Oscar Wilde – De Profundis and Other Prison Writings – Penguin Books

A new selection of the powerful and moving letters and poems Wilde wrote in prison, edited with an introduction by Colm Tóibín A definitive new collection of Oscar Wilde’s best prison letters and poetry, with an introduction by Colm Toibin Bankrupt and with his reputation in ruins, Oscar Wilde wrote the astonishing letter “De Profundis” to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, while in prison. Editor Colm Toibin, the acclaimed author of The Blackwater Lightship, The Master, and Brooklyn, describes it as Wilde’s “greatest piece of prose writing.” Also included is “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” Wilde’s most famous poem and one of the greatest ballads in the English language, as well as other letters Wilde wrote from prison that reveal the true effects of incarceration on the people he met. Based on the Penguin Classics edition of the Complete Letters, this collection features a new introduction, notes, and appendices. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classi