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Title details for Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde - Available

Ballad of Reading Gaol

by Oscar Wilde
ebook
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Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading Gaol (pronounced "jail") in 1895 after losing a criminal suit instigated against him by the Marquess of Queensberry (of boxing rules fame) for moral offenses against the marquess's son. The two-year imprisonment left the incredibly gifted and witty Wilde a broken man, bankrupt and ill. He left England for France where he remained until his death in 1900 at the age of 46. It was there that he wrote perhaps his most famous work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol. The poem, written as a memorial to C.T.W., who died in prison while Wilde was there, tells the emotions of an imprisoned man towards a fellow inmate who is to be hanged. This ballad has brought to the language the words: "For each man kills the thing he loves..." and reveals the insights of a man once the toast of England and America for his writing and witticisms brought through a crucible of humiliation and degradation. It is a beautiful poem; its cadences and imagery mesmerizing, its story a tragedy of the human condition, but also of the truths we must live by. Its message, even so, is one of hope and reconciliation.
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Publisher: Fictionwise, Inc.

Kindle Book

  • Release date: August 5, 2004

OverDrive Read

  • Release date: August 5, 2004

PDF ebook

  • File size: 833 KB
  • Release date: August 5, 2004

Formats

Kindle Book
OverDrive Read
PDF ebook
Kindle restrictions

subjects

Classic Literature Fiction

Languages

English

Levels

Text Difficulty:6-12

Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading Gaol (pronounced "jail") in 1895 after losing a criminal suit instigated against him by the Marquess of Queensberry (of boxing rules fame) for moral offenses against the marquess's son. The two-year imprisonment left the incredibly gifted and witty Wilde a broken man, bankrupt and ill. He left England for France where he remained until his death in 1900 at the age of 46. It was there that he wrote perhaps his most famous work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol. The poem, written as a memorial to C.T.W., who died in prison while Wilde was there, tells the emotions of an imprisoned man towards a fellow inmate who is to be hanged. This ballad has brought to the language the words: "For each man kills the thing he loves..." and reveals the insights of a man once the toast of England and America for his writing and witticisms brought through a crucible of humiliation and degradation. It is a beautiful poem; its cadences and imagery mesmerizing, its story a tragedy of the human condition, but also of the truths we must live by. Its message, even so, is one of hope and reconciliation.
Expand title description text
Classic Literature Fiction