The Happy Prince and Other Stories
Encyclopedia
The Happy Prince and Other Tales (sometimes called The Happy Prince and Other Stories) is a collection of stories for children by Oscar Wilde
first published in May 1888. It contains five stories, "The Happy Prince", "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Selfish Giant", "The Devoted Friend", and "The Remarkable Rocket". It is most famous for its title story, "The Happy Prince".
, and discovers that spring has returned to the garden, as the children have found a way in through a gap in the wall. He sees the error of his ways, and resolves to destroy the wall . However, when he emerges from his castle, all the children run away, except for one boy, who was trying to climb up a tree . The giant helps this boy into a tree that he wants to climb; the boy kisses him in return. The giant announces: "It is your garden now, little children," and knocks down the wall; the children once more play in the garden, and spring returns. But the boy that the Giant helped does not, and the Giant is heartbroken. Many years later, the Giant is old and feeble, and awakes, one winter morning, to see the trees in one part of his garden in full blossom. He descends from the castle, to discover the boy that he once helped lying beneath a beautiful white tree that the Giant has never seen before. The Giant sees that the boy bears the stigmata. He does not realize at first that the boy is actually the Christ Child. The Giant is furious at the idea that somebody has wounded him.
Shortly afterwards the happy giant dies; that same afternoon his body is found lying under the tree, covered in blossoms.
composer Eric Coates
wrote the orchestral Phantasy The Selfish Giant in 1925..
In 1933–1934, violinist-composer Jenő Hubay
adapted the story into a Hungarian language
opera
, Az önző óriás (Der selbstsüchtige Riese), Op. 124. The libretto was written by László Márkus and Jenő Mohácsi.
A record album was produced (again in the 1940s by American Decca), narrated by Fredric March
, with a full unnamed supporting cast.
In 1972, Peter Sanders wrote and produced an animated version of The Selfish Giant, which was nominated for an Academy Award. http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/38901-The_Selfish_Giant.html
In the 1990s, the Australian team of composer Graeme Koehne
and choreographer Graeme Murphy
created a children's ballet based on The Selfish Giant.
In the 1997 film Wilde
, based on the life of the author, portions of the The Selfish Giant are woven in, with Wilde and his wife telling the story to their children, the portions reflecting on his relationship with them and others: the sadness of the children who can no longer play in the giant's garden is reflected in that of Wilde's sons as their beloved father spends more time with his lovers than with them.
In 2011, composer Dan Goeller of Noteworthy Books wrote an orchestral interpretation of the story.
The story is told by a linnet to an intellectual water-rat, who fancies himself a literary critic; the water-rat is sympathetic to the miller rather than Hans, and storms off on being informed that the story has a moral.
The Remarkable Rocket, unlike the other stories in the collection, contains a large number of Wildean epigram
s:
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
first published in May 1888. It contains five stories, "The Happy Prince", "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Selfish Giant", "The Devoted Friend", and "The Remarkable Rocket". It is most famous for its title story, "The Happy Prince".
"The Happy Prince"
A swallow meets the statue of the late "Happy Prince", which houses the soul of the original prince, who in reality had never experienced true happiness. The statue inspires the swallow to selfless acts.Adaptations
- A record album was produced in the 1940s by American Decca RecordsDecca RecordsDecca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
, with Orson WellesOrson WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
narrating and Bing CrosbyBing CrosbyHarry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
as the Prince http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIPaS10r-T0. - In 1969 New Zealand group the La De DasThe La De DasThe La De Das were a leading New Zealand rock band of the 1960s and early 1970s. Formed in New Zealand in 1963 , they enjoyed considerable success in both New Zealand and Australia until their split in 1975....
recorded and performed a rock operaRock operaA rock opera is a work of rock music that presents a storyline told over multiple parts, songs or sections in the manner of opera. A rock opera differs from a conventional rock album, which usually includes songs that are not unified by a common theme or narrative. More recent developments include...
based on the story. Band members Bruce Howard and Trevor Wilson conceived the idea in 1967, composing the music with Australian poet Adrian Rawlins narrating the story. - An animated version of the story was produced in 1974, starring Glynis JohnsGlynis JohnsGlynis Johns is a South African-born Welsh stage and film actress, dancer, pianist and singer . With a career spanning seven decades, Johns is often cited as the "complete actress", who happens to be a trained pianist and singer...
as the swallow and Christopher PlummerChristopher PlummerArthur Christopher Orne Plummer, CC is a Canadian theatre, film and television actor. He made his film debut in 1957's Stage Struck, and notable early film performances include Night of the Generals, The Return of the Pink Panther and The Man Who Would Be King.In a career that spans over five...
as the Prince. See The Happy Prince (film)The Happy Prince (film)The Happy Prince is an animated short film adaptation of the short story by Oscar Wilde. The film was produced in 1974 by the Canadian-based Potterton Productions as a followup to its 1971 film The Selfish Giant.-Plot:...
. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071596/ - Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every ChildHappily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every ChildHappily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child is an American animated television series that premiered March 26, 1995, on HBO. Narrated by Robert Guillaume, the series aired 39 episodes from 1995 to 2000, and is currently airing on the HBO Family digital cable television channel in the United...
presented a version of the title story set in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
featuring Ed KochEd KochEdward Irving "Ed" Koch is an American lawyer, politician, and political commentator. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and three terms as mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989...
as the Happy Prince (who was the statue of the city's previous mayor) and Cyndi LauperCyndi LauperCynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
as a streetwise pigeon named "Pidge" (in place of the Swallow). - Leo the Lion Records released a reading of the story performed by Richard Kiley on a recording (#GD01603) including a dramatization of "The Magic Fishbone" by Charles DickensCharles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
featuring Julie HarrisJulie HarrisJulia Ann "Julie" Harris is an American stage, screen, and television actress. She has won five Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1994, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame...
and Ian Martin and a reading of Rudyard KiplingRudyard KiplingJoseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
's story "The Potted Princess" performed by Ms. Harris. - McDull, Prince de la BunMcDull, Prince de la BunMcDull, Prince de la Bun is a 2004 animated Hong Kong film directed by Yuen Toe. Telling the life a the fictional pig McDull, it is a sequel to My Life as McDull and it was followed by McDull, the Alumni .There was significant word play in this movie, some of it is based on the "pineapple bun"...
was partially based on this story.
"The Nightingale and the Rose"
A nightingale overhears a student complaining that his professor's daughter will not dance with him, as he is unable to give her a red rose. The nightingale visits all the rose-trees in the garden, and one of the white roses tell her that there's a way to produce a red rose, but only if the nightingale is prepared to sing the sweetest song for the rose all night with her heart touching the rose, and sacrifice her life to do so. Seeing the student in tears, the nightingale carries out the ritual, and impales herself on the rose-tree's thorn so that her heart's blood can stain the rose. The student takes the rose to the professor's daughter, but she again rejects him because another man has sent her some real jewels, and "everybody knows that jewels cost far more than flowers." The student angrily throws the rose into the gutter, returns to his study of metaphysics, and decides not to believe in true love anymore.Adaptations
There are many adaptations of this story in the form of operas and ballets. These include:- One act opera by Renzo Bossi, an Italian composer, (ComoComoComo is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy.It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como....
1883 - MilanMilanMilan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
1965) in one act, op. 18, 1910 (librettoLibrettoA libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Bossi, after Wilde,: The Nightingale and the Rose), Italian Radio TurinTurinTurin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, 9 August 1938; staged ParmaParmaParma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
, Teatro Regio, 9 January 1940); see the link. - A cantata by Henry Hadley, an American composer and conductor, (SomervilleSomerville, MassachusettsSomerville is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located just north of Boston. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 75,754 and was the most densely populated municipality in New England. It is also the 17th most densely populated incorporated place in...
, Massachusetts, 1871 - New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, 1937) The Nightingale and the Rose, (libretto E.W. Grant), op. 54, S, SSAA, orchestra (New York, 1911); see the link. - An opera by Hooper Brewster-JonesHooper Brewster-JonesHooper Josse Brewster Jones was a musician and composer born in Orroroo, South Australia.His works include an opera The Nightingale and the Rose from The Happy Prince and Other Tales....
, an Australian composer (Orroroo, S. AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, 1887 - AdelaideAdelaideAdelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, 1949) The Nightingale and the Rose, 1927 (after Wilde of which only an orchestral suite survives. - A ballet by Harold Fraser-SimsonHarold Fraser-SimsonHarold Fraser-Simson , was an English composer of light music, including songs and the scores to musical comedies. His most famous musical was the World War I hit, The Maid of the Mountains, and he later set numerous children's poems to music, especially those of A. A...
