De Profundis

De Profundis' is a 50,000-word letter composed by Oscar Wilde during his detainment in Reading Gaol, to Lord Alfred Douglas, his sweetheart. Wilde composed the letter between January and March in the year 1897; he was not permitted to send it yet took it with him upon discharge. In it he renounces Lord Alfred for what Wilde, at last, sees as his haughtiness and vanity; he had not forgotten Douglas' comment, when he was sick, "When you are not on your pedestal you are not interesting." He fe...