Read · Listen · Learn
Oscar Wilde may have written this as a bedtime story for his two young sons. Like others of his children’s stories, it has a religious tone that is absent from his plays and his novel. It tells the story of a statue of a prince who lived a very careless life, interested only in luxury and pleasure. Now that he can see the sufferings of the poor from the top of his pillar, he wants to help. Luckily, he finds a bird to carry out his plans (3,020 words).