The Ballad of Reading Gaol

By Oscar Wilde

Book Overview

"The Ballad of Reading Gaol" by Oscar Wilde is a powerful and enduring poem reflecting on imprisonment, penitence, and suffering. Inspired by Wilde's own experiences in Reading Gaol, the poem offers a stark social criticism of the Victorian prison system and the dehumanizing conditions endured by its inmates. Through vivid imagery and poignant reflection, Wilde explores themes of guilt, redemption, and the shared humanity of both the condemned and those who condemn. This historical text remains a relevant and moving exploration of the human condition, offering a timeless meditation on justice, compassion, and the psychological toll of incarceration. A significant work of European poetry and a compelling piece of true crime literature, "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" continues to resonate with its profound insights into the nature of suffering and the search for meaning within confinement.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1022916289
• ISBN13: 9781022916289
• Release Date: March 2025
• Publisher: Anson Street Press
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

One of poetry's great masterpieces

Essential for any lover of great poetry, and certainly for any fan of Oscar Wilde is his great poem, "The Ballad of Reading Gaol." Scarcely the only thing he wrote after his return from his notorious 2-year prison term, The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a moving and tragic account of one man's suffering. One could go on and on - writing hundreds of pages in essay form - about the indignities and injustices of prison life, but this goes toward saying it much better than any ivory tower intellectual argument ever could. Wilde, winner of the infamous Newdigate Prize For Poetry at Oxford University, had long been an immaculate poet - an a born writer - but he practically anandoned the form after his marriage and the start of his career as a playwright in the early 1890's (aside from that strange amalgram of a poem, The Sphinx.) And yet, this is almost exclusively the only thing Wilde wrote after his release before his untimely death in 1900. Thankfully, the great artist went out with a bang. The Ballad fuses some of the best and clearest writing I have ever read in the English language with a poetic sensibility and a true and tragic sense of real suffering, thereby creating one of the great poems of all-time.Many anthologies of Wilde's writings are available, and perhaps buying a book that simply includes this lone poem is questionable. I definitely suggest that you go for a Complete Works if you are new to the author; however, if you'd like a travel-worthy copy of certain smaller works - such as this poem - then editions such as this will serve you well. Besides, this edition has as well those beautiful paintings to go along with it - something I'm sure Oscar himself would've loved.

Key reading for Wilde enthusiast

As a student of Wilde's life and works, I find this is essential reading. Who needs Shakespeare to outline tradgey? Wilde was imprisoned after a second trial (the first was a no decision). He was confined in the horrid English jails for two years. "The wretched prisoner is then left a prey to the most weakening, depressing and humiliating malady.... punished with the greatest severity and brutality. Each and all these things I had to transform into a spirtual experience." The balladoutlines the horrors he and others endure who are prisoners of conscience. A terrible tragedy.