It is all to easy to be familiar with Oscar Wilde the aesthete. The limpid sophisticate ever ready with a witty epigram designed to both shock and stimulate. However, here in this set of short stories Wilde, at least partly, lays aside his barbs and is careful to not let cynicism cloud the parable like innocence of these tales. There is an undeniable purity in these tales which Wilde's simple lyrical style beautifully enhances. For all the hypocrisy of the Remarkable Rocket and the Miller we find the self-sacrifice of the Nightingale and the Swallow, the true repentance of the Giant and the heart-breaking compassion of the once Happy Prince deeply moving.
