Readings Classics: The Happy Prince and Other Stories

Description

Ever thought a statue and a swallow could become friends? A fire cracker and a rocket could have a disagreement? That autumn wouldn’t t give fruit to a giant because he was selfish? Explore a world of characters and find your favourite. Oscar Wilde through his genius wit and subtle observations will tell you tales of love, friendship, sacrifice and other virtues in the simplest of stories which will touch even the humblest of hearts.

Author Biography

Oscar Wilde was an Irish writer, playwright, poet and essayist. He spent most of his life in London where he was a most famous writer and socialite in the late Victorian Age. He was born in Dublin on 16 October 1854. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford. He later lived in London and married Constance Lloyd there in 1884. Wilde was a leader of the Aesthetic Movement. His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was first published in Lippincotts Monthly Magazine in 1890. He published a revised and expanded edition in 1891 in response to negative reviews which criticised the books immorality.

Wilde became famous through of the immense success of his plays such as Lady Windemeres Fan (1892), An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). In 1985, after a public scandal involving Wildes relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, he was sentenced to two years hard labour in Reading Gaol for gross indecency. His poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol was based on his experiences in prison and was published in 1898. After his release, Wilde never lived in England again and died in Paris on 30 November 1900. He is buried in Pere Lachaise cemetery.