, an English composer, (London, 1872 - Inverness, 1944) The Nightingale and the Rose, (based on Wilde) (1927); [www.fullerswood.fsnet.co.uk/fraser-simson.htm see the link]. - A ballet by Janis KalninsJānis KalniņšJānis Kalniņš was a Latvian and later Canadian composer and conductor.-Latvia:Jānis Kalniņš was the son of composer Alfrēds Kalniņš. He was a student first of Jāzeps Vītols at the Latvian Academy of Music, then with Erich Kleiber, Hermann Abendroth and Leo Blech. His two major operas were Hamlets ...
, a Canadian composer and conductor of Latvian parentage. (PärnuPärnuPärnu is a city in southwestern Estonia on the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea. It is a popular summer vacation resort with many hotels, restaurants, and large beaches. The Pärnu River flows through the city and drains into the Gulf of Riga...
, EstoniaEstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
, 3 November 1904 - Fredericton 30 November 2000) Lakstigala un roze [The Nightingale and the Rose], (after Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
), RigaRigaRiga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, 1938. - A ballet by Friedrich Voss, a German composer and pianist (b. HalberstadtHalberstadtHalberstadt is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt and the capital of the district of Harz. It is located on the German Half-Timbered House Road and the Magdeburg–Thale railway....
, 1930) Die Nachtigall und die Rose (G. Furtwängler, after Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
), 1961; Oberhausen, 5 January 1962; see the Breitkopf’s page - An opera by Jonathan Rutherford, a British composer (b 1953) – The Nightingale and the Rose, (after Wilde, 1966; link.
- One act opera by Margaret Garwood, an American composer (born Haddonfield, NJ, 1927) The Nightingale and the Rose, (libretto by Garwood, after Oscar Wilde, Chester, Widener College Alumni Auditorium, 21 Oct 1973
- One act chamber operaChamber operaChamber opera is a designation for operas written to be performed with a chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra.The term and form were invented by Benjamin Britten in the 1940s, when the English Opera Group needed works that could easily be taken on tour and performed in a variety of small...
by Elena FirsovaElena FirsovaElena Olegovna Firsova is a Russian composer.-Life:She was born in Leningrad into the family of physicists Oleg Firsov and Viktoria Lichko. She studied music in Moscow with Alexander Pirumov, Yuri Kholopov, Edison Denisov and Philip Herschkowitz...
, a Russian composer, op. 46 (1991) The Nightingale and the Rose, (libretto by Firsova, after Oscar Wilde, premiered on 8 July 1994 at Almeida TheatreAlmeida TheatreThe Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325 seat studio theatre with an international reputation which takes its name from the street in which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diverse range of drama and holds an annual summer festival of...
, Almeida Opera;at the Boosey & Hawkes page. - One act ballet by David EarlDavid EarlDavid Earl is a South African composer and pianist. He was educated at Rondebosch Boys' High School. He made his professional debut at the age of sixteen when he broadcast Bach, Chopin and Chabrier on the SABC. In 1968, he performed Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No 1 with the Cape Town...
, a South African composer (b 1951) - The Nightingale and the Rose, 1983
"The Selfish Giant"
The Selfish Giant of the title owns a beautiful garden which had 12 peach trees and lovely fragrent flowers, in which children love to play. On the giant's return from visiting his friend the Cornish Ogre, he takes offence at the children, and builds a wall to keep them out. As a consequence of this, the garden is condemned to perpetual winter. One day, the giant is awakened by a linnetLinnet
The Linnet is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.The Linnet derives its scientific name from its fondness for hemp and its English name from its liking for seeds of flax, from which linen is made.- Description :...
, and discovers that spring has returned to the garden, as the children have found a way in through a gap in the wall. He sees the error of his ways, and resolves to destroy the wall . However, when he emerges from his castle, all the children run away, except for one boy, who was trying to climb up a tree . The giant helps this boy into a tree that he wants to climb; the boy kisses him in return. The giant announces: "It is your garden now, little children," and knocks down the wall; the children once more play in the garden, and spring returns. But the boy that the Giant helped does not, and the Giant is heartbroken. Many years later, the Giant is old and feeble, and awakes, one winter morning, to see the trees in one part of his garden in full blossom. He descends from the castle, to discover the boy that he once helped lying beneath a beautiful white tree that the Giant has never seen before. The Giant sees that the boy bears the stigmata. He does not realize at first that the boy is actually the Christ Child. The Giant is furious at the idea that somebody has wounded him.
Shortly afterwards the happy giant dies; that same afternoon his body is found lying under the tree, covered in blossoms.
