"Somebody Else's Prince" belongs to a collection of short stories, named The Other Side of the Sun, written by Evelyn Sharp (1869–1955) in 1900. Other stories in this collection include: The Weird Witch of the Willowherb, The Magician's Tea-Party, The Hundredth Princess, The Tears of Princess Prunella, The Palace on the Floor, The Lady Daffodilia, and The Kite That Went to the Moon.
About the author
Evelyn Sharp (1869–1955) was a key figure in two of the major women's suffrage societies in Britain: the militant Women's Social and Political Union, and the United Suffragists. She helped to found the latter and became editor of Votes for Women during the First World War. She was twice imprisoned and became a tax resister. An established author who had published in The Yellow Book, she was especially well known for her children's fiction.
Summary
A King and a Queen have 5 children: four sons, and one daughter. The five children have five gardens that are all lined up in a row. The daughter's name is Princess Gentianella and her garden is the most extravagant out of the five. Her garden lies at the end of the row with a stonewall surrounding it. The King and the Queen built the wall higher whenever the princess grew to prevent her from seeing over it. They thought it clever and wise to prevent the young princess form seeing the world that lay on the other side of her garden.
As the four princes grew up they left their gardens. The youngest of the 4 princes, Prince Hyacinth, came and said goodbye to his young sister when it was his turn to leave. Princess Gentianella was very upset since she would now have to play in the gardens all by herself, but her brother tried to cheer her up saying, “but perhaps, if you wait long enough, some other prince will come into your garden, and then you can ask him to play with you.”.
On the same day that her brother leaves, a wymp appears on her wall. The Princess Gentianella asked the wymp what is on the other side of her wall. He teases the Princess telling her about the world on the other side. The wymp helps Princess Gentianella up onto the wall so she can see for herself.
To her surprise, the Princess finds another garden on the other side of her wall. As she looks at this garden she discovers that there is also a Prince. His name was Prince Amaryllis and he belongs to the Kingdom that lay on the other side of Princess Gentianella's wall. Prince Amaryllis is glad to see someone but he doesn't know how it is possible. The Prince's Kingdom is invisible to the eyes of other countries. His Kingdom had become invisible when the Prince's great-grandfather forgot to ask the Witch to dance with him. This gesture had offended the Witch and she experimented with the country turning it invisible. The reason why Prince Amaryllis was working in the garden was because he was trying to disenchant his kingdom. A King's son must spend a full year in this garden and try to make the flowers grow. If he fails he is sentenced to death.
The Prince comes over the wall into the Princess's garden in hope of her showing him how to grow a beautiful garden. They spend their days walking around and talking about many things. Even after the day was over and the Prince would go back over the wall, they would remember more things that they forgot to talk about. The days passed and they would always play in the Princess's garden since it was a nicer garden than the Prince's.
One afternoon Princess Gentianella goes to meet her Prince Amaryllis. As she approaches him he looks sad. The year had come to an end and he had failed to grow any flowers in his garden. He is glad to be executed, which surprises Princess Gentianella. Prince Amaryllis explains to Princess Gentianella that if he had somehow made the flowers grow that he would have to marry the Witch's daughter, Anemone. Princess Gentianella is not pleased with this news. He had been somebody else's prince the whole time that they had been playing together. The Prince tries to reason with her, saying that he had no choice but to agree with the terms. It was the only way to disenchant his kingdom. Princess Gentianella is not impressed and leaves her Prince at the wall. Her parents notice that she was upset and prompts her to tell them what was the matter. Princess Gentianella's mother tries to comfort her by saying,“you will soon find another prince in your garden. 'But not that Prince', wept the poor little Princess.".