The Nightingale
Classical Stories · No. 77 — The jeweled mechanical bird, and the plain one who came back.
- Classical Stories
- 39 min
- Ages 8–13
- 7 chapters
About this audiobook
The emperor of China, in his porcelain palace, learns that travelers praise one thing above all his treasures: a plain little nightingale that sings in the forest by the sea. He has the bird brought to court, and its song moves everyone to tears. But then a rival ruler sends a gift — a mechanical nightingale, encrusted with jewels, that sings one set tune whenever wound. The court is dazzled; the artificial bird can be repeated endlessly and always sounds the same, so the real nightingale, unnoticed, slips away back to the woods. Years pass; the mechanical bird wears out and falls silent. Then the emperor lies gravely ill, and no jeweled song can help him — until the real nightingale, hearing of his sorrow, returns to his window and sings, and its true song does what all the treasure in the palace could not.
Why it's worth a listen
An emperor discovers that the most beautiful sound in his kingdom comes from a plain little nightingale in the woods — until a gift arrives of a jeweled mechanical bird that sings the same song over and over, and the real bird is forgotten and flies away. Then, one night, only real song can do what jewels cannot. Andersen's exquisite fable about the real and the artificial, and what we truly need.
A question to keep
What is the difference between something dazzling and something true — and which do you want beside you at the end?
Chapters
- The Palace of Porcelain and the Hidden Song
- The Kitchen Girl’s Guide
- Tears of True Song
- The Glittering Rival
- The Silent Spring
- The Visitor at the Window
- A Question to Keep