De Profundis

Written in 1897 as a long letter from Reading Gaol to Lord Alfred Douglas, this work reviews the course of Wilde's relationship with Douglas, the libel action against the Marquess of Queensberry, and the two years of imprisonment that followed. Wilde analyses his own vanity and spending, Douglas's demands, and the collapse of his public life. The later pages turn from recrimination to a meditation on suffering, humility, and Christ as an artistic type of sorrow. The text is a prison letter and spiritual self-examination, not a legal brief or an apology to the public. It was printed in full only after both men were dead.

Bound in pale blue cover and spine title blocked textured paper. Frontispiece and 5 pages of photographs. Maroon endpapers printed with black handwritten text. Plain slipcase.