Stephen Fry Presents a Selection of Oscar Wilde’s Short Stories by Oscar Wilde
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars

I was surprised to recognise two of these stories from one of my old children’s story books: The Selfish Giant and The Happy Prince. I thought they were always a bit depressing and noticed that I still feel the same way about them now, along with the other stories in this audiobook.
They remind me a bit of The Little Matchstick Girl; also a beautiful story teaching some important morals, but SO depressing. “And then she just died. The End.”

Oscar Wilde’s stories are certainly different from the standard ones, but I just wanted less death/unhappy endings before going to sleep. The Devoted Friend just downright outraged me. Going to sleep with a “WHAT?!?!”-feeling is not why I chose to listen to audiobooks. They’re supposed to help me with falling asleep easier, not getting all worked up over them. Then again, I have an extremely low tolerance for injustice, so maybe stories like these are just not meant for me in the first place.

I gave it 3.5 stars nevertheless because they ARE unique stories and I LOVE Stephen Fry and his narrating skills. I wish all my audiobooks were narrated by him :-).

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