page_title: The Happy Prince and Other Tales
section_title: "The Selfish Giant"
hierarchical_section_title: The Happy Prince and Other Tales / "The Selfish Giant"
caption_attribution_description: plate illustrating a story "The Selfish Giant" in Wilde's The Happy Prince and Other Tales. London: Nutt. 1st ed. Conversion: jp2 to png; greyscale; black and white point levels.
context_page_description: The Happy Prince and Other Tales is a collection of stories for children by Oscar Wilde first published in May 1888. It contains five stories: "The Happy Prince", "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Selfish Giant", "The Devoted Friend", and "The Remarkable Rocket".
context_section_description: The Selfish Giant owns a beautiful garden which has 12 peach trees and lovely fragrant flowers, in which children love to play after returning from the school. On the giant's return from seven years visiting his friend the Cornish Ogre, he takes offence at the children and builds a wall to keep them out. He put a notice board "TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED". The garden falls into perpetual winter. One day, the giant is awakened by a linnet, and discovers that spring has returned to the garden, as the children have found a way in through a gap in the wall. He sees the error of his ways, and resolves to destroy the wall. However, when he emerges from his castle, all the children run away except for one boy who was trying to climb a tree. The giant helps this boy into the tree and announces: "It is your garden now, little children," and knocks down the wall. The children once more play in the garden, and Spring returns. But the boy that the Giant helped does not return, and the Giant is heartbroken. Many years later, after happily playing with the children all the time, the Giant is old and feeble. One winter morning, he awakes to see the trees in one part of his garden in full blossom. He descends from the castle to discover the boy that he once helped standing beneath a beautiful white tree. The Giant sees that the boy bears the stigmata. He does not realise that the boy is actually the Christ Child and is furious that somebody has wounded him.
  "Who hath dared to wound thee?" cried the Giant; "tell me, that I may take my big sword and slay him."
  "Nay!" answered the child; "but these are the wounds of Love."
  "Who are you?" said the Giant, and a strange awe fell on him, and he knelt before the little child.
  And the child smiled on the Giant, and said to him, "You let me play once in your garden, to-day you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise."
  Shortly afterwards, the happy giant dies. That same afternoon, his body is found lying under the tree, covered in blossoms.
caption: Plate 2 for the first edition by Walter Crane
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