The Happy Prince

“You tell me of marvellous things, but more marvelous than anything is the suffering of men and of women. There is no mystery so great as misery. Fly over my city, little Swallow, and tell me what you see there.”

“I am going to the house of Death. Death is the brother of sleep, is he not?” And he kissed the Happy Prince on the lips, and fell down dead at his feet.

So they pulled down the statue of Happy Prince. “As he is no longer beautiful, he is no longer useful.”

I might have stated this many times before, but Wilde is surely a genius. The short story begins when a Swallow lands on a prosperous statue of the Happy Prince, who's studded with jewels and pearls and looms over the his city. He asks the Swallow to fly over his city and tell him what's happening.
The story then moves forward with the Swallow discovering the misery and poverty of the poor people living in the city. And the Happy Prince saddened by all this, little by litle, sacrifices away everything to make his city happy.

It explored various ideas like happiness, beauty and misery. The beauty of this book lies in the fact that the tale is so simple and yet so profound! Classic Wilde!
A must read indeed!