Books with title The Birthday of the Infanta and Other Tales

This is a story from the Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories collection. A palmist's prediction leads to murder; an enigmatic woman's lifestyle is a mystery to be solved; a ghost tries to frighten the new tenants of his home; a man has discovered the dedicatee of Shakespeare's Sonnets; a millionaire wants to be painted as a pauper. Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories is a collection of fascinating short stories that are subversive as well as entertaining. Also included in this audiobook is 'The Birthday of the Infanta from A House of Pomegranates', in which an ugly dwarf loves a beautiful princess. How will his feelings fare in a cruel society?

The King of Spain has been a widower for nearly twelve years, the Queen having died shortly after their daughter the Infanta was born. The Queen's death has left the King a deeply melancholy man. He cannot bear to look at his daughter for long because she reminds him too much of her late mother. Consequently, on the day of the Infanta's twelfth birthday, the King withdraws from the celebrations early, leaving the Infanta in the care of her uncle Don Pedro and other courtiers.

Playwright, poet, essayist, flamboyant man-about-town, Oscar Wilde pack an astonishing amount of work, genius, and controversy into two short decades, producing masterworks in every literary genre. This selection includes almost all of his short stories, including "The Canterville Ghost," "The Fisherman and his Soul," and "The Remarkable Rocket." Alongside THE MODEL MILLIONAIRE, Harper Perennial will publish the short fiction of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Herman Melville, Willa Cather, Leo Tolstoy, and Stephen Crane to be packaged in a beautifully designed, boldly colorful boxset in the aim to attract contemporary fans of short fiction to these revered masters of the form. Also, in each of these selections will appear a story from one of the new collections being published in the "Summer of the Short Story." A story from Simon Van Booy's forthcoming collection, LOVE BEGINS IN WINTER, will be printed at the back of this volume.

The Birthday of the Infanta is a heart-wrenching tale about inner and outer beauty. Dedicated to Mrs. William H Grenfell of Taplow Court (Lady Desborough) The Birthday of the Infanta is about a hunchbacked dwarf, found in the woods by courtiers of the King of Spain. The hunchback's father sells him to the palace for the amusement of the king's daughter, the Infanta, on her twelfth birthday. Her birthday is the only time she is allowed to mingle with other children, and she much enjoys the many festivities arranged to mark it, especially the Dwarf's performance. He dances, as he did in the woods, thoroughly unaware of his audience's laughing at him. She insists on his performing a second time for her after dinner. The Dwarf mistakenly believes that the Infanta must love him, and tries to find her, passing through a garden where the flowers, sundial, and fish ridicule him, but birds and lizards do not. He finds his way inside the palace, and searches through rooms hoping to find the Infanta, but finding them all devoid of life. Eventually, he stumbles upon a grotesque monster that mimicks his every move in one of the rooms. When the realization comes that it was his own reflection, he knows then that the Infanta did not love him, but was laughing out of mockery, and he falls to the floor, kicking and screaming. The Infanta and the other children chance upon him and, imagining it to be another act, laugh and applaud while his flailing grows more and more weak before he stops moving altogether. When the Infanta demands more entertainment, a servant tries to rouse him, only to discover that he has died of a broken heart. Telling this to the Infanta, she speaks the last line of the story "For the future, let those who come to play with me have no hearts."

THE BIRTHDAY OF THE INFANTA - CLASSIC TALE - BY OSCAR WILDBlind to the inner beauty of a dwarf, the Infanta never learns to appreciate that which is not part of the great splender around her. Learning to value the goodness we cannot always see is the important moral lesson in this classic tale by Irish author and playwright, Oscar Wilde.Recommended by The Gunston Trust for Nonviolence in Children's Literature. Ages 8+