De Profundis, The Ballad of Reading Gaol & Others

With an Introduction and Notes by Anne Varty, Royal Holloway, University of London. ‘De Profundis’ is Wilde’s eloquent and bitter reproach from prison to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. He contrasts his behaviour with that of his close friend Robert Ross who became Wilde’s literary executor. ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ is a deeply moving and characteristically generous poem on the horrors of prison life, which was published anonymously in 1898. This collection also includes the essay ‘The Soul of Man under Socialism’ (which is strong critique of authoritarian socialism and a plead for libertarian socialism) and two of his ‘Platonic dialogues’, ‘The Decay of Lying’ and ‘The Critic as Artist’.