the odyssey by homer and translated by emily wilson, the confessions by augustine (translated by maria boulding).

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The Happy Prince, Oscar Wilde: Summary, Analysis & Themes

Summary: the happy prince by oscar wilde, the sad affair, prince's regret and plea, the unraveling friendship, the harsh winter, the new ruler's decision, the final journey, the divine evaluation, analysis of happy prince by oscar wilde, moral lesson, themes: happy prince by oscar wilde, affection and compassion, appearance versus true worth, inequality and social disparities, faith and altruism, characterization: the happy prince by oscar wilde, the city people, the divine and the envoy, the swallow.

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Oscar Wilde online

The happy prince.

by Oscar Wilde

High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword-hilt.

He was very much admired indeed. “He is as beautiful as a weathercock,” remarked one of the Town Councillors who wished to gain a reputation for having artistic tastes; “only not quite so useful,” he added, fearing lest people should think him unpractical, which he really was not.

“Why can’t you be like the Happy Prince?” asked a sensible mother of her little boy who was crying for the moon. “The Happy Prince never dreams of crying for anything.”

“I am glad there is some one in the world who is quite happy,” muttered a disappointed man as he gazed at the wonderful statue.

“He looks just like an angel,” said the Charity Children as they came out of the cathedral in their bright scarlet cloaks and their clean white pinafores.

“How do you know?” said the Mathematical Master, “you have never seen one.”

“Ah! but we have, in our dreams,” answered the children; and the Mathematical Master frowned and looked very severe, for he did not approve of children dreaming.

One night there flew over the city a little Swallow. His friends had gone away to Egypt six weeks before, but he had stayed behind, for he was in love with the most beautiful Reed. He had met her early in the spring as he was flying down the river after a big yellow moth, and had been so attracted by her slender waist that he had stopped to talk to her.

“Shall I love you?” said the Swallow, who liked to come to the point at once, and the Reed made him a low bow. So he flew round and round her, touching the water with his wings, and making silver ripples. This was his courtship, and it lasted all through the summer.

“It is a ridiculous attachment,” twittered the other Swallows; “she has no money, and far too many relations”; and indeed the river was quite full of Reeds. Then, when the autumn came they all flew away.

After they had gone he felt lonely, and began to tire of his lady-love. “She has no conversation,” he said, “and I am afraid that she is a coquette, for she is always flirting with the wind.” And certainly, whenever the wind blew, the Reed made the most graceful curtseys. “I admit that she is domestic,” he continued, “but I love travelling, and my wife, consequently, should love travelling also.”

“Will you come away with me?” he said finally to her; but the Reed shook her head, she was so attached to her home.

“You have been trifling with me,” he cried. “I am off to the Pyramids. Good-bye!” and he flew away.

All day long he flew, and at night-time he arrived at the city. “Where shall I put up?” he said; “I hope the town has made preparations.”

Then he saw the statue on the tall column.

“I will put up there,” he cried; “it is a fine position, with plenty of fresh air.” So he alighted just between the feet of the Happy Prince.

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The Happy Prince: A Tale by Oscar Wilde – Book Review

Illustrated and Adapted by Maisie Paradise Shearring

Published by Thames & Hudson ISBN: 978-0-500-65111-7

Reviewed by Karl Andy Foster

On the cover of this hardcover book is the Prince of the title. He stands atop a column overlooking his city. His left arm stretches outwards to lead the eye to the book title. This new version of the popular story has been given several visual twists. Chiefly the Swallow is anthropomorphised to help us to feel his emotions more deeply. There is a kind of magic realism within the images as we are transported through time and space, and across a cold and unfeeling city.

The tale is adapted from a short story by Oscar Wilde. Shearring’s text is spare and moves the story along efficiently, whereas in Wilde’s original text he gives greater dimension to the psychology of the Prince and the Swallow. Wilde emphasises the love story, while this book condenses the narrative down to the essential motivations of the two protagonists.

This award winning picture book is illustrated from the point of view of the Swallow and the Prince. They are up on high and see the objective truths that the people on the ground are too ‘blind’ to see. Even after the Prince has his sapphire eyes removed by the Swallow, in an act of kindness, his vision remains clear.

