He produced new fairy tales that have as many sad endings as Andersen's tales: the Nightingale sacrifices herself to produce a red rose for the indifferent Student; the Happy Prince gives up all parts of himself; and in a rather nasty little story about "little Hans," the Miller manipulates Hans out of so-called friendship...until little Hans drowns.
Unlike Andersen, however, the tales lack the dark pathos that make Andersen's tales truly memorable. Nothing in Wilde seems entire serious and several of the tales contain quite deliberately sardonic moments, such as when the King raises the Page's salary but "as he receive no salary at all, this was not of much use to him." Also, the King plays the flute very badly but everyone praises him anyway. (Hints of Emperor Nero.)
The stories are not entirely comfortable, the mocking tone is so strong. In some tales, Wilde seems to be experimenting with early child horror, the type of tongue-in-cheek writing Joan Aiken and Lemony Snicket did so well. But they wrote entirely from within the story. Wilde seems to be deploying language to keep himself at a remove: See how clever I am. That he would do this even with children seems inexpressibly sad.
"The Selfish Giant" comes closest to producing a gentle ending with no self-mockery--though perhaps some self-identification.
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