The author also began working on his final poem, describing the Victorian Reading Gaol in most unflattering terms. Texts requested by Wilde included a Bible in French (Wilde spoke French and German fluently), Dante’s Divine Comedy, ancient Greek tracts and books of essays. Haldane had arranged Wilde’s transfer and, once in Reading Gaol, arranged for his access to books and writing materials. In November he was moved to Reading Gaol, where he would be referred only by a code identifying his block, floor and cell – “C.3.3'. Wilde suffered greatly from the back-breaking labour he was forced to perform.

Hard labour, hard fare, hard bedsĪn image from the time of the newly built Reading Gaol, which opened in 1844 (Image: Universal Images Group via Getty) The latter task involved picking through old shipping ropes for flecks of the tarred fibre, to be used for the waterproofing of ships’ hulls, and was particularly hard on prisoners’ fingers and thumbs.

Wilde stayed and, in May of 1895, he was tried for his association with male prostitutes and homosexual brothels.Ī media frenzy and huge public interest surrounded the trial, as 41-year-old Wilde was by now a well known literary figure.įound guilty, he was sent first to Newgate Prison and then Wandsworth Prison, where he endured hard labour like pointlessly walking a treadmill and picking oakum. Wilde’s friends had advised him to ignore the insult, as they feared that his homosexuality would be exposed in court, leading to his arrest.Īfter the libel trial collapsed, Wilde was encouraged by friends to flee to France while his mother advised him to stay and fight. In February of 1895, Wilde brought a private prosecution for libel against the Marquess of Queensberry, who had publicly called him “a posing sodomite'. Not merely the work of a fruitful imagination, the poem is informed by Wilde’s own stretch at the facility during a two-year incarceration with hard labour – for “gross indecency'. READ MORE: The A-Z of Reading: One-legged generals, floods and Zinzans This 109-verse work tells the sorry tale of a prison inmate, including his observations of a fellow prisoner condemned to die and executed by hanging at the institution. He is also remembered for his poems, the last and best known of which is The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Oscar Wilde is best known for his novels and plays including A Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Importance of Being Earnest.

The ballad of reading jail