De Profundis

Written from Reading Gaol, where Oscar Wilde was serving two years' hard labour after his catastrophic trials, De Profundis is a long letter to Lord Alfred Douglas, the beautiful, careless young man Wilde blames for his ruin and cannot stop addressing. It begins in reproach, itemizing the extravagance and cruelty of their years together, and then turns into something much stranger and greater: a meditation on suffering, humility, art, and Christ as the supreme romantic artist.

This is Wilde with the wit intact but the armour gone. The man who claimed to put his genius into his life rather than his work here examines what remains when the life is destroyed. Short enough to hear in a single sitting, it is one of the most piercing things he ever wrote, a public performer finally speaking, as the title says, out of the depths.

At roughly 19,300 words, De Profundis runs about 2 hours at 1x narration speed. That figure is an estimate based on a typical narration pace. The exact length depends on the voice and the playback speed you choose.

The edition linked here is available from Project Gutenberg under its US public-domain listing. Check the edition, translation, completeness and copyright rules where you live. LoudReader lets you browse and download Gutenberg books; they are not all stored on installation. To listen:

1. Install LoudReader on iPhone or iPad, or its iPad app on a compatible Apple Silicon Mac.
2. