Happy Prince and Other Tales (version 5)

Oscar Wilde said of his story The Happy Prince that it was "an attempt to treat a tragic modern problem in a form that aims at delicacy and imaginative treatment; it is a reaction against the purely imitative character of modern art.” His Fairy Tales then were only partly written for children and as he said, "partly for those who have kept the childlike faculties of wonder and joy, and who find in simplicity a subtle strangeness".

In The Happy Prince and The Nightingale and the Rose, Wilde explores love and self sacrifice. The Selfish Giant will not let the children in his garden but repents and is redeemed. The Miller in the Devoted Friend is not only selfish but an egotistical hypocrite. The Remarkable Rocket is also a tale about egotism and conceit. (Summary by Noel Badrian)