Wilde’s fairy tales contain themes that include reversals of fortune, loss and lamentation, selfishness and compassion and of course, transformation. Against this search for soul however, there is a lightness and beauty (Wilde did revere all things beautiful after all), and a playful irony that hints at the biting wit to come in his later plays. Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales have a lot in common with the style of the day with often dark themes, pathos and sadness, religious overtones and explorations of human nature. The work for which he is remembered was all written in the following 10 years.ĭuring the mid-1800s fairy tales had become more popular following the translations of The Brothers Grimm and the success of Hans Christian Anderson. It is widely accepted that the publication of The Happy Prince and Other Tales marked the real beginning of his genius and creativity. Loving his children as he did and surrounded as he was by folk tales and stories for children, it can be no surprise that he wrote his books of fairy tales for his sons. His wife Constance wrote children’s stories. Oscar’s own mother and father were Irish intellectuals and his mother collected Irish folk tales. He was considered a devoted father and believe it or not, a rather conventional one. He loved his wife Constance and they had 2 boys Cyril and Vyvyan. In the 1880s, before Oscar Wilde became really famous, he was married. It is his fairy tales that are used as the foundation for the upcoming Wilde Creatures by Tall Stories and Nica Burns Productions direct from London’s West End to Riverside Theatres in July. What a lot of people don’t know is that he also wrote fairy tales – 2 books of them in fact, The Happy Prince and Other Tales and The House of Pomegranates. Some might also know that he only wrote one novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray.
They know that he was famous for writing plays full of wicked wit and that he was gaoled for being gay. ARTICLE: CHILDREN’S AUTHOR AND GUEST WRITER LIANE MORRIS EXPLORES THE FAIRY TALES WRITTEN BY THE FAMOUS OSCAR WILDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTION WILD CREATURES WHICH PLAYS AT RIVERSIDE IN JULYĮveryone’s heard of Oscar Wilde.