FREEThe Ballad of Reading Gaol
"The Ballad of Reading Gaol" by Oscar Wilde is a poem written in 1897, after his release from prison following a conviction for gross indecency. The poem narrates the execution of Charles Thomas Wooldridge, a fellow prisoner who murdered his wife, weaving together objective storytelling with symbolic identification among all convicts. Wilde explores themes of punishment, brutalization, and shared humanity through the haunting refrain "Yet each man kills the thing he loves." Initially published anonymously under his cell number "C.3.3.," the poem became an unexpected success. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Automated conservative edition review 2026-10-20T08:12:16.490Z (historical-original-en-v2), Philippines scope. English historical author Wilde, Oscar, died 1900; original-language author allowlist, matching sole EPUB/catalog creator, no credited contributors, no extra artwork, no flagged editorial/translation/copyright cues in isolated text. US public-domain source label and retained Gutenberg license; EPUB CRC passed. This is rule-based screening, not a worldwide rights opinion or a claim of manual review. Source: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/301; Philippine term reference https://www.ipophil.gov.ph/copyright/. EPUB SHA256 62cf2bfe33f1b5de8b173b53a4d9143318a631e7e3902737d99e5f7b2bcb00f0; RDF SHA256 e6e16905bb61769ce63f44f788747d2fdb53829c1d440ce1651bf250d85d4864.
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