British literature summaries - 2020

Short summary - The Happy Prince and Other Tales
Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde

Happy prince

Covered with gold and precious stones, the sculpture of the Happy Prince stood on a column above the city. Everyone admired the beautiful statue. Once the Starling flew over the city - he left his beloved Trostinka, who was a homebody and did not share the love of travel, but only flirted with the Wind; he got a sleepover between Prince's shoes. Suddenly the bird felt the Prince’s tears on itself - he was crying, for he saw all the sorrow and poverty of the city, although he had a tin heart. At the request of the Prince, the Starling did not fly to Egypt, and for several days wore the help of poor people in the form of jewelry from a sculpture: a seamstress who had a son - a ruby with a sword, a poor young playwright - an eye-sapphire, a girl who dropped matches for sale in a ditch - second sapphire.

Winter came, but Starling decided to stay with the Prince and told him, already blind, about Egypt, where the bird itself sought so much. After the Starling handed out leaf after leaf all the gold that covered the sculpture, the winged helper died. The tin heart of the Prince split in two.

An ugly statue was removed and remelted. The head of the city decided that it was time to erect a monument to himself, but the Advisers did not agree - everyone quarreled. A pewter heart and a dead bird were thrown into a landfill, from where an Angel took them, whom the Lord asked to bring the most precious that he would find in this city.

Boy and Giant

Every day the children played in the beautiful garden of the Giant, but when he returned from the guests, where he spent seven years, he drove out all the children from his possessions, built a fence and hung a sign "No Trespassing." Children did not find another place for games, sadly remembered the garden. Spring came, and winter only raged in the garden of the Giant - after all, there were no children, and the birds had no one to sing their songs. Even autumn has bypassed the garden.

One morning, the Giant heard beautiful music - Linnet sang it. Looking out the window, he saw that the children climbed through a hole in a dilapidated fence and sat on the branches of trees that immediately blossomed. Only in the corner where the little boy could not climb up was winter. I saw the Giant, the children ran away - and winter came again into the garden. Only the little boy did not notice the formidable master. The giant planted the boy on a branch, and he hugged and kissed him.

The giant smashed the fence into chips and gave the garden to the children, and even played with them. When the children came to wish good night, the boy was not with them, and the Giant was sad. The boy did not appear anymore, and the Giant was completely homesick. One winter morning, a very old Giant saw that the tree in the corner of the garden was covered with beautiful white flowers, and that same boy was standing under the tree, but wounds gaped on his arms and legs. The giant in anger asked who did this, but the boy replied that “these are the wounds of Love” and said that His garden was opened for the Giant.

When the children came into the garden, they saw a giant lying under a tree, strewn with white flowers.

Faithful friend

One morning, an old Water Rat popped out of a hole. A duck taught its children to stand upside down in a pond (“If you do not learn to stand on your head, you will never be accepted into good society”). Water Rat: “Love is a good thing, of course, but friendship is much higher ... A faithful friend should be devoted to me.” Then Linnet began the story of a Faithful Friend.

Once upon a time there was a nice guy Hans. He was no different, except with a kind heart and a funny round, cheerful face. He had a garden, which he loved very much and where he grew flowers. Little Hans had many friends, but Big Guy Miller was the most devoted. The rich miller was so devoted to him that every time he passed by, he gathered a huge bouquet of flowers or stuffed pockets with fruits. “True friends should have everything in common,” he said. And Hans wrote down the whole theory of friendship carefully in a notebook. Naturally, the miller never thanked Hans. In winter, he never visited him (“When a person has a hard time, it’s better to leave him alone”) and did not call to himself (“... there is nothing worse than envy in the world, it will spoil anyone ... I’m a friend to him and will always make sure that he was tempted. ")

Finally spring came and Miller went to Hans for the primroses. Hans wanted to sell them and redeem a wheelbarrow, which had to be laid in the winter. But the miller took all the flowers (the basket was huge) and invited Hans to give his car, though it was very broken. Hans said he has a board and he will fix the car. Then the miller asked Hans, as a true friend, whom he was going to give a wheelbarrow, to repair a hole in his roof with this board. Hans, of course, agreed for the sake of a friend. The miller began to ask him about other "services", because he would give him a car. Hans agreed to everything, but in his garden he simply did not have time to work.

One night a child fell ill with a miller. It was necessary to follow the doctor, and there was a terrible storm on the street. The miller asked Hans, but he didn’t even give him the lantern ("... I have a new lantern, will something happen to him?"). On the way back, Hans lost his way and drowned in a swamp. Everyone came to the funeral of Hans, because everyone loved him. But most of all Melnik grieved (“After all, I can say, I gave him my car and now I won’t know what to do with it: she only takes up a place at home and will not give anything to sell, so she’s broken. I’ll be more careful. Now no one will get anything from me. Generosity is always to the detriment of man. ”)

Water Rat did not understand the story and went to his room. “I'm afraid she was offended by me,” said Linnet. “... I told her a moral story.” “What are you, this is a dangerous business!” “Duck.”

Wonderful rocket

Everyone was preparing for the wedding of the prince and the beauty princess, who had been brought from faraway Russia. The Court Engineer at the far end of the garden was preparing everything for the fireworks (the Russian beauty had never seen fireworks). Petard, the Roman Candle and the Fiery Carousel discussed the world. The carousel, in her youth in love with a Christmas tree box, believed that love was dead, Petarda saw the world beautiful, and the Roman Candle considered it too big.

A sharp cough attracted the attention of the Patron, tied to a long stick. Nobody can put words into his long and very selfish speech: he considered himself above all (the prince was lucky that the wedding was appointed on the day Patron was launched), and he called others rude. To all exhortations to stay dry, for this is the main thing for their brother, Patron replied that he chose to sob. Of course, when all the charges flew up to the sky, causing the princess to laugh, the damp Patron was silent, and the next day the wipers threw him into the ditch.

The patron decided that he was sent to the waters to improve his health; True, the local society - the frog - he did not like, because she spoke only about herself. Despite the fact that the interlocutor had already sailed away, Patron posted his whole story about how the wedding of the prince and princess was organized in honor of him. Dragonfly and Duck also thoughtlessly quickly left him, having lost the opportunity to grow wiser.

The boys who gathered brushwood threw the dirty pole into the fire to warm the water in the pot. The cartridge exploded, but the boys did not even wake up. The stick fell on the back of Goose, which started off, and Patron went out, managing to say: "... I knew that I would make a splash."