This book is a favourite of June 2011 Guest Editor Michael Morpurgo:
"This was the first story, I think, that ever made me cry. What was
strange was that I wanted to read it over and over again. It still has
the power to make me cry."
Sally Grindley, December 2010 Guest Editor also chose The Happy Prince:
"This is one of those tales that haunts you long after it has ended.
It’s beautifully narrated, timeless and ‘placeless’ and full of hidden
messages. The Prince is a golden statue with precious stones for eyes.
When Swallow perches on him on her way to Egypt, he asks her to
distribute his eyes and gold to all the poor people he sees below him.
Swallow takes pity on him when he has lost finery and decides to stay
with him over the winter… The tale is haunting me again now, many years
after I first read it."
While best known for his comedies of the 1890s, including The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde was a master of many forms. This grand reproduction of a rare 1910 edition includes five of his very best fairy tales: "The Happy Prince," "The Nightingale and the Rose," "The Selfish Giant," "The Devoted Friend," and "The Remarkable Rocket." Charles Robinson, one of the most successful artists of the Golden Age, enhances the text with 12 remarkable full-color plates and scores of other line drawings: decorated initial caps, illustrated vignettes, and other embellishments.
A gifted poet, playwright and wit, Oscar Wilde was a phenomenon in 19th century England. He was illustrious for preaching the importance of style in life and art, and of attacking Victorian narrow mindedness.
Wilde is immortalised through his works, and the stories he wrote for children such as "The Happy Prince" and "The Selfish Giant" are still vibrant in the imagination of the public.
