The Ballad of Reading Gaol cover art

The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Ballad of Reading Gaol

By: Oscar Wilde
Narrated by: Mike Vendetti
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £5.99

Buy Now for £5.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two years in prison, part of which he spent in Reading Gaol. About five months after Wilde arrived at Reading Gaol, Charles Thomas Wooldridge, a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards, was brought to Reading to await his trial for murdering his common-law wife (and promptly presenting himself and confessing to a policeman) on 29 March 1896; on 17 June, Wooldridge was sentenced to death and returned to Reading for his execution, which took place on Tuesday, 7 July 1896 - the first hanging at Reading in 18 years. The poem is dedicated to him as C. T. W.

Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard.
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word.
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!

Public Domain (P)2019 Mike Vendetti
Classics European Poetry
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

De Profundis cover art
The Age of American Unreason cover art
Ode to a Nightingale cover art
Classic Radio Theatre: The Importance of Being Earnest (Dramatised) cover art
A Woman of No Importance cover art
The Ultimate Gothic Horror Collection: Novels and Stories from Edgar Allan Poe; Bram Stoker, Henry James, Mary Shelley, Oscar Wilde; and More cover art
Niels Lyhne cover art
The Mirror of My Heart cover art
Sartor Resartus cover art
The Eve of St. Agnes cover art
Lamia cover art
Two Horror Classics: Frankenstein and Dracula cover art
Henry Miller on Writing cover art
Ecce Homo cover art
Self-Reliance cover art
On Heroes, Hero Worship, and the Heroic in History cover art

What listeners say about The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.