The Happy Prince and Other Stories, 1913 Edition recap

Nine fairy tales test the difference between love and self-regard. The Happy Prince and the Swallow give their lives and riches to the poor; the Nightingale dies for a rose that shallow people discard; and the Selfish Giant finds redemption by welcoming children. Little Hans is destroyed by a Miller's exploitative idea of friendship, while a vain Rocket explodes unnoticed. A young king rejects regalia made through suffering and is clothed in miraculous splendor. A Dwarf dies after learning that the Infanta laughed at his appearance. A Fisherman casts off his Soul for a Mermaid, but their reunion ends in death before their grave inspires a priest to bless all living things. Finally, the cruel Star-Child is made ugly, suffers enslavement, and regains his form through mercy. He recognizes his parents, rules justly, and dies after three years, followed by an evil successor.

A gilded statue called the Happy Prince stands above a city whose misery he could not see during his sheltered life. A Swallow, delayed on his journey to Egypt, shelters beneath the statue and discovers that its tears come from witnessing the poor. At the Prince's request, the bird delivers his ruby, sapphire eyes, and layers of gold to a sick child, a hungry writer, a match girl, and other people in need. The Swallow remains through the cold, grows devoted to the now-blind Prince, and dies at his feet; the Prince's lead heart breaks. City officials remove the shabby statue and discard the heart with the bird. An angel chooses the heart and the dead Swallow as the finest objects in the city and carries them to heaven, where their generosity receives lasting honor.

After the Happy Prince and the Swallow give everything they possess to relieve the city's suffering, the second tale follows a Nightingale who hears a Student longing for a red rose. Believing his love profound, she searches until a rose tree explains that only her song and lifeblood can produce a red flower in winter. She accepts the cost and sings through the night with a thorn against her heart, dying as the rose blooms. The Student finds the flower and offers it to the Professor's daughter, but she rejects it because another admirer has sent jewels. He throws the rose into the road and concludes that love is impractical, never knowing what the Nightingale sacrificed.

The collection next turns to a Giant who returns home, expels the children from his garden, and surrounds it with a wall. With the children gone, the garden remains trapped in winter while spring reaches the country outside. When the children slip back through a gap, blossoms return. Seeing one small boy unable to climb a tree, the Giant understands his selfishness, helps him, and tears down the wall so the garden can belong to the children. He never forgets the little boy, who disappears for many years. When the child finally returns bearing injuries in his hands and feet, he explains that he accepted them for the Giant and invites the old man to a heavenly garden. The children later find the Giant dead beneath a tree, covered in white flowers.

The first three tales honor sacrifice and moral change: the Happy Prince and Swallow give everything to the poor, the Nightingale dies to make a rose that is casually rejected, and the Giant opens his garden before being welcomed into paradise. The fourth tale follows Little Hans, whom a wealthy Miller exploits while delivering speeches about friendship. Sent for a doctor in a storm without a lantern, Hans drowns; the Miller then complains about the wheelbarrow he had promised him. In the fifth, a boastful Rocket soaks himself with tears and misses a royal fireworks display. Discarded and later used to light a cooking fire, he finally explodes while the boys nearby sleep. He ends convinced that the unnoticed blast has amazed everyone, having learned nothing from failure.

After five tales contrasting sacrifice with selfishness, a goatherd's foster son is recalled to court as the kingdom's sixteen-year-old heir. The Young King initially delights in beautiful objects, but on the night before his coronation he dreams of exhausted weavers, a pearl diver worked to death, and miners dying to obtain jewels. He refuses the robe, crown, and sceptre produced by such suffering and goes to the cathedral in his old tunic, carrying a shepherd's staff and wearing briars. Nobles and townspeople condemn him, and the bishop argues that one ruler cannot cure the world's sorrow. At the altar, sunlight and living flowers transform the humble garments into splendor greater than the regalia. The court kneels, and the bishop declares that the King has received a higher coronation than any human ceremony could give.

The collection has moved from the Happy Prince's charity through the Young King's rejection of luxury built on suffering. At the Infanta's twelfth-birthday celebrations, a Dwarf raised in the forest performs for the Spanish court. Because he has never seen himself, he believes the Princess's laughter and the white rose she throws him express love. Wandering into the palace, he encounters a full-length mirror and realizes that he is the misshapen figure the court found amusing. He understands that the Infanta was mocking him, collapses, and dies of a broken heart. When told what happened, the Princess responds that future entertainers should have no hearts. Her inability to recognize the Dwarf's humanity makes this tale a darker counterpart to the Young King's awakening.

In the eighth tale, a Fisherman falls in love with a Mermaid who says he must give up his human Soul to join her. A Witch teaches him to cut the Soul from his body, and he enters the sea. Once each year the wandering Soul returns with marvels of wisdom and wealth, but the Fisherman refuses to leave his love. A final story about a dancing girl tempts him ashore. Reunited with him but lacking a heart, the Soul leads him through theft, violence, and murder. The Fisherman tries to return to the Mermaid, but the separation cannot be repeated. When her dead body washes ashore, he embraces her and drowns in the rising sea. Their burial place later produces strange flowers whose fragrance softens the priest who had condemned them; he blesses the sea and all creatures, and the flowers never grow there again.

Across the collection, generous figures sacrifice themselves, the Giant and Young King learn compassion, and characters such as the Miller, Rocket, and Infanta remain trapped in selfishness. The final tale follows a beautiful foundling called the Star-Child, who grows cruel and rejects a beggar claiming to be his mother. His appearance becomes ugly, and a long search for her ends in enslavement to a magician. Ordered to find three gold coins, he is helped by a Hare but gives each coin to a leper, accepting punishment rather than ignore suffering. After the third gift, his beauty returns and a city welcomes him as king. The beggar and leper are revealed as his royal parents; he begs forgiveness and then rules justly, aiding the poor and animals he once despised. He dies after only three years, however, and his successor rules cruelly, ending the volume with redemption achieved but goodness left precarious.

In the final story, the Star-Child has been enslaved and ordered to find three pieces of gold. Each time the Hare helps him, he gives the coin to a leper instead of protecting himself from punishment. When he returns to the city after the third act of mercy, his beauty is restored and the people hail him as their king. He finds the beggar-woman and the leper, begs forgiveness, and learns that they are his mother and father, a queen and king. He rules with justice, aids the poor, and rejects cruelty, reversing the conduct of his childhood. Yet his suffering has shortened his life: he dies after only three years, and the ruler who follows him is evil. The collection thus ends with genuine moral transformation but not simple worldly reward; compassion restores the Star-Child's humanity, while power and goodness remain fragile.