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    The Ballad of Reading Gaol
    The Ballad of Reading Gaol
    The Ballad of Reading Gaol
    Ebook34 pages20 minutes

    The Ballad of Reading Gaol

    By Oscar Wilde

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    About this ebook

    Originally published in 1898, “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” is a poem written by Oscar Wilde. Composed after his release from the titular prison whilst he was in exile in Berneval-le-Grand, the poem deals with the hanging at Reading Goal of Charles Thomas Wooldridge, a 30-year-old man who was imprisoned for cutting his wife's throat. Within the poem, Wilde narrates the execution in full and explores the brutal nature of the punishment that all inmates must endure. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854–1900) was an Irish poet and playwright who became one of the most popular in London during the 1880s and 1890s. Well-known for his sharp wit and extravagant attire, Wilde was a proponent of aestheticism and wrote in a variety of forms including poetry, fiction, and drama. He was famously imprisoned for homosexual acts from 1895 to 1897 and died at the age of 46, just three years after his release. Other notable works by this author include: “Picture of Dorian Gray” (1890), “Salome” (1891), and “The Importance of Being Earnest” (1895). Ragged Hand is proudly republishing this classic poem now complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRagged Hand
    Release dateSep 8, 2020
    ISBN9781528791274
    Author

    Oscar Wilde

    Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on the 16th October 1854 and died on the 30th November 1900. He was an Irish playwright, poet, and author of numerous short stories and one novel. Known for his biting wit, he became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era in London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. Several of his plays continue to be widely performed, especially The Importance of Being Earnest.

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    • 4/5
      This beautifully-written six-chapter poem movingly portrays the monstrous inhumanity of prison life, and the stark-white hypocrisy of capital punishment. It also reminded me of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner at several times, in the rhythm of its language (though the meter and rhyme scheme are different), as well as in the themes of guilt and imprisonment, the despair-induced visions of devils, and the metaphor of fate as a game of dice. First Oscar Wilde I've read, and I definitely want to read more.
    • 5/5
      It was really, really good though. Five stars good. I almost cried. I don't have a whole lot else to say about it. Apparently Reading was specifically designed to implement the separate system, so I expect Wilde probably experienced it.Bosie's testimony is what sent him to Reading in the first place, so... the obvious interpretation is a combination of that, and maybe whatever was wrong with their relationship in the other direction that led Bosie to do that. It's possible that being in Reading under those circumstances and witnessing an execution like the one described in the poem (which he did, the poem was inspired by an execution that happened while he was there), could have combined by resonating so strongly with each other to make him feel that he was seeing a great universal truth of some kind.
    • 4/5
      From personal experience, Oscar Wilde writes his final work. While imprisoned at Reading jail for his homosexual acts, he witnesses a man executed for killing his wife. Thus he writes
      Yet each man kills the thing he loves
      By each let this be heard.
      Some do it with a bitter look,
      Some with a flattering word.
      The coward does it with a kiss,
      The brave man with a sword!
      This poem is even sadder after reading about the circumstances in which it was written.
    • 5/5
      The pain of the author is almost too much to bear - even more so given who is suffering and why he is suffering. The injustice defies belief.

    Book preview

    The Ballad of Reading Gaol - Oscar Wilde

    1.png

    THE

    BALLAD OF

    READING GAOL

    By

    OSCAR WILDE

    First published in 1898

    Copyright © 2020 Ragged Hand

    This edition is published by Ragged Hand,

    an imprint of Read & Co. 

    This book is copyright and may not be

    reproduced or copied in any way without the

    express permission of the publisher in writing.

    British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

    A catalogue record for this book is available

    from the British Library.

    Read & Co. is part of Read Books Ltd.

    For more information visit

    www.readandcobooks.co.uk

    In Memoriam

    C. T. W.

    Sometime Trooper

    of the Royal Horse Guards.

    Obiit H. M. Prison, Reading, Berkshire,

    July 7th, 1896

    Contents

    Oscar Wilde

    I

    II

    III

    IV

    V

    VI

    Oscar Wilde

    Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. His parents were successful Dublin intellectuals, and Wilde became fluent in French and German early in life. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and subsequently won a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was heavily influenced by John Ruskin and Walter Pate. Wilde proved himself to be an outstanding classicist. After university, he moved to London and became involved with the fashionable cultural and social circles of the day. At the age of just

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