Audiobook · read by volunteers
Ballad of Reading Gaol
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
Read by John Gonzalez · 1 chapter · 33 min
About the book
A man is hanged at Reading Gaol, and the poet who hears of it cannot forget him. Oscar Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol was written after his own release from prison, where he had served two years of hard labour. It tells of the execution of a soldier who killed the woman he loved, and it reflects on guilt, mercy and the cruelty of the penal system. The poem is steady and haunting, written in the rhythm of a traditional ballad, and its refrain, that each man kills the thing he loves, is among the best-known lines in English verse. John Gonzalez reads the whole poem in about thirty-five minutes. Short, sombre and beautifully shaped, it is a poem to hear in one sitting.
Introduction
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish writer who achieved fame as a wit, playwright and novelist before his life was upended by a trial in 1895. Convicted of gross indecency, he served two years of hard labour, mostly at Reading, and after his release he left England and lived in France. The Ballad of Reading Gaol, published in February 1898, was the last major work he completed, and appeared under his cell number, C.3.3, instead of his name.
The poem was inspired by the execution at Reading of a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards who had murdered his wife. Wilde had not witnessed the hanging himself, but he knew of it and of the effect it had on the prisoners. The ballad is a plea for compassion and a protest against the harshness of the prison system, and it reached a wide audience, going through many printings in his lifetime.
The recording consists of a single section and lasts about thirty-five minutes. It is read by LibriVox volunteer John Gonzalez. The poem is divided into six parts, and the steady metre, with its repeated phrases, is especially effective when heard aloud. It is a powerful and sombre piece, a fitting introduction to the late Wilde, and a poem that continues to move readers who care about justice and mercy. The poem is a classic of English verse that is still widely read and studied.
Public domain
Oscar Wilde died in 1900: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text