Oscar Wilde and his fairy-tales

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde(1854 – 1900)

• 16 October 1854• Writer, dramatist, poet• 21 Westland Row, Dublin• The second of three children • Sir William Wilde and Jane

Francesca Wilde

Jane Francesca Wilde

• Speranza • Young Irelanders• Irish nationalist

William Wilde

• Eminent eye doctor

• Surgeon Occulist to the Queen

• Books about Irish archaeology and peasant folklore

• Children from wedlock before his marriage

Trinity College in Dublin

• Moved to London in 1879

• In 1881 collected poems were published

• In 1882 accepted the lecture tour in America which was a huge success

• Worked prolifically as a journalist

• In 1884 married Constance Lloyd

• They had two sons, Cyrill and Vyvyan

• In 1895 he was sentenced to two years imprisonment for violating the moral laws

• Bankruptcy

• Left prison on 19 May 1897

• Left England for France

• Died a broken man on 30 November 1900 in Paris under the name of Sebastian Melmont

Fairy-tales• Social overtones

• Criticism

• Parallels between the imagination and real-life

• Unfairness

• Rarely have a truly happy ending

“The Happy Prince and Other Tales”

• Sometimes called “The Happy Prince and Other Stories”

• A collection of stories for children

• “The Happy Prince” – a short tale of a metal statue who befriends a migratory bird.

• Happiness to others, in life as well as in death

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