De Profundis

By Oscar Wilde

Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Literature & Fiction

Oscar Wilde wrote this long letter to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas in 1897, near the end of his two-year sentence of hard labor, served largely in Reading Gaol. In it he looks back on their relationship and blames Douglas's recklessness and his own weakness for his ruin. Wilde goes on to consider what suffering has taught him about humility, art and the figure of Christ. A shortened version appeared in 1905, after his death, and the full text was published in 1962.

Recommended by 1 person

• Ryan Holiday: “A related book recommendation that I sent to a friend who was in the middle of a similarly dark experience is Oscar Wilde's De Profundis (also written in prison).”