De Profundis and Other Prison Writings : Penguin Classics

De Profundis and Other Prison Writings : Penguin Classics
ISBN: 9780140439908
Publication Date: 8 February 2013

'I feel caught in a terrible net. I don't know where to turn. I care less when I think that he is thinking of me. I think of nothing else'

'De Profundis' is an epistolic account of Oscar Wilde's spiritual journey while in prison, and describes his conversion from his previous belief in pleasure and decadence to his new, shocking conviction that 'the supreme vice is shallowness'. This book also includes further letters to his wife, his friends, the Home Secretary and newspaper editors, as well as many to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas - Bosie - himself. 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol', written after Wilde's two year's hard labour in Reading prison and originally published anonymously, is the heart-rending and eye-opening tale of a man who has been sentenced to hang for the murder of the woman he loved.

Colm Tóibín's introduction explores Wilde's family background and his success and reputation prior to his scandalous court case. He also examines Wilde's duality in love, politics and literature, and how his imprisonment affected the perception of his work. This edition also includes notes on the text and suggested further reading.

Edited with an introduction by Colm Tóibín

About the Author

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854 and was educated in Dublin and Oxford. 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 modern writer with an original talent, a reputation confirmed and 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. Success, however, was short-lived....