THE HAPPY PRINCE

Happy when alive (""if pleasure be happiness""), the prince, now a gilded statue (?), weeps to see the misery of his city's poor. And so he persuades a late migrating sparrow to give the sufferers the ruby from his sword, the sapphires from his eyes, and at last the gold leaf from his body--until the statue, now ugly, is removed and melted down, and the bird, who has lingered too long in the north, dies at its feet. Oscar Wilde's sentimental tale, which ends with the dead bird and the statue's leaden heart being transported to heaven, is crassly illustrated with textured, collagish facades and garishly striated skies. Dismal.