I see that it is my name that terrifies.’ After the seventh edition (1899) the publishers added his full name in brackets after C.3.3. He noted to the publisher that ‘it would be better to publish there without my name. Wilde had been incarcerated in Reading, after being convicted of homosexual offences in 1895 and sentenced to two years hard labour in prison. Smithers only risked printing 400 out of the projected 800 copies in January 1898, but due to demand, printed the remaining 400 early in February.Ĭ.3.3. 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. Smithers sent a final proof to him in Naples on 29 December, and the work was officially published on 13 February, by which time Wilde had returned to Paris. Upon his release Wilde had begun writing the poem in exile at the Châlet Bourgevat, Berneval, near Dieppe in the summer of 1897. Wilde had been incarcerated in Reading Jail after being convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years’ hard labour in prison. Bookplate of Vyvyan Holland -Second son of Oscar Wilde – (possibly in facsimile) to front pastedown. With the pirouettes of marionettes, They tripped on pointed tread: But with flutes of Fear they filled the ear, As their grisly masque they led, And loud they sang, and long they sang, For they sang to wake the dead. One of Eight Hundred Copies printed on handmade paper. Publisher’s white linen-backed cinnamon cloth by Matthew Bell & Co., some browning to endpapers and light soiling to covers, light wear to head & tail of spine internally a fine bright copy. was actually Wilde.The Ballad of Reading Gaol. It was not commonly known, until the 7th printing in June 1899, that C.3.3.

This ensured that Wilde's name – by then notorious – did not appear on the poem's front cover. 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 had a profound effect on Wilde, inspiring the line 'Yet each man kills the thing he loves.' He was convicted of cutting the throat of his wife, Laura Ellen, earlier that year at Clewer, near Windsor. 1866 – 7 July 1896) had been a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards. Wilde had been incarcerated in Reading, after being convicted of homosexual offences in 1895 and sentenced to two years' hard labour in prison.ĭuring his imprisonment, on Saturday 7 July 1896, a hanging took place. 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.

The ballad of reading gaol text