Adaptations
English light musicLight music
Light music is a generic term applied to a mainly British musical style of "light" orchestral music, which originated in the 19th century and had its heyday during the early to mid part of the 20th century, although arguably it lasts to the present day....
composer Eric Coates
Eric Coates
Eric Coates was an English composer of light music and a viola player.-Life:Eric was born in Hucknall in Nottinghamshire to William Harrison Coates , a surgeon, and his wife, Mary Jane Gwynne, hailing from Usk in Monmouthshire...
wrote the orchestral Phantasy The Selfish Giant in 1925..
In 1933–1934, violinist-composer Jenő Hubay
Jeno Hubay
Eugen Huber , better known by his Hungarian name Jenő Hubay , was a Hungarian violinist, composer and music teacher.-Early life:Eugen Huber was born into a German family of musicians in Pest, Hungary...
adapted the story into a Hungarian language
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, Az önző óriás (Der selbstsüchtige Riese), Op. 124. The libretto was written by László Márkus and Jenő Mohácsi.
A record album was produced (again in the 1940s by American Decca), narrated by Fredric March
Fredric March
Fredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr...
, with a full unnamed supporting cast.
In 1972, Peter Sanders wrote and produced an animated version of The Selfish Giant, which was nominated for an Academy Award. http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/38901-The_Selfish_Giant.html
In the 1990s, the Australian team of composer Graeme Koehne
Graeme Koehne
Graeme Koehne is an Australian composer and music educator. He is best known for his orchestral and ballet scores, which are characterised by direct communicative style and embrace of triadic tonality...
and choreographer Graeme Murphy
Graeme Murphy
Graeme Murphy is an Australian dance choreographer. Together with his fellow dancer Janet Vernon, he has guided Sydney Dance Company to become one of Australia's most successful and well-known dance companies....
created a children's ballet based on The Selfish Giant.
In the 1997 film Wilde
Wilde (film)
Wilde is a 1997 British biographical film directed by Brian Gilbert with Stephen Fry in the title role. The screenplay by Julian Mitchell is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1987 biography of Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann.-Plot:...
, based on the life of the author, portions of the The Selfish Giant are woven in, with Wilde and his wife telling the story to their children, the portions reflecting on his relationship with them and others: the sadness of the children who can no longer play in the giant's garden is reflected in that of Wilde's sons as their beloved father spends more time with his lovers than with them.
In 2011, composer Dan Goeller of Noteworthy Books wrote an orchestral interpretation of the story.
"The Devoted Friend"
Hans is a gardener, the devoted friend of a rich miller. On the basis of this friendship, the miller helps himself to flowers from Hans' garden, and promises to give Hans an old, broken wheelbarrow, to replace one that Hans was forced to sell so that he could buy food. Against this promise, the miller compels Hans to run a series of arduous errands for him; one stormy night, the miller asks Hans to fetch a doctor for his sick son. Returning from the doctor, Hans is lost on the moors in the storm, and drowns in a pool of water. After Hans' funeral, the miller's only emotion is regret, as he has been unable to dispose of the wheelbarrow.The story is told by a linnet to an intellectual water-rat, who fancies himself a literary critic; the water-rat is sympathetic to the miller rather than Hans, and storms off on being informed that the story has a moral.
"The Remarkable Rocket"
This story concerns a firework, who is one of many to be let off at the wedding of a prince and princess. The rocket is extremely pompous and self-important, and denigrates all the other fireworks, eventually bursting into tears to demonstrate his "sensitivity". As this makes him wet, he fails to ignite, and, the next day, is thrown away into a ditch. He still believes that he is destined for great public importance, and treats a frog, dragonfly, and duck that meet him with appropriate disdain. Two boys find him, and use him for fuel on their camp-fire. The rocket is finally lit and explodes, but nobody observes him - the only effect he has is to frighten a goose with his falling stick.The Remarkable Rocket, unlike the other stories in the collection, contains a large number of Wildean epigram
Epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, usually memorable and sometimes surprising statement. Derived from the epigramma "inscription" from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein "to write on inscribe", this literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
s:
External links
- The Happy Prince and Other Tales at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
(scanned books original editions color illustrated) - The Happy Prince and Other Tales at Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
(plain text and HTML) - The Happy Prince and Other Tales, with original illustrations by Charles RobinsonCharles RobinsonCharles Robinson may refer to:*Charles Robinson , English politician, MP for Canterbury*Charles Robinson , physician and politician in Ontario, Canada*Charles Robinson , British book illustrator...
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