The Nightingale And The Rose

Short Story

Oscar Wilde

• Publisher: HarperPerennial Classics
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781443442671
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literature General
• Index: Literature

A nightingale selflessly sacrifices herself to help a young student win the love of his professor's daughter, but both the professor's daughter and the young student prove unworthy of her sacrifice.

Victorian author Oscar Wilde is known both as a playwright and prose author. Among his most famous works are The Picture of Dorian Gray, his only novel, the plays An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, and the short story collections Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories and The Happy Prince and Other Stories.

HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE

‘She said that she would dance with me if I brought her red roses,’ cried the young Student, ‘but in all my garden there is no red rose.’

From her nest in the holm-oak tree the Nightingale heard him, and she looked out through the leaves and wondered.

‘No red rose in all my garden!’ he cried, and his beautiful eyes filled with tears. ‘Ah, on what little things does happiness depend! I have read all that the wise men have written, and all the secrets of philosophy are mine, yet for want of a red rose is my life made wretched.’

‘Here at last is a true lover,’ said the Nightingale. ‘Night after night have I sung of him, though I knew him not: night after night have I told his story to the stars and now I see him. His hair is dark as the hyacinth-blossom, and his lips are red as the rose of his desire; but passion has made his face like pale ivory, and sorrow has set her seal upon his brow.’

‘The Prince gives a ball to-morrow night,’ murmured the young student, ‘and my love will be of the company. If I bring her a red rose she will dance with me till dawn. If I bring her a red rose, I shall hold her in my arms, and she will lean her head upon my shoulder, and her hand will be clasped in mine. But there is no red rose in my garden, so I shall sit lonely, and she will pass me by. She will have no heed of me, and my heart will break.’

‘Here, indeed, is the true lover,’ said the Nightingale. ‘What I sing of, he suffers: what is joy to me...

Table of contents

• CONTENTS
• The Nightingale and the Rose
• About the Author
• About the Series
• Copyright
• About the Publisher