Oscar Wilde described his second collection of fairy tales, A House of Pomegranates, as being rather like his first, The Happy Prince and other Tales, only more elaborate. Two of the four stories contained in the second collection had been published previously; “The Young King” first appeared in the Christmas number of The Lady’s Pictorial, 1888, and “The Birthday of the Infanta” appeared in both the English and French versions of Paris Illustré on 30 March, 1889. The recently formed firm of Osgood McIlvaine published the collection, containing slightly revised versions of these stories and two others, “The Fisherman and his Soul” and “The Star-Child”, in November 1891. The volume was dedicated to Wilde’s wife Constance, and each of the four stories was dedicated to a society lady. With illustrations by Charles Ricketts and Charles...
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Citation: Markey, Anne. "House of Pomegranates". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 April 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4698, accessed 09 June 2026.]

