The Happy Prince

Quick Answer

Why This Story Works for Bedtime

It’s reflective and heart-forward. For bedtime, it works best when you emphasize gentle compassion—helping in small ways—and end with reassurance that love and goodness still ‘count,’ even when the story feels sad.

Story Synopsis

High above the city stands a statue of the Happy Prince, covered in gold, with sapphires for eyes and a ruby on his sword. When he was alive, the Prince lived behind palace walls and never saw suffering. Now, as a statue, he can see everything: hungry children, cold rooms, tired workers, and quiet sorrow hidden in the streets. One evening a swallow, delayed on his migration, rests near the statue. The Prince asks the swallow to stay one night and become his messenger. The Prince cannot move, but he can give. He asks the bird to take the ruby to a poor seamstress who is trying to care for her sick child. The swallow agrees—just once. But the Prince keeps seeing more need. He asks the swallow to take one sapphire eye to a struggling writer, and the other to a match girl who is freezing in the dark. Night after night, the swallow delivers the gifts, and little by little the statue becomes plain, giving away his beauty to bring relief to strangers. Winter deepens. The swallow grows weak from cold and love, refusing to leave the Prince. At last, the swallow’s strength runs out, and the Prince’s lead heart cracks with grief. The city officials eventually remove the shabby statue, never realizing what it gave. The Happy Prince is a tender, bittersweet story about compassion. Read softly at bedtime, it invites gentle conversations about helping in small ways—and about how love and kindness can be precious, even when they look ordinary from the outside.

Story Excerpt

High above the city, on the top of a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold. His eyes were two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on the hilt of his sword. People admired him whenever they passed. “ He is as beautiful as a weathercock, ” said one of the Town Councillors, who wanted everyone to think he had artistic taste. “ Only … not quite so useful, ” he added quickly, worried someone might call him impractical. “ Why can’t you be like the Happy Prince? ” a sensible mother asked her little boy when he cried for the moon. “ The Happy Prince never dreams of crying for anything. ” “ I’m glad there is someone in the world who is quite happy, ” muttered a disappointed man, looking up. “ He looks just like an angel, ” said the Charity Children as they came out of the cathedral in bright scarlet cloaks and clean white pinafores. “ How do you know? ” asked the Mathematical Master. “ You have never seen one. ” “ Ah, but we have — in our dreams, ” the children answered. And the Mathematical Master frowned, because he did not approve of children dreaming. One night, a little Swallow flew over the city. His friends had gone away to Egypt six weeks before, but he had stayed behind. He had been in love with the most beautiful Reed by the river. He had met her in spring, when he was chasing a big yellow moth. The Reed’s waist was so slender and she bowed so gracefully that he had stopped at once. “ Shall I love you? ” the Swallow had said, because he liked to come to the point. And the Reed made him a low bow. All summer he flew round and round her, touching the water with his wings and making silver ripples. That was his courtship. “ It is a ridiculous attachment, ” the other Swallows twittered. “ She has no money, and far too many relations. ” And indeed, the river was full of Reeds. When autumn came, the Swallows all flew away. After they had gone, the little Swallow felt lonely. And he began to tire of his lady - love. “ She has no conversation, ” he said. “ And I’m afraid she’s a coquette, because she is always flirting with the wind. ” For whenever the wind blew, the Reed made the most graceful curtseys. “ I admit she is…

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