Fables Short Stories
Browse fables short stories from the collection, each with literary analysis and discussion guides.
The Nightingale and the Rose
A young Student weeps because he cannot find the red rose that would win a dance with the professor's daughter. A Nightingale, believing him to be a true lover, resolves to help. Told that the only way to make a red rose is to sing all night with her breast pressed against a thorn, she gives her life-blood to stain a white rose red. The Student finds the rose, but the girl scorns it in favor of jewels, and he flings it into the gutter, dismisses love as unpractical, and goes back to his books - never knowing what the little bird gave for it.
The Happy Prince
The jewelled statue of the Happy Prince looks down over a city and, seeing its suffering poor, weeps. He persuades a Swallow lingering on his way to Egypt to become his messenger, stripping the ruby from his sword, the sapphires of his eyes, and finally the gold leaf from his body to relieve the sick, the hungry, and the cold. Blinded and shabby, the Prince keeps the loyal Swallow beside him until the bird, too weak from the frost, dies at his feet - and the Prince's leaden heart snaps in two. The town councillors melt the ugly statue down, but the cracked heart and the dead bird are carried up to God, who names them the two most precious things in the city.