Cover of The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde Ebook The Ballad of Reading Gaol
Ebook · Sovereign

The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Author
Oscar Wilde
Series
Timeless Classics
Language
English
Length
56 pages
ISBN
9781911144892
Published
15 January 2016
Imprint
Sovereign
  • Oscar Wilde
  • De Profundis
  • memoir
  • biography
  • art
  • aesthetics
  • philosophy
  • criticism
  • artistic values
  • artists

Description

The Ballad of Reading Gaol was written in exile in France. The poem narrates the execution of Wooldridge; it moves from an objective story-telling to symbolic identification with the prisoners as a whole, highlighting the brutalisation of the punishment that all convicts share.

Author

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was born in Dublin, took a double first at Magdalen College, Oxford, and made conversation a form of literature. The Picture of Dorian Gray is the one novel — beauty, bargain, and a portrait that keeps the score. The Importance of Being Earnest is the comedy in which nothing is earnest except the jokes. Prison and exile followed the trials. Style was an ethic. Scandal became a second plot.