Books

First Masereel edition, number XLVIII of 70 copies on handmade paper from "edition A", signed by the artist on all seven plates and on the limitation page in pencil, as issued. "The typographical design of the book is exquisite... Of all illustrated editions of the Ballad, the Masereel edition seems to me to have the highest artistic importance" (Horodisch, p. 16). The Belgian artist Frans Masereel (1889-1972) invented the "wordless novel", a form of storytelling that uses raw and graphic woodcuts in lieu of text. Drawing from German expressionism and socialist ideals to explore feelings of angst and anger towards social injustice, his evocative style complements Wilde's post-prison poem, here handsomely printed in gothic type. Following Masereel's first wordless novel, 25 images de la passion d'un homme (1918), the form flourished in Germany through to the 1930s. Masereel was a key source for Lynd Ward, who brought the genre to America. There was also an "edition B" of 250 numbered copies signed on the limitation page only and printed on German paper. An additional 20 copies were not for sale. It is the 11th instalment in the publisher's Obelisk Print series, which published newly illustrated editions of classic works in a fine format. Masereel's edition was later issued in London by Methuen in 1925. Wilde's poem first appeared, unillustrated, in 1898. Quarto. Original vellum by Hübel & Denck of Leipzig, spine lettered in gilt compartments and covers ruled in gilt, decorative endpapers, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. With 7 woodcut plates and 30 woodcuts in the text by Frans Masereel. Wilde's poem printed in English in black letter. Nick to spine head, light natural discolouration to vellum, text clean. A near-fine copy. Masereel 233 (exhibition catalogue of 1984); Roddenberg, p. 448. Abraham Horodisch, Folium; Librorum Vitae Deditum, vols 3-4, 1953.

The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a poem by Oscar Wilde, written in exile in Berneval-le-Grand, after his release from Reading Gaol (/rɛdɪŋ dʒeɪl/) on 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, he witnessed the events leading up to the hanging of Charles Thomas Wooldridge, a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards, for the murder of his wife; these events inspired the poem.