De Profundis

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De Profundis is a letter written by Oscar Wilde during his imprisonment. In the letter Wilde considers events leading to his conviction and discusses his spiritual development in prison and identification with Jesus Christ, whom he characterises as a romantic, individualist artist. Oscar Wilde, one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. At university he proved himself to be an outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. He became known for his involvement in the rising philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States of America and Canada on the new English Renaissance in Art, and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversation, Wilde had become one of the most well-known personalities of his day. Oscar Wilde, De Profundis, memoir, biography, art, aesthetics, philosophy, criticism, artistic values, artists, aestheticism, romantics, romance, English literature, romanticism