3 h 44 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 3 h 44 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the most beautiful things in a kingdom carry a cost its young king cannot bear?
Oscar Wilde’s A House of Pomegranates gathers four fairy tales where beauty meets suffering, pride, and love. In The Young King, a boy faces the human cost of royal splendour. In The Birthday of the Infanta, a dwarf dances at a Spanish court and hopes the princess cares for him.
The Fisherman and His Soul follows a young man who catches a mermaid and is willing to surrender his soul for love. The Star-Child begins with a falling star and a poor woodcutter’s discovery. Across these tales, silk, gold, flowers, and strange gardens surround troubling questions about what beauty is worth.
What you’ll discover
- The price of splendour Follow a young king whose love of beautiful things meets the suffering of workers.
- Hope at a glittering court Meet a dwarf whose hopes for affection stand beside a princess’s birthday amusements.
- Love against the soul Enter a fisherman’s strange struggle between love for a mermaid and his returning soul.
- Beauty touched by pride Discover a child from a fallen star who grows beautiful, vain, and unkind.
- Images that invite lingering Pause over embroidered robes, gardens of tulips, and the colours of a sea cave.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who love fairy tales with jewels in their sentences, lovers of Wilde's wit and mercy, and anyone who enjoys stories of kings, mermaids and witches.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A goatherd's boy learns to love beauty
- A princess's birthday hides a grieving court
- A little dwarf dances and thinks he is loved
- A fisherman falls in love with the sea
- A witch's price and a shadow cut away
- The Soul brings wisdom and riches, but love is better
- A beautiful child learns what cruelty costs
- What the tales share and how Wilde tells them
Who’s who
- The young KingA sixteen-year-old raised by a goatherd, who loves beautiful things until three dreams show him the pain behind his coronation robe.
- The InfantaThe twelve-year-old Princess of Spain, spoiled and bright, who enjoys her birthday entertainments and never thinks about what they cost others.
- The little DwarfA forest child brought to court as a surprise, who dances happily and thinks the Princess loves him.
- The young FishermanA man who falls in love with a Mermaid and wants to send away his soul to be with her.
- The SoulThe Fisherman's cast-off soul, which returns each year with tales of wisdom and riches and wants to enter him again.
- The young WitchA red-haired witch who names a dance as her price for teaching the Fisherman how to cut away his shadow.
- The Star-ChildA beautiful foundling who falls from the sky, grows proud and cruel, and is made to learn pity.
- The WoodcutterA poor man who brings the found child home against his wife's wishes and teaches that a hard heart lets in the cold.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet or computer, once the book texts are online.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, once the book texts are online.
- Audiobook
- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 9 minutes, to read today.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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Una casa di melograni
by Oscar Wilde · 1891
A king-to-be refuses his crown, a dwarf dances for a princess, and a fisherman cuts away his own soul.
Medium level2–5 hours to readItaliano
Excellent
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In short
What would you do if your coronation robe had been woven by starving hands? In the first tale of this book, a sixteen-year-old King wakes from three dreams and refuses the crown on the very morning he is meant to receive it.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A goatherd's boy learns to love beauty
The Young King opens on the night before a coronation. The King is only sixteen, and he lies alone while his courtiers go off to take last lessons from the Professor of Etiquette.
The boy was raised by a poor goatherd and believes himself the goatherd's son. His mother was the old King's daughter, who secretly married an outsider. Taken from her when he was a week old, he grows up in the forest. On his deathbed the old King names him heir.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 9 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1891
- Language
- Italiano
- Reading time
- 2 h 25 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Wilde, Oscar. A House of Pomegranates. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-house-of-pomegranates.
Wilde, O. (2026). A house of pomegranates. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-house-of-pomegranates (Original work published 1891)
Wilde, Oscar. A House of Pomegranates. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-house-of-pomegranates.
@book{wilde2026house,
author = {Wilde, Oscar},
title = {A House of Pomegranates},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-house-of-pomegranates},
note = {First published 1891}
}
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What is A House of Pomegranates about?
It is a collection of four fairy tales by Oscar Wilde. A boy king refuses his crown, a dwarf loves a princess, a fisherman tries to send away his soul, and a proud child must learn pity.
What are the four stories in A House of Pomegranates?
They are The Young King, The Birthday of the Infanta, The Fisherman and His Soul, and The Star-Child. Each is an independent tale with its own characters, setting and dedication.
Is A House of Pomegranates a children's book?
The tales use fairy-tale forms such as kings, witches, mermaids and magic, and their stories are clear and vivid. They also carry adult ideas about beauty, poverty and pity, so readers of many ages can enjoy them.
The author
Oscar Wilde
1854–1900 · Irish playwright and poet
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was an Irish poet, playwright, and novelist born in Dublin. He lived in London and later in France, where he died in Paris. He published The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1890. His play The Importance of Being Earnest was first performed in 1895.
More by Oscar Wilde
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