A House of Pomegranates

5b Oscar Wilde. Illustrations by C. Ricketts and C. H. Shannon. London: James R. Osgood, 1891.

Notes

A House of Pomegranates is a collection of four fairy tales by Oscar Wilde, first published in 1891 as a follow-up to his earlier collection The Happy Prince and Other Tales. Intended for older readers, the stories—The Young King, The Birthday of the Infanta, The Fisherman and His Soul, and The Star-Child—blend rich symbolism, moral complexity, and Wilde’s signature aestheticism. Unlike traditional children's tales, these stories explore themes of beauty, sacrifice, suffering, and redemption, often with dark or bittersweet endings. Wilde described the book as “intended neither for the British child nor the British public,” signaling its more artistic and philosophical ambitions. With its ornate language and melancholic tone, A House of Pomegranates reflects Wilde's fascination with decadence, spirituality, and the transformative power of love and art.

The first edition of A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde was published in 1891 by James R. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co. in London, and is notable for its striking artistic collaboration with illustrators Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon. Designed in the spirit of the Aesthetic and Decadent movements, the book features an elaborate green cloth binding with gold peacock and floral motifs by Ricketts, as well as decorative initials, borders, and full-page illustrations that complement Wilde’s richly symbolic fairy tales. Intended as a more mature and artistically ambitious follow-up to The Happy Prince and Other Tales, this edition reflects Wilde’s belief in the unity of art and literature. Its design and content marked it as a luxurious and carefully crafted object, intended not for mass consumption but for the discerning reader and collector.

Description

Brown boards with green cloth spine. Gilt illustrations to upper board and lettering to spine. Black and white illustrations throughout with four plates. Very interesting bookplate pastedown to inner cover with skull, crossbones, snakes, a heart, star, and crown, and more interesting symbols intwined. Loose hinge. Pages through number 8 is looser than the rest of the binding. Fading to covers. Sun fading to spine. Bumped corners. Rubbed extremities. Good condition overall.