The Happy Prince and Other Stories Lib/E

Golden Voice narrator Simon Jones perfectly narrates these sweet, tender fairy stories about princes, giants, nightingales, and roses. The collection begins with the timeless story of The Happy Prince, a young nobleman who in life sought only pleasure but in death, as a gold-encrusted statue, provides help to those in need. Currently starring in the HBO t.v. series The Gilded Age, Simon Jones' film and theater credits run to multiple pages from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life to playing King George in Downton Abbey (the movie) and Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Simon Jones recently won an AudioFile Earphones award for his narration of Right Ho, Jeeves by P G Wodehouse, also for Alison Larkin Presents. Story Order: The Happy Prince, The Selfish Giant, The Remarkable Rocket, The Nightingale and the Rose, The Young King, The Birthday of the Infanta, The Star Child, The Fisherman and his Soul, The Devoted Friend, The Canterville Ghost, Lord Arther Saville's Crime. "Alison Larkin Presents classics are always delightful because they are so easy to listen to. Choosing Simon Jones to narrate Oscar Wilde was an inspired idea. Listeners will be enchanted." Michael Gates Gill

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was born in Dublin. He won scholarships to both Trinity College, Dublin, and Magdalen College, Oxford. In 1875, he began publishing poetry in literary magazines, and in 1878, he won the coveted Newdigate Prize for English poetry. He had a reputation as a flamboyant wit and man-about-town. After his marriage to Constance Lloyd in 1884, he tried to establish himself as a writer, but with little initial success. However, his three volumes of short fiction, The Happy Prince, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, and A House of Pomegranates, together with his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, gradually won him a reputation as a modern writer with an original talent. That reputation was confirmed and enhanced by the phenomenal success of his society comedies: Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest, all performed on London's West End stage between 1892 and 1895. In 1895, he was convicted of engaging in homosexual acts, which were then illegal, and sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labor. He soon declared bankruptcy, and his property was auctioned off. In 1896, he lost legal custody of his children. When his mother died that same year, his wife Constance visited him at the jail to bring him the news. It was the last time they saw each other. In the years after his release, his health deteriorated. In November 1900, he died in Paris at the age of forty-six.