Children’s Stories

Published in 1888, this gathering of five tales showed that Oscar Wilde could write for children while still speaking to adults. A jewelled statue and a small swallow give away everything they have to the city’s poor. A nightingale presses her heart against a thorn so a student can win a red rose. A selfish giant learns what his walled garden has cost him. Wilde borrowed the shape of the fairy tale from Hans Christian Andersen but filled it with his own themes of sacrifice, vanity, and the price of love. The stories are tender and quietly sad, and they have never stopped being read aloud. This free PDF and EPUB edition collects them complete.