Beyond Dorian Gray: 5 Oscar Wilde Stories to Read Next

The Wilde of The Picture of Dorian Gray is not the only Wilde worth meeting. His fairy tales have sparkling dialogue and lavish description. They also have hunger, lopsided friendships, and characters who mistake their own importance for a fact.

The five stories in this guide are the contents of The Happy Prince, and Other Tales. All five come in one EPUB.¹ They are not simplified versions of a novel, and their fairy-tale form does not mean they are all light or reassuring.

“The Happy Prince”: look from a different height

A richly decorated statue stands above a city. A swallow on its journey encounters the statue, and the meeting gives the story a way to connect a lofty view with lives below.²

The contrast between being admired and being useful is a good starting question. Notice how people speak about the statue before you hear more of its own situation. The city does not have a single emotional character: comfort and suffering exist near one another.

Choose this for vivid images and an encounter that changes what a familiar object seems to mean. Poverty, sacrifice, and death are part of the tale. Leave its final judgments to the story rather than turning it into a slogan before reading.

“The Nightingale and the Rose”: compare different ideas of value

A student believes a red rose is necessary if the person he loves is to dance with him. A nightingale hears his distress and understands it through a very different experience of love and art.²

Read the tale with an ear for what each character considers valuable. Beauty, feeling, practical benefit, and recognition need not mean the same thing to everyone who uses those words.

The story is a darker selection than its romantic imagery might suggest. It includes suffering and sacrifice. The question is less whether someone obtains a flower than what different characters are able, or willing, to understand about what it costs.

“The Selfish Giant”: watch a boundary change a place

Children have been playing in a garden while its owner is away. When the Giant returns, he insists that ownership entitles him to exclude them. A wall and a notice make that decision visible.²

This one suits readers drawn to settings. Follow the weather and growing things as carefully as the spoken decisions. The garden’s condition tracks the relationships in the tale.

The language is often concrete, but the meaning is not exhausted by identifying a moral. Read once for the garden’s changes and again for the Giant’s attention. The later religious imagery is part of the tale; enjoy its images without resolving every symbol.

“The Devoted Friend”: listen to who defines friendship

A conversation among animals frames a story about a gardener, little Hans, and his prosperous friend, the Miller. The Miller has eloquent ideas about generosity, and the reader can compare those ideas with the requests he makes.²

Choose it for social observation with an uncomfortable edge. A claim may sound principled while placing almost all the work on someone else. Watch what is exchanged, and who gets to describe the exchange.

The framing listeners matter too. They do not all want the same thing from a story. Watching them keeps the tale from shrinking into a list of good and bad actions. Interpretation itself becomes part of the conversation.

“The Remarkable Rocket”: hear self-importance speak

Fireworks are prepared for a royal celebration, and one rocket has a great deal to say about its distinction and sensitivity. Other objects supply an audience that does not necessarily share that opinion.²

This is the most overtly comic starting point in the collection. Try giving the dialogue different voices. Notice the distance between an impressive account of oneself and the responses available from the world.

The comedy does not depend on a final joke. The rocket’s way of treating disagreement, evidence, and an audience provides comic material throughout. It makes a good follow-up to one of the sadder tales.

A reading route through contrasts

Begin with “The Remarkable Rocket” for talk and comedy, or “The Selfish Giant” for a strongly imagined place. “The Happy Prince” and “The Nightingale and the Rose” invite a more emotional reading. “The Devoted Friend” rewards readers who want to examine how people talk about obligation.

Or follow the collection’s order and let the changes of tone do their work. A later story may also make you reconsider the way an earlier one handles generosity or recognition.

Find the five stories in one book

Open The Happy Prince, and Other Tales. Choose the online text to sample a story, or the EPUB to keep the collection together. In BlueReader, the EPUB must be uploaded and processed on the server before it appears as a readable book.³

For Wilde’s dialogue in a theatrical setting, see the discussion of The Importance of Being Earnest in five funny classics. For another writer’s treatment of generosity and daily life, try O. Henry beyond “The Gift of the Magi”.