Books

8vo. pp. 57, [9]. numerous woodcuts (some full-page) by Frans Masereel. tipped-in bibliographical note. contemporary half morocco, top edge gilt (some light wear, small chip in outer edge of frontis., ownership entry on front blank & 2 bookplates). Limited to 50 numbered copies.

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.