The book is printed on uncoated paper so the inks appear subtler allowing a good sense of space and place. Shearring’s illustrations are very stylised and use a palette not often employed in picture books, broad strokes and fields of grey or brown. The drawing is bold, direct and some of the mark making naïve in character. Her work is reminiscent of the trend for bold and confident illustrations in publishing. It brings to mind output by Laura Carlin, William Goldsmith and the NoBrow Press.

It’s a beautiful story and the illustrations draw us into the benighted world seen through the eyes of the Prince and his companion. They are locked in a struggle that brings them closer together as they discover they are prepared to die for each other. The final transformation image as they arrive in paradise is a nod to an inclusivity that Wilde could only dream of.

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THE HAPPY PRINCE

A tale by oscar wilde.

by Oscar Wilde ; adapted by Maisie Paradise Shearring ; illustrated by Maisie Paradise Shearring ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 5, 2017

The important themes of charity and love come through strongly in this thoughtfully and playfully illustrated but plainly...

A well-known literary fairy tale about compassion, adapted and with new illustrations.

The Swallow’s lyrical speeches have been removed, leaving the basic outline of the story of a gold statue, the titular Happy Prince. As a living ruler, he admits that “I didn’t care what happened to my people.” Now concerned with his citizens, the gold statue asks the kind Swallow (pictured with a white, human face) to stay in the city instead of migrating to Egypt to escape the cold. The Happy Prince wants the Swallow to give his sword’s ruby to a brown-skinned seamstress so she can purchase “food and medicine for her poor son.” He asks the Swallow to carry his sapphire eye to a young, white writer who needs firewood and finally to take his other sapphire eye to a suffering, white match-girl. The Swallow selflessly declares that he cannot leave the blind Prince. Other charitable acts follow as the Swallow gives away the Prince’s gold leaf exterior, but the bird finally dies from the cold and the Mayor orders the now “shabby” statue to be destroyed. As a fit ending for the two true friends, one of God’s angels brings them to a Rousseau-like “garden of Paradise, together.” The bold, expressive, mixed-media illustrations have a childlike look and idiosyncratically include Egyptian palm trees and camels in the northern city. The detailed, busy, often humorous images are best appreciated one-on-one.

Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-500-65111-7

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Thames & Hudson

Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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LITTLE DAYMOND LEARNS TO EARN

by Daymond John ; illustrated by Nicole Miles ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2023

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.

How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!

John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Pub Date: March 21, 2023

ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

HORRIBLE HARRY SAYS GOODBYE

From the horrible harry series , vol. 37.

by Suzy Kline ; illustrated by Amy Wummer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 27, 2018

A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode.

A long-running series reaches its closing chapters.

Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on—but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. From his desk he pulls a burned hot dog and other items that featured in past episodes, says goodbye to Song Lee and other classmates, and even (for the first time ever) leads Doug and readers into his house and memento-strewn room for further reminiscing. Of course, Harry isn’t as blasé about the move as he pretends, and eyes aren’t exactly dry when he departs. But hardly is he out of sight before Doug is meeting Mohammad, a new neighbor from Syria who (along with further diversifying a cast that began as mostly white but has become increasingly multiethnic over the years) will also be starting fourth grade at summer’s end, and planning a written account of his “horrible” buddy’s exploits. Finished illustrations not seen.

Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-451-47963-1

Page Count: 80

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018

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July 13, 2017

The happy prince.

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The Happy Prince

By Oscar Wilde

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The Happy Prince

In 1885, Oscar Wilde wrote in a letter to his friend James Whistler, “Be warned in time, James; and remain, as I do, incomprehensible: to be great is to be misunderstood.” Wilde could not have known how tragically true those words would be a mere decade later. After his highly publicized trial in 1895, Wilde was convicted of “gross indecency” and sentenced to two years’ hard labor. Most of his friends deserted him. Upon his release in 1897, his health ruined, he went into exile in France and died  three years later , nearly friendless and destitute. He was only 46 years old. (Wilde was posthumously pardoned—along with 50,000 other men—in 2017.) “The Happy Prince,” written, directed, and starring Rupert Everett , tells of Wilde’s final 3 years, his isolation, his health issues, his increasing despondence. This is Everett’s first film as a director, and there are times when it shows. But what he brings to the table—as a director, writer, and actor—is his intuitive “take” on Oscar Wilde and the performance alone makes this riveting and revelatory viewing. 

