Birds in Literature

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Wilde’s short stories are less well known than his longer prose works or plays, but this text includes two noteworthy stories centered on avian characters. The Happy Prince is a story about a swallow whose penchant for love leads it to help a gold and jewel covered statue distribute its riches among the people of the city in which it stands. The story ends with the swallow dying due to the cold and the statue being melted down, but both being taken to heaven for their selflessness. Much like The Happy Prince, the bird character in the Nightingale and the Rose sacrifices itself for selfless love. Unlike the swallow, the nightingale’s death is in vain as the rose that it gave its life for is rejected by the woman to whom it is given. The story of the nightingale and the rose comes from a Persian and Arabic artistic tradition where the bird represents hopeless love and the flower is a figure of perfection and beauty. In this tradition, the nightingale and the rose are also metaphors for earthly figures yearning for the love of the divine.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900).
The Short Stories of Oscar Wilde.
[Burlington, Vt.]: Printed at the Lane Press for the members of the Limited Editions Club, 1968.

Lehigh University Catalog Record: https://asa.lib.lehigh.edu/asa/Record/313752

A version of this text has been digitized and is available through The Internet Archive.

Digitized Version

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Andersen used birds as the subject of several of his stories including “The Ugly Duckling”, “The Nightingale,” “The Wild Swans”, “The Storks", and “The Phoenix Bird.” Andersen’s use of animals enables the communication of more complex moral lessons to a younger audience. In this story, a duckling whose outward appearance is different from its fellow hatchlings struggles to find a place where it belongs. Eventually, it realizes that it doesn’t belong among ducks because it is actually a swan.

The Ugly Duckling, displayed here, was repeatedly adapted across formats including film and stage. Most notable of these adaptations was the 1939 color Disney animated film, which won the 1940 Oscar for Best Short Subject (Cartoons). The story became so popular that an ugly duckling is today a common idiom describing anyone who finds success or acceptance following personal growth.

H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen (1805-1875).
Hans Christian Andersen's Stories for the Household. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1866.

Lehigh University Catalog Record: https://asa.lib.lehigh.edu/asa/Record/10716420

A version of this text has been digitized and is available through The Internet Archive.

Digitized Version