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The author of The Selfish Giant was a person full of contradictions. Perhaps that is true to some extent of all of us. Oscar Wilde was known for his witty plays, such as “The Importance of Being Ernest.” If you have never seen it performed or in a movie, you ought to – it is hilarious. But he was also known for his immoral lifestyle later in life. However, he was married and had a son for whom he wrote short stories that feel like modern fairy tales. What is interesting is that because he was writing for a child, and a beloved child at that, these stories came out entirely differently from his works for adults. Many of the stories even have a deep Biblical basis and convey spiritual truths in a beautiful way.
These stories (The Happy Prince and others) are all worth reading but the best, in my opinion, is The Selfish Giant. It is a Christian allegory, much like the world-famous Pilgrim’s Progress (which everyone needs to read!). The giant, who is an actual fairy tale giant, is cold and worldly and doesn’t want to share his beautiful garden with the village children. A series of events, and especially one little child, who the other children had never seen before, opens his mind and heart to love. He grows old in a gentle, good way because of his love for the children as they play in his garden and with him. A final encounter with the same child as before, whom he has not seen for many years, brings him all the way home to God. I confess I can’t read this book to a child, or even re-read it for this review, without getting choked up with tears in my eyes. This is a beautiful story with deep spiritual meaning from an author not known for his deep knowledge of God. An upper elementary school child can read these simple words but this story is for everyone to enjoy.
The illustrator is Lisbeth Zwerger (born 1954), who is an Austrian illustrator of children's books. We have her to thank for this picture-book edition of Wilde’s wonderful story. Her lovely watercolor paintings greatly increase the drama of the tale. Zwerger’s style is similar to that of Arthur Rackham, who was a famous English book illustrator in the early 1900s (he illustrated Rip van Winkle, see my review). She received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1990 for her distinguished career in children’s book illustration.