The Happy Prince

The Happy Prince:

Author of The Happy Prince

Oscar Wilde, the person who has penned down a series of priceless novels, weaving threads of stories, wrote another and called it ‘The Happy Prince’. A short story, in reality, it is actually a novel in its essence.

The Happy Prince
Oscar Wilde

With the simplicity of a fable, it is the favorite of not just the kids who grow up with it but also of their parents and their grandparents who narrate it to them.

The Plot of The Happy Prince

The story revolves around a swallow and the statue of a prince who was known to never have been sad in his lifetime. The swallow, unfortunately, separated from its flock, finds shelter on the statue of the prince.

The prince and the swallow start talking and the swallow tells him about his sad story. The prince, in turn, told the swallow about his city. He said that when he was a prince, he didn’t know sadness. All he knew was mirth and joy. But now, taking a look at his kingdom, he felt sad.

The Happy Prince
The Happy Prince

So he asked the little swallow to take away the sapphires and the rubies that his statue was studded with and to give it away to his poor, deprived kingdom so that they could live happily.

The swallow did as he was told. He flew with the jewels around the city, in the dark of a stormy night. However, the swallow, fatigued and caught in the storm, reached the statue of the prince almost dead.

The Happy Prince

Finally, it died. The Prince cried for his friend and the next day, the people of the city, finding the prince stripped of his jewels and beauty, brought the statue down and melted it.

The Happy Prince
The cover of ‘The Happy Prince’

The swallow and the soul of the prince were taken to Heaven by an angel and they lived there, happily.

This story is a must read and it teaches so much about the different kinds of people that it must be taught to children too.

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