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Reviewed
by Frances Gapper
It was a great pleasure to re-read The Canterville Ghost,
Lord
Arthur Saville’s Crime
and The Portrait of Mr.
W.H.
Unfortunately none of these wonderful stories are included
here – despite
HarperCollins' misleading claim that its new "exceptional
collection" includes "nearly every" short story Wilde wrote. Nor is
there an introduction to support the anonymous editor's choice.
In place of Wilde's
tales, the book squanders space on a "bonus story" by Simon
Van Booy, from his collection Love
Begins in Winter. Other classic collections in the Harper
Perennial series will likewise showcase "bonus" works by
contemporary writers – evidence, says the publisher on the back
cover, that it "proudly supports the art of the short story".
Wilde published in total only
fourteen stories – not including The
Picture of Dorian Gray, which is sometimes described as
his only novel – and a number of "poems in prose", which might nowadays
be described as flash fiction. Of the eleven Wilde stories
featured in The Model
Millionaire, five were
originally published in the children’s collection The Happy Prince
and four in The House
of Pomegranates, a book
that "completely puzzled the critics, who thought that the stories were
meant for children and protested, quite rightly, that no child could
understand them" (Vyvyan Holland, introduction to the 1966 edition of
the Complete Works). The
Happy Prince,
maybe the greatest children's story ever written, is like all
Wilde's so-called children's stories (a devalued term,
unfortunately), for adults too. The
Selfish Giant runs it pretty close for greatness, as does
The
Nightingale and the Rose, heart-piercingly beautiful and
sad. I think a child can understand The Birthday of the Infanta
very
well, although reading this story again after 40 years or so, I noticed
and admired how beautifully the ending – the Infanta commands the
dead Dwarf to dance for her again – echoes an earlier scene, in
which the King tries to wake his dead and embalmed wife.
Ohhh, Oscar! Lists of jewels and
other
gorgeous/precious things. Christian lessons about renunciation and
embracing poverty. Parodies both riotous and subtle. Luxurious
melodrama and the
witty undercutting of melodramatics. A soul without a heart, travelling
the world in human form. Fireworks holding edgy conversations. A
swallow sacrificing its life for love – "And he kissed the Happy
Prince on the lips, and fell down dead at his feet." A nightingale
doing likewise: "So the Nightingale pressed closer against the
thorn, and the thorn touched her heart, and a fierce pang of pain shot
through her..."
Only the grown-up humans behave ludicrously, self-defeatingly and for
no good reason:
"She was lying on a sofa, in a
tea-gown of
silver tissue looped up by some strange moonstones that she always
wore. She was looking quite lovely. 'I am so glad to see you,' she
said; 'I have not been out all day.' I stared at her in amazement, and
pulling the handkerchief out of my pocket, handed it to her. 'You
dropped this in Cumnor Street this afternoon, Lady Alroy,' I said very
calmly...'"(The Sphinx
without a
Secret)
With the exception, of course, of
artists: "Trevor was a painter. Indeed, few people escape that
nowadays.
But he was also an artist, and artists are rather rare..." (The Model Millionaire)
Which takes us back to Harper
Perennial,
proud supporters of the art of the short story. Maybe next time they
could employ a proofreader. "Is this the lad?" on page 7 should be "Is
this the lady?" and wheelbarrow has two 'w's, one at the
beginning and one at the end. When it comes to clarifying foreign
phrases such
as "Mi bella Princesa"
and "petit monstre",
however, the publisher has been a little over-conscientious.
As for the bonus story – Tiger, Tiger by
Simon Van Booy
– I found it puzzling, and not in a good way. Sometimes it comes
across as a Leacock-style parody, while elsewhere it seems to be taking
itself seriously. Although its style is loosely epigrammatic, it is
concerned with the psychological rather than the social. The narrator,
supposedly a youngish woman, talks like a zombie. The text is often
pedantic or clumsy – "Jennifer was Brian’s mother... Alan
and Jennifer, Brian’s parents... Alan, Jennifer’s
husband... Brian said his father had pleaded... She and the doctor had
experienced a brief affair..."
The story comes alive and makes
sudden sense
of its title when a childhood drama is described, but the rest is dead,
and deadening to read. Someone called Allan (possibly Alan,
Brian’s father) appears mysteriously in the final paragraph. Tiger, Tiger doesn’t
measure
up well against Wilde – but then, who could?
Read the title story
from this collection at ReadPrint.com
The
Tiny Key, Frances Gapper’s
booklet
of flash fiction, is published in July 2009 by Sylph Editions, as part
of the Ellipsis series. Her story collection Absent
Kisses was
published in 2002 by Diva Books. She has also written a
children’s novel and one for grown-ups, and a gardens guide..
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Publisher: Harper
Collins (Harper Perennial reprint)
Publication
Date:
June 2009
Paperback/Hardback? Paperback
First
collection?: No
Author
bio: Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854 and
died in 1900. His plays include
The
Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband.
His poem The
Ballad of Reading Gaol was first published under his
prison cell number
C.3.3. De Profundis,
a long open letter to his former lover Alfred
Douglas, was heavily expurgated until 1962.
Buy
this book (used or
new) from:
The
Publisher's Website: Harper Collins
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Book
Depository
Powell's
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you in the US
If
you liked this book you might also like....
Oscar Wilde "The
Complete Works of Oscar Wilde"
(Collins Classics), 4 August 2003 (most recent edition)
What
other reviewers thought:
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