Portal:Oscar Wilde/Selected article/4

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A House of Pomegranates is a collection of fairy tales, written by Oscar Wilde, that was published as a second collection for The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1892). Wilde said once that this collection was "intended neither for the British child nor the British public."

The stories included in this collection are as follows: The Young King, The Birthday of the Infanta, The Fisherman and his Soul and The Star-Child.

The stories convey an appreciation for the exotic, the sensual and for masculine beauty. Adolescent male beauty is emphasized, while female beauty is represented dispassionately. Thus they have been seen as intended to transmit a pederastic ethos.^[1] The stories also focus on human compassion, the experience of suffering, divine love, and Wilde's own unique take on Christian morals. (more...)