The Nightingale and the Rose, A Book Review
- Ciara
- Oct 3, 2025
- 1 min read
The Nightingale and the Rose - Oscar Wilde
"Ah, on what little things does happiness depend! I have read all that the wise men have written, and all the secrets of philosophy are mine, yet for want of a red rose is my life made wretched."
"Here indeed is the true lover, what I sing if, he suffers–what is joy to me, to him is pain. Surely Love is a wonderful thing... It may not be purchased of the merchants, nor can it be weighed out in the balance for gold."
"Bitter, bitter was the pain, and wilder and wilder grew her song, for she sang of the Love that is perfected by Death, of the Love that dies not in tomb."
The Nightingale and the Rose is a story of sacrifice and selflessness in the name of love. And oftentimes, if not always, the love and sacrifice are discarded and ignored.
When I read this story, I had to close the book and stare at the ceiling for some minutes which was a little weird because love and sacrifices and pain is not a foreign concept to me. I have read a lot of books about unrequited, unconditional love, and unrealized sacrifices. But the way this story is written is innocent and pure and has definitely no business being so hurtful. I was left to wonder whether it was worth it. Did the Nightingale die in vain? Did it die heroically? I don't even know.
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