In an early scene, Wilde lounges in a grubby Parisian bed, staring with post-coital appreciation at the naked teenage prostitute standing by the window. Wilde moans, almost rapturously, “Our purple hours are sullied by green notes.” The boy smiles over at Wilde, accepting the older man’s gaze without judgment. Everett’s tone is partly regretful about the “green notes” and the “sullying”, but there’s a sharp note of relish in it, too. Maybe “purple hours” are best when backgrounded by squalor. It’s an extraordinarily textured moment, one of many in the film: it opens up its mysteries the longer you think about it. 

“The Happy Prince” ricochets around in time and styles. There are moments when it’s hard to tell where you are in the timeline. Is it a flashback? Is this London or Paris? There are static scenes of almost painterly beauty (John Conroy’s cinematography deserves much credit), but then there are handheld-camera sequences where you can barely tell what is going on. The framing device of Wilde telling his sons a bedtime story isn’t used consistently enough and you keep losing the thread of the story being told. 

What is essential, though, are the emotional insights about Wilde which Everett brings to the table. Everett knows his Wilde very well. He was wonderfully bitchy as Lord Alfred Goring in 1999’s “ An Ideal Husband ” (where he spoke Wilde’s dialogue effortlessly, not an easy feat), and he also played Wilde in the 2012 revival of David Hare’s play The Judas Kiss  (for which he was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actor). He brings all of that experience to bear in “The Happy Prince.” When the film opens, Wilde is already ruined, skulking through the alleys of Paris’ underworld, running up huge bar tabs which he can’t pay. He looks completely unwell, bloated and sweaty, cheeks smeared with rouge.  His eyes are haunted, flitting around looking for somewhere safe to land. He is rescued by two of the only people who remained loyal to him after his fall, Robbie Ross ( Edwin Thomas ), executor of Wilde’s estate, and Reggie Turner ( Colin Firth ), a holdover from Wilde’s “aesthete” crowd. The two men set him up with lodgings in France, give him money, and do damage control when necessary (it is often necessary). 

Wilde tries for a reconciliation with his wife Constance ( Emily Watson ). He misses his sons (the film opens with Wilde, resplendent in a red velvet suit, telling the two sleepy boys a bedtime story). Whatever Constance’s humiliations as a wife might be, Wilde was a good and loving father, and Watson—in her few scenes—conveys that unbearable tension. But it’s too late to go back, really, and so—ignoring the outraged cries of Robbie and Reggie—Wilde starts up again with Alfred “Bosie” Douglas ( Colin Morgan ), the young man who brought about Wilde’s ruination in 1895. The story of Lord Alfred Douglas and his wretched father, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry, could fill a 2-season television series, but suffice it to say that “Bosie” egging Wilde on to sue the Marquess for libel doesn’t exactly reek of “the love that dare not speak its name” but “What a perfect way to stick it to dear old Dad.” Everett’s script does not soft pedal this, nor does it romanticize the affair. Morgan, looking like a Dante Gabriel Rossetti painting come to life. is perfectly cast as Bosie.  You take one look at him, at the icy look in his blue eyes beneath his blonde curls, and you want to tell Wilde to run as fast as he can in the other direction.

But Wilde didn’t run. Or he did, but he ran towards Bosie, and Everett shows us why. This understanding is key to the film’s often excruciating power. Everett brings to the performance his knowledge of how the centuries-long closet formed gay male companionship and love, how language was filled with supersonic signals for its intended audience, something Wilde himself brought to its pinnacle in his plays, stories and epigrams. As Wilde gets sucked back into Bosie’s melodrama, having orgies in a rat-infested mansion in Italy, you feel the ship sailing—Wilde’s ship—towards the rocks. The young party boys will drop him the second he runs out of money, just like most of his friends dropped him after the trial. 

