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De Profundis (Latin: "from the depths") is a 50,000 word letter written by Oscar Wilde during his imprisonment in Reading Gaol, to Lord Alfred Douglas, his lover.
Wilde wrote the letter between January and March 1897; he was not allowed to send it, but took it with him upon release. In it he repudiates Lord Alfred for what Wilde finally sees as his arrogance and vanity; he had not forgotten Douglas's remark, when he was ill, "When you are not on your pedestal you are not interesting." He also felt redemption and fulfillment in his ordeal, realizing that his hardship had filled the soul with the fruit of experience, however bitter it tasted at the time.
A propos de l'auteur
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish poet, novelist, critic and playwright who rose to global fame in the 1880s as a larger-than-life public persona through his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and his enormously popular social comedies, An Ideal Husband, A Woman of No Importance, and Lady Windermere's Fan. After two sensational trials he was sentenced to two years of hard labor in prison for having relations with men, which ruined his reputation and career. Today Wilde is celebrated as a courageous crusader for free expression, queer love, and anyone oppressed by hypocritical conventions.
