His three volumes of short fiction, The Happy Prince, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and A House of Pomegranates, together with his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, won him a reputation as a writer with an original talent, a reputation enhanced by the phenomenal success of his society comedies - Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest.Ĭolm Tóibín is the author of five novels, including The Blackwater Lightship and The Master, and a collection of stories, Mothers and Sons.

This edition also includes notes on the text and suggested further reading. Colm Tóibín's introduction explores Wilde's duality in love, politics and literature. This Penguin edition is based on the definitive Complete Letters, edited by Wilde's grandson Merlin Holland. This edition also includes further letters to his wife, his friends, the Home Secretary, newspaper editors and his lover Lord Alfred Douglas - Bosie - himself, as well as 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol', the heart-rending poem about a man sentenced to hang for the murder of the woman he loved.

'De Profundis' is an epistolic account of Oscar Wilde's spiritual journey while in prison, and describes his new, shocking conviction that 'the supreme vice is shallowness'. But by May of the same year, Wilde was in Reading prison sentenced to hard labour. De Profundis and Other Prison Writings is a new selection of Oscar Wilde's prison letters and poetry in Penguin Classics, edited and introduced by Colm Tóibín.Īt the start of 1895, Oscar Wilde was the toast of London, widely feted for his most recent stage success, An Ideal Husband. Nelson gave the long letter to him on his release on. He was not allowed to send the long letter which he was allowed to write 'for medicinal purposes' each page was taken away when completed, and only at the end could he read it over and make revisions. Nelson, the new prison governor, thought that writing might be more cathartic than prison labour.

Contact had lapsed between Douglas and Wilde and the latter had suffered from his close supervision, physical labour, and emotional isolation. Wilde wrote the letter between January and March 1897, close to the end of his imprisonment. The letter begins 'Dear Bosie' and ends 'Your Affectionate Friend'. In the second half, Wilde charts his spiritual development in prison and identification with Jesus Christ, whom he characterises as a romantic, individualist artist. He indicts both Lord Alfred's vanity and his own weakness in acceding to those wishes. In its first half, Wilde recounts their previous relationship and extravagant lifestyle which eventually led to Wilde's conviction and imprisonment for gross indecency. Written towards the end of Wilde’s incarceration, De Profundis is bitter, seductive, hurt and passionate.ĭe Profundis (Latin: 'from the depths') is a letter written by Oscar Wilde during his imprisonment in Reading Gaol, to 'Bosie' (Lord Alfred Douglas).

De profundis oscar