Oscar Wilde's jewel-like fairy tales tell of treasure, tragedy and transformation. These five fables are edged with darkness, but gleam with the trademark wisdom of one of Victorian literature's greatest minds.

In the unforgettable 'The Nightingale and the Rose', a young student yearns to be loved by his professor's beautiful daughter, but his quest to capture her heart will come at a terrible cost. In 'The Happy Prince', a golden, decorated statue selflessly takes himself apart to gift his jewels to the poor people of the city he overlooks. 'The Devoted Friend' powerfully criticizes self-interest and questions what defines true friendship, and 'The Star-Child' and 'The Model Millionaire' reveal, fantastically, that appearances may not always reflect the truth.

This series of pocket-sized paperbacks celebrates the art of the short story and marks Macmillan Collector's Library's 10th anniversary. Each contains a curated selection of short stories from a literary giant: Katherine Mansfield, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Alice Dunbar Nelson, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Rabindranath Tagore.

Autorentext

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. He studied there, at Trinity College, and then at Oxford, and became a leading figure of the Aesthetic movement. He published several books of stories, and one novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, in 1891. He had many successes as a playwright, first with Lady Windermere's Fan in 1892, and all his plays were performed in London between 1892 and 1895. A dazzling wit and flamboyant figure, Wilde's career was cut short after his homosexuality was exposed, and he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment in 1895. Released in 1897, he fled to France where he died in 1900.