While in prison, Wilde wrote an extraordinary and now famous letter to Bosie, called “De Profundis.” 20 pages long, it’s difficult reading because Wilde’s anguish is so palpable. At one point, he shares with Bosie: 

“For the first year of my imprisonment I did nothing else, and can remember doing nothing else, but wring my hands in impotent despair, and say, ‘What an ending, what an appalling ending!’ Now I try to say to myself, and sometimes when I am not torturing myself do really and sincerely say, ‘What a beginning, what a wonderful beginning!’ It may really be so. It may become so.” 

Tragically, it wouldn’t. Wilde’s release was not a “wonderful beginning.” It was the beginning of the end. Clunky structure and awkward scene transitions aside, “The Happy Prince” swims around in a charged space where despair and hope exist simultaneously. The two may even be synonymous. This is due almost entirely to Everett’s performance of a devastated man, plagued by guilt and self-loathing, cavorting with naked Italian boys, haunted by visions of Constance and his lost sons, his literary life—his whole life—over. Everett’s approach is unblinking. “The Happy Prince” is painful to watch, but filled with insight, complexity and understanding. 

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O’Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master’s in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

• Edwin Thomas as Robbie Ross
• Tom Wilkinson as Fr Dunne
• Rupert Everett as Oscar Wilde
• Colin Firth as Reggie Turner
• John Standing as Dr. Tucker
• Emily Watson as Constance
• Colin Morgan as Alfred Bosie Douglas
• Gabriel Yared

Cinematographer

• John Conroy
• Nicolas Gaster
• Rupert Everett

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The Happy Prince Summary

Summary   Oscar Wilde

The Happy Prince is a timeless tale written by Oscar Wilde. It is a story about a majestic statue of a little prince that overlooks a city and a swallow who helped him share his precious stones with the less fortunate.

Further study The Happy Prince Book The Happy Prince Analysis The Happy Prince Characters Oscar Wilde Biography

The story begins with a description of the statue of the Happy Prince, which stood on a high pillar on a hill above the city. People truly admired him because he was covered with thin leaves of fine gold, and was adorned with eyes made of two bright sapphires. Even the hilt of his sword was beautiful as a large red ruby ​​shone on it. One of the city councilors, who liked people to think of him as a real connoisseur of art, once said that the statue of the Happy Prince is as beautiful as the singer on the weather vane, but that it is not useful because the world may consider it impractical, even though he really wasn't.

One boy on the street was crying because he was not given the moon, and his mother asked him why he couldn't be like the Happy Prince who would never cry for something he didn't have. The happy prince was the only one who was always completely happy, and the residents of the Charity Children, dressed in their crimson robes and clean white aprons, said that the statue looked like an angel. The mathematics professor asked them how they knew what an angel looked like, and they replied that they had seen an angel in a dream. The professor frowned at that.

One night, a little Swallow flew over the city and fell in love with a Reed, so he stayed in the city, even though all his friends had already flown to Egypt six weeks ago. One summer he was flying down the river after a big yellow butterfly, so he saw Reed for the first time. The swallow was attracted by the thin figure of Reed, so he began to fly around her and court her by creating silver circles on the surface of the water. He courted her all summer, and that made some other swallows laugh, who chirped that it was a funny relationship because Reed had no money at all, and she has a lot of relatives.

"After they had gone he felt lonely, and began to tire of his lady-love. "She has no conversation," he said, "and I am afraid that she is a coquette, for she is always flirting with the wind." And certainly, whenever the wind blew, the Reed made the most graceful curtseys. "I admit that she is domestic," he continued, "but I love travelling, and my wife, consequently, should love travelling also.""

The swallow asked her if she would go on a journey with him, but she shook her head, so Swallow left her and went on his way to the pyramids; to Egypt. The swallow flew all day and found its resting place for the night right in the city; right between the feet of the Happy Prince. It seemed to him like a great position with lots of fresh air.

