A House of Pomegranates is a collection of fairy tales written by Oscar Wilde, published in 1891.

[1] Wilde's fairy tales were heavily influenced by the Brothers Grimm as well as Hans Christian Andersen.

[3] The aesthetics suggested by Pater guided Wilde in creating the worlds within A House of Pomegranates, each respective story reflecting decadent subjects and delving into their own senses of sensuality.

[4] Regardless, Wilde pulls readers away from rigid innocence and introduces new pleasures within his fairytales, offering an idealistic kind of sensuality.

Nearing death, an old king reveals his secret grandson, who lived with a poor family, is next in line for the throne.

Shortly afterwards the princess walks in, demanding the dwarf to dance for her and he doesn't respond, as he is dead from a broken heart.

Two years later the mermaid's dead body washes ashore and the fisherman's heart breaks, allowing him and the soul to completely merge as one.

A poor lumberjack finds a baby and decides to take him home, raising the child as his own.

Yet, whenever he finds a bar of gold, he gives it to a beggar asking for money, choosing to suffer the old man's cruel punishments.

[5] Wilde's detailed descriptions of beauty, separated from their traditional notions of virtues and "social mores" found in other fairy tales, become its perfection and end.

The final story of the collection, "The Star-Child", features detailed descriptions of beauty, and like the Infanta, the child is arrogant and proud despite his appearance—his looks are useless as they don't determine his character.

The collection's title evokes Judeo-Christian imagery with the understanding of pomegranates associated with fertility, suffering, and the resurrection.

In "The Young King" the titular character has a "Christlike appeal" and undergoes a spiritual transformation where he "receives and projects the light of God" into the room and in front of his subjects.

[7] "The Fisherman and His Soul" portrays a similar exploration of Christian imagery while touching on themes of temptation, love, suffering and sin while being "told in a manner reminiscent of the Holy Bible".

[7] The ending of the story can also refer to the cycle of life and death in the myth of Persephone—the barren graves and the Sea-folk who left.