Stephen Fry Presents a Selection of Oscar Wilde’s Short Stories

Stephen Fry Presents a Selection of Oscar Wilde's Short Stories (available on iTunes)

By mere chance, let’s say, I came across Stephen Fry’s blog and through this article, found out that he has narrated some of Oscar Wilde’s short stories (faerie tales). A small excerpt:

Oscar Wilde’s Fairy Tales continue to exert the same pull over the imagination and emotions as they did when he first read them to his children in the 1880s. Written with inspired poetic intensity and sudden flowerings of the matchless wit for which he is so well remembered, the stories combine the wisdom of parables with the impact of drama. I have loved them since I was a child: indeed they continue to make a child of me.

Reading these stories aloud is a sensuous and sensual pleasure. Wilde’s words are like luscious fruits. His sometimes biblical orotundity is counterpointed by little stabs of contemporaneity, bathos and surprise.

Stephen Fry does a wonderful job of reading Oscar Wilde’s stories, which include The Selfish Giant, The Nightingale and the Rose, and The Happy Prince; his narration is perfect and a joy to listen to…noting that this is entirely based on the fact that so far I’ve only heard a preview on iTunes. (cough) It’s an audio book, available on iTunes, and going for a price of $14.95. I hope that Mr. Fry releases it on audio CD as well as digitally.

I think Stephen Fry was the perfect choice for narrating these Wilde classics. It would be fantastic if he also narrated The Picture of Dorian Gray, which I have read and is my favourite story by Mr. Wilde.

Stories read in this selection are:

THE YOUNG KING (Duration 33:59)
THE SELFISH GIANT (Duration 10:56)
THE REMARKABLE ROCKET (Duration 27:49)
THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE (Duration 15:30)
THE HAPPY PRINCE (Duration 20:56)
THE DEVOTED FRIEND (Duration 24:34)

Stephen Fry also has his own podcast: Stephen Fry’s Podgrams, which is also an utter delight to listen to. He also has a small selection of audio books, including the one that is the focus of this post as well a series called Fry’s English Delight (also available on iTunes), as heard on BBC4 Radio. The average length of the audiobooks in this series is about 25 minutes, and are only $2.95. The series is interesting, in a conversational manner, and a fun, amusing way to learn about the idiosyncrasies of the English language and how they came about.

P.S. I’ve added Mr. Stephen Fry to the blogroll (scroll down to the bottom of the page).