“A House of Pomegranates” Is Published

A House of Pomegranates is a collection of fairy tales, written by Oscar Wilde, that was published as a second collection for The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) by James Osgood McIlvanie in London. 

The stories in this collection are: The Young King, The Birthday of the Infanta, The Fisherman and his Soul, and The Star-Child. Each of these stories are heartbreaking in their own ways; each feels like a fairy tale: mystical. They have themes that are reminiscent of themes (souls, influence, and spirituality) in his book, “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” In a review by the Pall Mall Gazette (dated 1891), the reviewer questioned whether or not Wilde wrote this for the average British child because the themes in these short stories were not suitable for young children; they mentioned that an “unpleasant suggestion [of the text] reminds us of ‘Picture of Dorian Gray’.” In response, Wilde said to the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette that in writing this collection, he "had about as much intention of pleasing the British child as [he] had of pleasing the British public,” meaning he didn’t write this for either children or the British people. 

sources:

https://books.google.com/books?id=GgxHAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=house+of+pomegranates&source=bl&ots=wNPVrzVYbQ&sig=v94OTo4PF6cORmTYQCo0UdEEqY4&hl=en&ei=zIXIS7amDsL48AbesMGLBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCEQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://worldhistoryproject.org/1892/a-house-of-pomegranates-is-published

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31012161113&searchurl=fe%3Don%26bi%3D0%26ds%3D30%26bx%3Don%26sortby%3D1%26tn%3DA%2BHouse%2Bof%2BPomegranates%2BNOT%2Bworks%26an%3DOscar%2BWilde&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/ZIIBXR379551706/LCO?u=uiuc_columbia&sid=bookmark-LCO&xid=0c5a71d7

Associated Place(s)

Event date:

1891

Parent Chronology: