Other editions of book The Happy Prince

High above the city, on a tall column, stands the statue of the Happy Prince. He is gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he has two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glows on his sword-hilt. He is very much admired by the town officials yet a lot of poor people suffer here. One day a swallow who was left behind after his flock flew off to Egypt for the winter stops to sleep over under the statue of the Happy Prince and forms a lasting friendship with the Happy Price who helps the swallow discover the meaning of true happiness.

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". In a town where a lot of poor people suffer and where there are a lot of miseries, a swallow who was left behind after his flock flew off to Egypt for the winter, meets the statue of the late "Happy Prince", who in reality has never experienced true sorrow, for he lived in a palace where sorrow isn't allowed to enter.

"The Happy Prince" is a short story by Oscar Wilde, about a swallow and a statue. The swallow who remained behind when his flock flew to Africa for the winter, befriends a golden and bejewelled statue of a prince. Witnessing the poverty and suffering in the city, the statue asks the swallow to take his jewels and use them to help the poor. One by the swallow takes the gemstones, and ultimately also the gold plating, stripping the statue bare. But because it waited so long, it succumbs to the cold of winter. This breaks the princely statues leaden heart, and it dies too. Then an angel came down, taking these two most precious ones up to heaven.

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In a town where a lot of poor people suffer, a swallow who was left behind after his flock flew off to Egypt for the winter meets the statue of the late "Happy Prince", who in reality has never experienced true happiness. Viewing various scenes of people suffering in poverty from his tall monument, the Happy Prince asks the swallow to take the ruby from his hilt, the sapphires from his eyes, and the golden leaf covering his body to give to the poor. As the winter comes and the Happy Prince is stripped of all of his beauty, his lead heart breaks when the swallow dies as a result of his selfless deeds and severe cold. The statue is then torn down and melted leaving behind the broken heart and the dead swallow. These are taken up to heaven by an angel that has deemed them the two most precious things in the city. This is affirmed by God and they live forever in his city of gold and garden of paradise.