Just when Swallow thought that he had a golden bedroom and found a great place to stay, a large drop of water fell on him. There wasn't even a cloud in the sky, so the little bird was amazed at how the stars were quite bright while it was raining. He thought that the climate of northern Europe was really dreadful. After a few drops, he concluded that the statue was useless, it could not even protect him from the rain, so he looked up and saw something: big tears were rolling down the prince's golden cheeks, so the Swallow became sad and asked him why he was crying.

"His face was so beautiful in the moonlight that the little Swallow was filled with pity."

The happy prince said that he once had a human heart and was alive and happy, but now he is dead and stands at the height of the city from where he sees all the sadness and misery of his city. He lived in the castle of Sans-Souci, and sadness was not allowed to enter there. During the day he would play in the garden, and in the evening he would lead a dance in the Great Hall. A very high wall was built around the garden, so the prince never knew what was behind it, because everything around him was so beautiful and fairytale-like. His courtiers called him the Happy Prince because he was truly happy if contentment could be considered happiness. Now he is placed on a great height and sees all the troubles his city is going through.

Although his heart is made of lead, the prince cannot help but cry.

""Far away," continued the statue in a low musical voice, "far away in a little street there is a poor house. One of the windows is open, and through it I can see a woman seated at a table. Her face is thin and worn, and she has coarse, red hands, all pricked by the needle, for she is a seamstress. She is embroidering passion-flowers on a satin gown for the loveliest of the Queen's maids-of-honour to wear at the next Court-ball. In a bed in the corner of the room her little boy is lying ill. He has a fever, and is asking for oranges. His mother has nothing to give him but river water, so he is crying. Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow, will you not bring her the ruby out of my sword-hilt? My feet are fastened to this pedestal and I cannot move.""

After telling Swallow a sad story about a poor mother and a sick son, the prince asked him to take the ruby ​​from the hilt of his sword to that mother because he cannot move. His feet were firmly fastened to the pedestal.

The swallow said that his friends were waiting for him in Egypt, a place where the king lies in a painted sarcophagus, wrapped in yellow cloth and anointed with fragrant spices. Around his neck is a necklace of light green jade, and his palms are like withered leaves. Moreover, he doesn't really care about the boy because, last summer, the two miller's sons threw stones at him at the river.

""I don't think I like boys," answered the Swallow. "Last summer, when I was staying on the river, there were two rude boys, the miller's sons, who were always throwing stones at me. They never hit me, of course; we swallows fly far too well for that, and besides, I come of a family famous for its agility; but still, it was a mark of disrespect.""

However, the little bird took pity on the prince, who asked her to be his messenger. He took out a big red ruby ​​from the prince's sword and started flying over the city roofs, past the cathedral tower and the castle.

Flying past the palace, Swallow heard music and saw a beautiful girl with her lover. He told her about how wonderful the stars are, the same as the power of love. The girl said that the dressmakers were lazy and that she hoped her dress would be ready for the State-ball. Then the little bird flew over the Jewish ghetto and saw old Jews haggling and weighing gold coins on copper scales.

Finally, the Swallow reached the house of the poor boy; the mother fell asleep from exhaustion, and the boy tossed and turned on the bed from fever. He dropped the ruby ​​at the woman's thimble and flew around the bed and cooled the boy's forehead with his wings, and the boy already felt the freshness and recovery.

The swallow proudly returned to the prince and told him what he had done. He admitted that he was now feeling warm, so in the morning, even though it was winter, he went to bathe in the river. This unusual phenomenon was noticed by an ornithology professor when he was crossing the bridge, so he wrote a long letter about it for the local newspaper.

"Every one quoted it, it was full of so many words that they could not understand."

The swallow bathed and cheered up at the thought of going to Egypt that evening. After that, Swallow sat on the church bell tower for a long time, the chirping of sparrows followed him everywhere which suited him because he was considered a classy foreigner.

When he saw the moon, he flew again to the Happy Prince and asked him if he had any messages for Egypt because he was leaving, but the prince asked him to stay with him one more night because he saw an exhausted young man in the attic of a house:

"He is leaning over a desk covered with papers, and in a tumbler by his side there is a bunch of withered violets. His hair is brown and crisp, and his lips are red as a pomegranate, and he has large and dreamy eyes. He is trying to finish a play for the Director of the Theatre, but he is too cold to write any more. There is no fire in the grate, and hunger has made him faint.""

