Book cover for de Profundis

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Written from Wilde's prison cell at Reading Gaol to his friend and lover Lord Alfred Douglas, De Profundis 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, De Profundis is a classic of gay literature. Richard Ellmann calls De Profundis "a love letter...One of the greatest, and the longest, ever written."


This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition contains newly commissioned notes.
  • ISBN10 1406502391
  • ISBN13 9781406502398
  • Publish Date 16 November 2005 (first published 2 December 1905)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country GB
  • Imprint Dodo Press
  • Format Paperback (US Trade)
  • Pages 48
  • Language English