Fairy Tales – Interesting Literature

A Summary and Analysis of Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Remarkable Rocket’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Remarkable Rocket’ is one of the fairy tales for children written by the Irish author Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). It was published in the 1888 collection The Happy Prince and Other Tales.

‘The Remarkable Rocket’ is about a firework which is set to be let off as part of the spectacular wedding celebrations held in honour of a prince and princess, but because he cries and makes himself damp, he doesn’t go off. Instead, he is set off by two boys and his great explosion is witnessed by no one.

A Summary and Analysis of ‘The Ebony Horse’ from the Arabian Nights

‘The Ebony Horse’ is one of the most exciting and enchanting story from the Arabian Nights, also known as the One Thousand and One Nights. Indeed, the tale is interesting because it even borders on being ‘science fiction’ before the genre existed. It sees a cunning inventor design an ebony horse which is capable of flying. A prince uses the horse to travel to other lands, where he falls in love with a princess.

A Summary and Analysis of Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Steadfast Tin Soldier’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Steadfast Tin Soldier’ is an 1838 fairy tale by the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen. One of the shortest among Andersen’s well-known tales, ‘The Steadfast Tin Soldier’ is about a toy soldier who falls in love with a paper ballerina, and who undergoes a series of hardships, seemingly as a result.

A Summary and Analysis of Italo Calvino’s ‘Apple Girl’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Apple Girl’ is an Italian folktale which was memorably told by Italo Calvino (1923-85) in his 1956 collection Italian Folktales. The story concerns a queen who gives birth to an apple, which the king of a neighbouring kingdom sees and falls in love with. Before we analyse ‘Apple Girl’ it might be worth quickly summarising the plot of this short tale.

A Summary and Analysis of Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Red Shoes’ Fairy Tale

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Red Shoes’ (1845) is perhaps the strangest of all of Hans Christian Andersen’s well-known fairy tales. Divining the meaning of some of Andersen’s other stories for children is relatively easy, but a number of aspects of the meaning and symbolism of ‘The Red Shoes’ remain troubling. Let’s take a closer look at this unusual and oddly compelling story.