Nelson gave the long letter to him on his release on. He was not allowed to send the long letter which he was allowed to write "for medicinal purposes" each page was taken away when completed, and only at the end could he read it over and make revisions. Nelson, the new prison governor, thought that writing might be more cathartic than prison labour. Contact had lapsed between Douglas and Wilde and the latter had suffered from his close supervision, physical labour, and emotional isolation. Wilde wrote the letter between January and March 1897, close to the end of his imprisonment. The letter begins "Dear Bosie" and ends "Your Affectionate Friend". In the second half, Wilde charts his spiritual development in prison and identification with Jesus Christ, whom he characterises as a romantic, individualist artist. He indicts both Lord Alfred's vanity and his own weakness in acceding to those wishes. In its first half, Wilde recounts their previous relationship and extravagant lifestyle which eventually led to Wilde's conviction and imprisonment for gross indecency. Top row (l-r): Lord Alfred Douglas (Bosie) Oscar Wilde Robbie Ross Wilde and Bosie Cyril Holland Wilfred Scawen Blunt.īottom row (l-r): John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry Edward Clarke īosie Oscar Wilde Constance Wilde née Lloyd Frank Harris.De Profundis (Latin: "from the depths") is a letter written by Oscar Wilde during his imprisonment in Reading Gaol, to "Bosie" ( Lord Alfred Douglas). Three contemporary maps of Worthing are included, and fifty-six illustrations, more than half of them photographs of the town as it was in Wilde’s time. In the final chapter the author re-assesses the trials, offering fresh insights into Wilde’s attitude to the boys and young men with whom he had sexual relations.
Bosie and oscar wilde full#
Oscar Wilde's Scandalous Summer (first published in hardback in 2014, paperback edition 2015) tells for the first time the full story of the Worthing summer, set in the context of the three years of Wilde’s life before his downfall. One of these boys was Alphonse Conway, with whom Wilde became sexually involved, and about whom he was to be questioned at length and to damaging effect in court six months later when he sued Douglas’s father, the Marquess of Queensberry, for libel. Meanwhile Wilde was spending much of his time with the feckless and demanding Douglas, and with three teenage boys he took out sailing, swimming and fishing.
The two months in Worthing were a microcosm of Oscar Wilde’s turbulent life during the three years between his falling in love with Lord Alfred Douglas (Bosie) in 1892 and his imprisonment in 1895.Ĭonstance Wilde, lonely and depressed, poured out her heart in letters to her best friend Georgina Mount Temple – and became emotionally involved with her husband’s publisher, Arthur Humphreys, to whom she wrote a love-letter on the day he visited the Wildes in Worthing.
In the summer of 1894 Oscar Wilde spent eight weeks in Worthing, and it was during this family holiday that he wrote his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest. Oscar Wilde's Eight Remarkable Weeks in Worthing in 1894
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