The swallow had a good heart, so he stayed and wanted to take the prince's ruby ​​to the young man in the attic, but he no longer had them; only his eyes remained.

Prince's eyes were made of rare sapphires, precious stones, brought from India a thousand years ago. Prince told the little bird to take a sapphire from his eye and take it to the poor young man. He will sell it to a jeweler, get the necessary food and wood and thus finish his play.

The swallow in tears carried one eye to the attic of the unfortunate student. The roof had a hole, so he entered the house without any problems, and the young man didn't even hear the bird because he was holding his head in his hands. Looking up, the young man saw a beautiful sapphire next to the withered violets and beamed. He was instantly happy because he could now finish his play.

""I am beginning to be appreciated," he cried; "this is from some great admirer. Now I can finish my play," and he looked quite happy."

The next day, swallow flew to the harbor, sat on the mast of a large vessel and watched the sailors who were pulling out heavy crates from the ship's hold. As soon as the little bird saw the moon, he flew back to the Happy Prince and tried to say goodbye to him, saying that it was winter and that cold snow soon will cover everything, while in Egypt the sun warms green palm trees and crocodiles lie in the mud lazily. His friends have already built nests in the Temple of Baalbec, and pink and white doves are watching them and cooing among themselves.

Nevertheless, the Swallow stayed with the Happy Prince one more night because the prince now felt sorry for the girl selling matches:

""In the square below," said the Happy Prince, "there stands a little match-girl."

She dropped the matches in the gutter and now they are wet and ruined. Her father will beat her if she doesn't bring home some money and she's crying. She has no shoes or socks, and her head is bare. Prince asked Swallow to take out his other eye and take it to the little girl, even though it will mean that he will now be completely blind.

The swallow flew to the poor girl and dropped the gem on her hand. The little girl thought how beautiful this piece of glass was and ran home smiling. The swallow returned to the prince and promised him that he would stay with him forever.

""I will stay with you always," said the Swallow, and he slept at the Prince's feet."

All the next day, Swallow sat on the prince's shoulder and told him about everything he had seen in foreign countries. He told him about the red ibises that stand in long lines on the banks of the Nile and catch goldfish with their beaks. Then he told about the Sphinx who is about as old as the world itself, lives in the desert, and knows everything. He met merchants walking slowly next to their camels and carrying amber beads in their hands. Then he told him about the King of the Mountains of the Moon, who is as black as ebony and worships a large crystal. He didn't forget to mention the huge green snake that sleeps in the palm tree and the twenty priests who feed it with honey-cakes. How he also saw the pygmies who sail on leaves over the big lake and are constantly at war with butterflies.

However, the prince was interested in what was happening in his town:

"Dear little Swallow," said the Prince, "you tell me of marvellous things, but more marvellous than anything is the suffering of men and of women. There is no Mystery so great as Misery. Fly over my city, little Swallow, and tell me what you see there."

The swallow flew over the city and saw the rich rejoicing in their beautiful houses, while the beggars sat at their front doors. In the dark streets, he saw the faces of starving children staring blankly into the darkness around them, and under the arch of a bridge, he saw two hungry and poor boys lying next to each other so that they could at least get a little warm. The boys were chased by the Watchman and got wet in the rain.

When the Swallow told the prince about the sad scenes he had seen, he decided that the Swallow would take all the gold leaves off him, piece by piece, and give it to the poor.

"Leaf after leaf of the fine gold the Swallow picked off, till the Happy Prince looked quite dull and grey. Leaf after leaf of the fine gold he brought to the poor, and the children's faces grew rosier, and they laughed and played games in the street. "We have bread now!" they cried."

The first snow arrived, and everything froze, so the little Swallow knew that it would get colder and that he would die.

"But at last he knew that he was going to die."

Although he knew what fate awaited him, Swallow didn't want to leave the prince because he loved him too much. All that was left of the little bird were the crumbs outside the baker's door and the strong flapping of its wings to keep him warm.

When nothing helped anymore, the Swallow decided to sit on the prince's shoulder for the last time and say goodbye to him. The prince was thinking that Swallow is finally going to Egypt.

