Oscar Wilde

De Profundis

a letter written by Oscar Wilde during his imprisonment in Reading Gaol, to "Bosie" (Lord Alfred Douglas)

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Produktbeschreibung

De Profundis is a letter written by Oscar Wilde during his imprisonment in Reading Gaol, to "Bosie" (Lord Alfred Douglas).In its first half Wilde recounts their previous relationship and extravagant lifestyle which eventually led to Wilde's conviction and imprisonment for gross indecency. He indicts both Lord Alfred's vanity and his own weakness in acceding to those wishes. In the second half, Wilde charts his spiritual development in prison and identification with Jesus Christ, whom he characterises as a romantic, individualist artist. The letter began "Dear Bosie" and ended "Your Affectionate Friend".Wilde wrote the letter between January and March 1897, close to the end of his imprisonment. Contact had lapsed between Douglas and Wilde and the latter had suffered from his close supervision, physical labour, and emotional isolation. Nelson, the new prison governor, thought that writing might be more cathartic than prison labour. He was not allowed to send the long letter which he was allowed to write "for medicinal purposes" each page was taken away when completed, and only at the end could he read it over and make revisions. Nelson gave the long letter to him on his release on 18 May 1897.Wilde entrusted the manuscript to the journalist Robert Ross (another former lover, loyal friend, and rival to "Bosie"). Ross published the letter in 1905, five years after Wilde's death, giving it the title "De Profundis" from Psalm 130. It was an incomplete version, excised of its autobiographical elements and references to the Queensberry family various editions gave more text until in 1962 the complete and correct version appeared in a volume of Wilde's letters.In 1891 Wilde began an intimate friendship with Lord Alfred Douglas, a young, vain aristocrat. As the two grew closer, family and friends on both sides urged Wilde and Douglas to lessen their contact. Lord Alfred's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, often feuded with his son over the topic. Especially after the suicide death of his eldest son, the Viscount Drumlanrig, Queensberry privately accused them of improper acts and threatened to cut off Lord Alfred's allowance. When they refused, he began publicly harassing Wilde. In early 1895 Wilde had reached the height of his fame and success with his plays An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest on stage in London. When Wilde returned from holidays after the premieres, he found Queensberry's card at his club with the inscription: "For Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite ".Unable to bear further insults and encouraged by Lord Alfred (who wanted to attack his father in every possible way), Wilde sued Queensberry for criminal libel. Wilde withdrew his claim as the defence began, but the Judge deemed that Queensberry's accusation was justified. The Crown promptly issued a warrant for his arrest and he was charged with gross indecency with other men under the Labouchere Amendment in April 1895.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Les prairies numériques
• Seitenzahl: 34
• Erscheinungstermin: 28. Oktober 2020
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 210mm x 148mm x 2mm
• Gewicht: 59g
• ISBN-13: 9782382748145
• ISBN-10: 2382748141
• Artikelnr.: 60794461

Autorenporträt

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde, also known as Oscar Wilde, was an Irish poet and playwright who lived from 16 October 1854 to 30 November 1900. He wrote in a variety of genres throughout the 1880s before becoming one of London's most well-known playwrights in the early 1890s. The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays and epigrams, as well as the circumstances surrounding his meningitis-related early death at age 46 and criminal conviction for gross indecency for consensual homosexual activities in "one of the earliest celebrity trials," is what people will remember him for most. Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin, Wilde's parents were. French and German were picked up by young Wilde with ease. While in college, Wilde read the Greats and distinguished himself as an outstanding student of classical literature, first at Trinity College Dublin and then at Oxford. He became involved with the aestheticism movement, which was being spearheaded by two of his professors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. Wilde moved to London after finishing college and became a part of rich social and cultural circles. Queensberry intended to publicly humiliate Wilde by tossing a bouquet of decaying vegetables onto the stage, but Wilde was informed and had Queensberry turned away from the theater.