An edition of The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)

The Ballad of Reading Gaol

First Edition

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Cover of: The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde
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  • ★★★★ 4.00 ·
  • 2 Ratings
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  • 1 Currently reading
  • 4 Have read
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Last edited by ImportBot
July 17, 2023 | History
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An edition of The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)

The Ballad of Reading Gaol

First Edition

by

  • ★★★★ 4.00 ·
  • 2 Ratings
  • 25 Want to read
  • 1 Currently reading
  • 4 Have read

Of this edition eight hundred copies have been printed on hand-made paper, and thirty copies on Japanese vellum.

Publish Date
Publisher
Leonard Smithers
Language
English
Pages
31

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Previews available in: English

Subjects
Imprisonment, Poetry, Prisoners, Prisons, Death row inmates, English literature, English poetry, County Gaol & House of Correction (Reading, England), Ballad of Reading Gaol, Balladen, Engels, Poetry (poetic works by one author)
People
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Places
England, County Gaol & House of Correction (Reading, England)
Times
19th century

Showing 10 featured editions. View all 75 editions?

Edition Availability
Cover of: The Ballad of Reading Gaol
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
1916, Joseph Ishill
in English
Libraries near you: WorldCat
Cover of: The Ballad of Reading Gaol
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
1910, Duffield & Co.
in English
Libraries near you: WorldCat
Cover of: The Ballad of Reading Gaol
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
1909, Brentano's
in English
Cover of: The Ballad of Reading Gaol
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
1907, F. M. Buckles & Company
Hardcover in English
Libraries near you: WorldCat
Cover of: The Ballad of Reading Gaol
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
1904, Thomas B. Mosher
Hardcover in English - First Edition
Libraries near you: WorldCat
Cover of: The ballad of Reading Gaol
The ballad of Reading Gaol
1903, E.J. Clode
in English
Libraries near you: WorldCat
Cover of: The ballad of Reading Gaol
The ballad of Reading Gaol
1899, L. Smithers
in English
Libraries near you: WorldCat
Cover of: The Ballad of Reading Gaol
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
1899, Leonard Smithers
Hardcover in English - Pirated Edition
Libraries near you: WorldCat
Cover of: The Ballad of Reading Gaol
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
February 13, 1898, Leonard Smithers
Hardcover in English - First Edition
Libraries near you: WorldCat
Cover of: The Ballad of Reading Gaol
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
May 21, 1898, Leonard Smithers
Hardcover in English - Sixth Edition
Libraries near you: WorldCat

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Book Details

Published in

Royal Arcade, London W

Edition Notes

Leaves printed on rectos only.

Copyright Date
January 1898

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
821.8, 821.89, 821.914
Library of Congress
PR5818 .B2 1898
lccn_permalink
http://lccn.loc.gov/44046936

Contributors

From the Library of
Edward Hellman Heller and Elinor Raas Heller
Dedicated to
Charles Thomas Wooldridge
Owner
The Bancroft Library

The Physical Object

Format
Hardcover
Pagination
[10], 31 leaves, [4] p. (8º)
Number of pages
31
Dimensions
23 x x centimeters

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL22891140M
Internet Archive
readinggballadof00wildrich
LCCN
44046936
OCLC/WorldCat
464592503, 8632150, 57665888
amazon.co.uk_asin
B000WS60MM, B00164ORWQ, B000WS2B8O, B0017WXZCA
Canadian National Library Archive
6243755, 15278341
Amazon ID (ASIN)
B000WS60MM
Cornell University eCommons
1438750
British Library
000561786, 014757774
Harvard University Library
003578809

Work Description

The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a poem by Oscar Wilde, written in exile either in Berneval or in Dieppe, France, after his release from Reading Gaol on or about 19 May 1897. Wilde had been incarcerated in Reading, after being convicted of homosexual offences in 1895 and sentenced to two years' hard labour in prison.

During his imprisonment, on Saturday 7 July 1896, a hanging took place. Charles Thomas Wooldridge (ca. 1866 – 7 July 1896) had been a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards. He was convicted of cutting the throat of his wife, Laura Ellen, earlier that year at Clewer, near Windsor. He was only aged 30 when executed. This had a profound effect on Wilde, inspiring the line "Yet each man kills the thing he loves."

The finished poem was published by Leonard Smithers in 1898 under the name C.3.3., which stood for cell block C, landing 3, cell 3. This ensured that Wilde's name – by then notorious – did not appear on the poem's front cover. It was not commonly known, until the 7th printing in June 1899, that C.3.3. was actually Wilde.

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July 17, 2023 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
December 29, 2022 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
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