![]() It sounded so sweet to his ears that he thought it must be the King’s musicians passing by. One morning the Giant was lying awake in bed when he heard some lovely music. ![]() So it was always Winter there, and the North Wind, and the Hail, and the Frost, and the Snow danced about through the trees. The Autumn gave golden fruit to every garden, but to the Giant’s garden she gave none. “I cannot understand why the Spring is so late in coming,” said the Selfish Giant, as he sat at the window and looked out at his cold white garden “I hope there will be a change in the weather.”īut the Spring never came, nor the Summer. He was dressed in grey, and his breath was like ice. Every day for three hours he rattled on the roof of the castle till he broke most of the slates, and then he ran round and round the garden as fast as he could go. “This is a delightful spot,” he said, “we must ask the Hail on a visit.” So the Hail came. ![]() Chiefly remembered today as a playwright, especially for The Importance of Being Earnest, and as the author of The Picture of Dorian Gray Wilde's oeuvre. This is a bibliography of works by Oscar Wilde, a late-Victorian Irish writer. He was wrapped in furs, and he roared all day about the garden, and blew the chimney-pots down. A caricature of Wilde by Aubrey Beardsley, the caption reads 'Oscar Wilde At Work'. Then they invited the North Wind to stay with them, and he came. “Spring has forgotten this garden,” they cried, “so we will live here all the year round.” The Snow covered up the grass with her great white cloak, and the Frost painted all the trees silver. He is widely known for such works as the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray the tale The Happy Prince the play The Importance of Being Earnest and the letter. The only people who were pleased were the Snow and the Frost. Once a beautiful flower put its head out from the grass, but when it saw the notice-board it was so sorry for the children that it slipped back into the ground again, and went off to sleep. The birds did not care to sing in it as there were no children, and the trees forgot to blossom. Only in the garden of the Selfish Giant it was still winter. Then the Spring came, and all over the country there were little blossoms and little birds. “How happy we were there,” they said to each other. They used to wander round the high wall when their lessons were over, and talk about the beautiful garden inside. They tried to play on the road, but the road was very dusty and full of hard stones, and they did not like it. The poor children had now nowhere to play. “My own garden is my own garden,” said the Giant “any one can understand that, and I will allow nobody to play in it but myself.” So he built a high wall all round it, and put up a notice-board. “What are you doing here?” he cried in a very gruff voice, and the children ran away. When he arrived he saw the children playing in the garden. After the seven years were over he had said all that he had to say, for his conversation was limited, and he determined to return to his own castle. He had been to visit his friend the Cornish ogre, and had stayed with him for seven years. “How happy we are here!” they cried to each other. ![]() The birds sat on the trees and sang so sweetly that the children used to stop their games in order to listen to them. Here and there over the grass stood beautiful flowers like stars, and there were twelve peach-trees that in the spring-time broke out into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl, and in the autumn bore rich fruit. It was a large lovely garden, with soft green grass. He died destitute in Paris at the age of forty-six sipping champagne a friend had brought with the line ‘Alas I am dying beyond my means’.Every afternoon, as they were coming from school, the children used to go and play in the Giant’s garden. There he wrote his last work, ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ in 1898. He was convicted and imprisoned for two years hard labour. The trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for gross indecency. Whilst his masterpiece, ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, was on stage in London, Wilde had the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, prosecuted for libel. His society comedies were enormous hits and turned him into one of the most successful writers of late Victorian London. His only novel, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ was published in 1890 and he then moved on to writing for the stage with ‘Salome’ in 1891. With his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversation, Wilde became one of the most well-known personalities of his day. Wilde then moved to London and its fashionable cultural and social circles. The son of Dublin intellectuals Oscar proved himself an outstanding classicist at Trinity College and then at Oxford. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on the 16th October 1854 in Dublin, Ireland. Read by David Shaw-Parker & Jake Urry: (Unabridged: 1hr 54mins)
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