"I am glad that you are going to Egypt at last, little Swallow," said the Prince, "you have stayed too long here; but you must kiss me on the lips, for I love you."

In a sad voice, the little bird explained to the prince that he was not going to Egypt, but to the House of Death, and he called Death the sister of the Sleep. He fulfilled the prince's wishes, kissed his lips, and fell dead at his feet. Something broke inside the prince; the leaden heart split in two.

"At that moment a curious crack sounded inside the statue, as if something had broken. The fact is that the leaden heart had snapped right in two. It certainly was a dreadfully hard frost."

The next morning, the Mayor walked around the square in the company of Town Councillors. Looking at the statue, he said that it looks miserable, only a little better than a beggar:

""How shabby indeed!" cried the Town Councillors, who always agreed with the Mayor; and they went up to look at it.

"The ruby has fallen out of his sword, his eyes are gone, and he is golden no longer," said the Mayor in fact, "he is little better than a beggar!"

"Little better than a beggar," said the Town Councillors."

The Major said that they need to issue a proclamation that birds are not to be allowed to die here, and the art professor concluded that Happy Prince is no longer beautiful and therefore not useful. Then they removed the statue of the Happy Prince.

They melted the statue in a blast furnace, so the Mayor called a meeting of the Corporation to decide what to do with the metal. Of course, another statue had to be installed, so each of the city councilors wanted it to be his statue, and a heated argument ensued.

The overseer of the workmen at the foundry said that a very unusual thing had happened; the broken lead heart could not be melted in the furnace, so it would have to be thrown away. That's how the prince's heart was thrown into the garbage together with his beloved Swallow.

""What a strange thing!" said the overseer of the workmen at the foundry. "This broken lead heart will not melt in the furnace. We must throw it away." So they threw it on a dust-heap where the dead Swallow was also lying."

God told one of his angels to bring him the two greatest treasures from that city, and the angel brought a heart of lead and a dead bird.

""You have rightly chosen," said God, "for in my garden of Paradise this little bird shall sing for evermore, and in my city of gold the Happy Prince shall praise me.""

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The Happy Prince: A Tale by Oscar Wilde Hardcover – Picture Book, September 5, 2017

A beautifully illustrated retelling of Oscar Wilde’s classic story

Originally published by Oscar Wilde in 1888, The Happy Prince is the much- loved story of a gilded statue, a kind- hearted Swallow, and generosity of spirit. A Swallow bound for Egypt takes refuge at the feet of a golden statue of a prince erected in a European town, agreeing to bring pieces of the statue to less fortunate city dwellers at the request of the prince himself.

Illustrator Maisie Paradise Shearring offers a lively take on this well- known tale, creating each scene in whimsical detail. This fresh perspective appeals to a new generation of children, while imparting an important life lesson at the same time.

• Reading age 7 - 10 years
• Print length 48 pages
• Language English
• Grade level Kindergarten - 5
• Dimensions 10 x 0.5 x 11.4 inches
• Publisher Thames & Hudson
• Publication date September 5, 2017
• ISBN-10 0500651116
• ISBN-13 978-0500651117
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

From school library journal, about the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Thames & Hudson; Illustrated edition (September 5, 2017)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 48 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0500651116
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0500651117
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 7 - 10 years
• Grade level ‏ : ‎ Kindergarten - 5
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10 x 0.5 x 11.4 inches
• #3,626 in Children's Bird Books (Books)
• #10,807 in Children's Classics
• #16,585 in Children's Folk Tales & Myths (Books)

About the authors

Oscar wilde.

Oscar Fingall O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford where, a disciple of Pater, he founded an aesthetic cult. In 1884 he married Constance Lloyd, and his two sons were born in 1885 and 1886.

His novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and social comedies Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), established his reputation. In 1895, following his libel action against the Marquess of Queesberry, Wilde was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for homosexual conduct, as a result of which he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), and his confessional letter De Profundis (1905). On his release from prison in 1897 he lived in obscurity in Europe, and died in Paris in 1900.

Maisie Paradise Shearring

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

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