The Happy Prince and Other Tales

A set of charming short stories for children by Oscar Wilde. The stories include:

• "The Happy Prince"
• "The Nightingale and the Rose"
• "The Selfish Giant"
• "The Devoted Friend"
• "The Remarkable Rocket"

"The Happy Prince": The tale of a statue of a prince and how he teaches generosity and the gift of love to a small sparrow who becomes his friend.

"The Nightingale and the Rose": A young student is infatuated by the daughter of a professor. She promises to dance with him till dawn at the prince's ball if the student will bring her a red rose. But in his garden there are no red roses. The Nightingale, who night after night romantically sings of such love as she believes she now sees demonstrated, is moved to provide the red rose so as to facilitate the love between the Student and the young woman.

"The Selfish Giant": A selfish giant has a beautiful garden he refuses to share with the children in his village. Spring refuses to visit the giant's garden until he meets a little boy who teaches him how to love others.

"The Devoted Friend": A young lad is befriended by a prosperous farmer, who takes advantage of the boy's generosity and only gives him broken promises in return; in addition, the farmer says horrible things about the boy to others. The young lad's last act of kindness costs him dearly and the farmer changes his tune.

"The Remarkable Rocket": The king's son was to be married, and there was to be a superb fireworks display for the event. All the rockets and different kinds of fireworks were excited about their big moment. The Rocket was a real "better than thou" type... very arrogant and deprecating to the other fireworks, with much going ons about who was the most important, etc. The rocket always taking the road that he was indeed the best of the lot. All the fireworks argued and fought over being the best, with the Rocket asserting that he was. Then the big night arrives....