de Profundis

1911. Wilde, Irish poet and dramatist whose reputation rests on his comic masterpieces Lady Wintermere's Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest. De Profundis was written from Wilde's prison cell at Reading Gaol to his friend and lover Lord Alfred Douglas. It explodes the conventions of the traditional love letter and offers a scathing indictment of Douglas's behavior, a mournful elegy for Wilde's own lost greatness, and an impassioned plea for reconciliation. At once a bracingly honest account of ruinous attachment and a profound meditation on human suffering. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.