Fairy Tales by Oscar Wilde

I’m going to see an opera later this month by Alexander Zemlinsky titled, “The Dwarf” based on a story by Oscar Wilde titled, “The Birthday of the Infanta”. To prepare for the opera I went looking for the story in a volume of collected works of Oscar Wilde I have on my bookshelf. The Infanta story wasn’t there, unfortunately, but three other fairy tales of his were.

The Happy Prince
A prince who had led a happy life sheltered from the world’s pain, dies, and is memorialized with a statue in the town square. The statue is gilded and has sapphires for eyes and a ruby set in the hilt of his sword. From his pedestal in the center of town the happy prince for the first time looks out on the sufferings of the poor and his heart is moved. A swallow, who had delayed his migration to Egypt with his fellows, visits the statue and plans to spend a final night in town nesting between the statue’s feet. But the happy prince asks the nightingale to help him relieve the sufferings of the poor. One by one, and night after night, the swallow plucks out the precious jewels from the statue and delivers them to the houses of the poor, following the prince’s instructions. When the last of the statue’s sapphire eyes are gone, the swallow out of pity stays on, describing the city to the statue and removing leafs of gold from the statue to distribute to the poor. Eventually the winter is too much for the swallow, who has stayed too long, and he dies at the feet of the statue, now completely bare of its gilding. The town elders notice the shabby statue and the dead swallow. They melt down the statue but find that its lead heart, broken in two, will not melt. In the final scene they throw the broken heart and the dead bird onto the same trash heap.

The Nightingale and the Rose
A nightingale hears a student crying his misfortune about a girl he loves who will only agree to dance with him at the ball if he can give her a red rose, but the student’s garden has no red rose. The nightingale is touched by this true expression of love and decides to help. He flies to a rose tree but the tree has only white roses. The tree tells him of a brother rose tree, but that tree has only yellow roses. That tree tells him of one more, growing directly below the student’s window, but when he flies to it, the nightingale learns that the vine produced no roses this year. The nightingale despairs and the rose tells him there is one way to force a red rose: the nightingale must sing the most sincerest love song, while also sacrificing itself so that the bird’s blood will spill out and dye the rose petals. The nightingale agrees. He sings. And he pushes his breast against a rose thorn so it pierces his heart. Over a long night a perfect red rose blooms and the nightingale dies just as the sun rises. The student finds the rose and carries it to his love. But she rejects him, for she has already been courted by a chamberlin who gives her jewels, more precious than flowers. The student goes home, rejects love, and turns his attention to logic and philosophy.

The Selfish Giant
While a giant is away the village children play happily in his garden. The trees blossom and produce sweet fruit. The ground is carpeted in flowers. After seven years, the giant returns and chases the children away. He builds a wall around his garden to keep them out. But keeping out the children he also keeps out the spring. Inside his walled garden it’s always winter. After waiting and waiting for spring to come, finally it does. The giant looks out and sees that the children have found a hole in his wall and they are climbing into the trees, causing them to blossom again in joy. Only one tree doesn’t blossom because the child standing beneath it is too small to climb onto its branches. The giant regrets his selfishness. He leaves his house, the sight of him scares the children away, except for the smallest boy whose eyes are filled with tears and he can’t see the giant. The giant gently lifts the boy into the tree, which instantly blossoms, and gives the boy a kiss. The other children see the giant’s kindness and return to the garden and continue their play. Everything is happy. The children continue to play in the giant’s garden, which the giant encourages and enjoys. But the small boy never comes again. The giant misses him. The other children don’t know who he was or where he has gone. After many years, the giant sees the boy again in his garden. The giant rushes out to him, but is shocked to see the boy’s hands and feet pierced and bloody. The boy says not to be frightened. He is the Christ. The boy says that because the giant was so kind to invite him to his garden that the boy has come now to invite the giant to live in his garden, which is paradise.

The writing is beautiful. The themes are romantic. These are fairy tales for adults which only the most exceptional children will enjoy.