CLASSICS CORNER No 056
The Complete Short Stories by Oscar Wilde
Wilde's stories are often given to children, but the satirical touches in them are purely for adults
Emily Labram
Sunday 2 May 2010 00.05 BST
Sunday 2 May 2010 00.05 BST
I
t was said of Oscar Wilde that he "did not converse – he told tales". Of his often overlooked short stories, there are many that one can imagine being extemporised by the poet over a glass of sherry. The exquisite "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime", about a cursed aristocrat's attempts to bump off his relatives, is as delightfully frivolous as any of Wilde's satirical plays. In "The Portrait of Mr. W. H.", on the other hand, fans of Dorian Gray will recognise the same adept manipulation of gothic suspense.
The Happy Prince and Other Tales and A House of Pomegranates (including "The Young King", "The Fisherman and his Soul" and "The Star-Child") are often bound up and presented as stories for children. Given how distraught I remember being after reading "The Nightingale and the Rose" and "The Happy Prince" at a young age, I wonder whether this is who Wilde actually intended them for. They are lyrically enchanting ("My roses are redder than the great fans of coral that wave and wave in the ocean-cavern"), but also express a pessimism that may confuse children accustomed, as I was, to the "happy ever after". Far from being consoling, they attest to life's arbitrariness. Loose ends are left untied, heroes unrewarded, villains unpunished, and – most frustratingly of all – lessons unlearned. The rocket persists in his delusion; the water- rat cries "Pooh!"; the Infanta is forever spoiled. Wilde rarely passes judgment: he considers moralising, like the mother duck in "The Devoted Friend", to be "a very dangerous thing to do".
In fact, there are times when Wilde appears to side with the persecutors. It riled me as a child, but challenged in equal measure. An adult – hypocrite lecteur – will notice touches of satire that children miss. Wilde believed in life imitating art, and wanted us to feel implicated by his tales: I defy anyone to read them and be unmoved.
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