{"id":2139,"date":"2011-05-22T00:01:32","date_gmt":"2011-05-22T06:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2139"},"modified":"2011-05-23T11:16:28","modified_gmt":"2011-05-23T17:16:28","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-220-featuring-chris-beatrice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2139","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #220: Featuring Chris Beatrice"},"content":{"rendered":"


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“‘I believe the Spring has come at last,’ said the Giant;
and he jumped out of bed and looked out. What did he see?”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

Don’t you think it’s time Oscar Wilde<\/a><\/strong> visited the blog? I do. <\/p>\n

Okay. Sure. “Visited” the blog is a bit much. It’s not like I’ve called forth his spirit, but I am<\/em> featuring one of his children’s stories today. <\/p>\n

In 1888, Wilde’s own collection of original fairy tales, The Happy Prince and Other Tales<\/em>, was published, and it included a story called “The Selfish Giant.” In March of this year, Noteworthy Books released a new picture book adaptation<\/a><\/strong> of this tale, which includes orchestral music on an accompanying CD from composer Dan Goeller and narration from British actor Martin Jarvis. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The story itself is a heavily didactic Christian allegory, all about a giant whose garden is visited by neighboring children, while the giant is away for seven years visiting his bud, a Cornish ogre. Upon his return, the Giant orders the children to leave. He is then visited by the Snow and the Frost (my favorite illustration, pictured below), delaying Spring for entirely too long. After the Spring finally arrives, the children return, his cold heart thaws (in more ways than one), and he ventures outside. He befriends a young boy, who eventually disappears after the Giant knocks down the wall which had kept the children out. In his old age, after years of friendship with the children, he sees the young boy again, outside in his garden one winter morning. The boy has nail prints in his hands and the prints of two nails on his feet, and he calls them “the wounds of Love.” When the giant asks the boy who he is, he simply responds, “You let me play once in your garden, to-day you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise.”<\/p>\n

Later, the children find the Giant dead under the tree, “all covered with white blossoms.”<\/p>\n

I didn’t plan<\/em> this post this to coincide with Rapture’s Eve. Pinky promise. (I am typing this on the night before some people<\/a><\/strong> are claiming Rapture will take place and the world will end.) <\/p>\n

Anyway. Curious little fairy tale, huh? Who knew? Well, I didn’t. I hadn’t read any of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales before, which he evidently wrote for his sons, Cyril and Vyvyan. <\/p>\n

It’s the illustrations I want to feature today. Artist Chris Beatrice’s<\/a><\/strong> vivid illustrations, on full display below, are … well, lush<\/em> would be the best word. His colorful and highly dramatic paintings are rich and detailed, and every now I then I like to feature the artwork of someone like this who can wow you with his ability to portray light in a room or landscape. I mean, there’s a reason<\/em> I open the post with the illustration above. Wow, huh?<\/p>\n

So, without further ado, here are some of Beatrice’s illustrations from the book. <\/p>\n


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“Every afternoon, as they were coming from school, the children used to go
and play in the Giant’s garden.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“When he arrived he saw the children playing in the garden. ‘What are you doing here?’ he cried in a very gruff voice, and the children ran away.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“So he built a high wall around it, and put up a notice-board.
TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED. He was a very selfish Giant.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“The Snow covered up the grass with her great white cloak, and the Frost painted all the trees silver. Then they invited the North Wind to stay with them, and he came. He was wrapped in furs, and he roared all day about the garden, and blew the chimney-pots down. ‘This is a delightful spot,’ he said, ‘we must ask the Hail on a visit.’ So the Hail came. Every day for three hours he rattled on the roof of the castle till he broke most of the slates, and then he ran round and round the garden as fast as he could go. He was dressed in grey, and his breath was like ice.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“He saw a most wonderful sight. Through a little hole in thew all the children had crept in, and they were sitting in the branches of the trees…”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“‘It is your garden now, little children,’ said the Giant,
and he took a great axe and knocked down the wall.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“Every afternoon, when school was over, the children came and played with the Giant. But the little boy whom the Giant loved was never seen again.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“One winter morning he looked out of his window as he was dressing. He did not hate Winter now, for he knew that it was merely the Spring asleep,
and that the flowers were resting.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“‘Who hath dared to wound thee?’ cried the Giant; ‘tell me, that I may take my big sword and slay him.’ ‘Nay!’ answered the child; ‘but these are the wounds of Love.'”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“And the child smiled on the Giant, and said to him, ‘You let me play once in your garden, to-day you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise.'”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

THE SELFISH GIANT. Book copyright \u00a9 2011. Illustration copyright \u00a9 2010 by Chris Beatrice. Published by Noteworthy Books, Sioux Falls. All images reproduced by permission of the publisher.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Note for any new readers: 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. <\/p>\n

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1)<\/strong><\/font> Speaking of Oscar Wilde, I stumbled last weekend upon this wonderful image<\/a><\/strong> from Autumn de Wilde while working on Carson Ellis’s interview<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> I love this new picture book from John Rocco<\/a><\/strong>. More on it later, as he’ll be visiting 7-Imp very soon:<\/p>\n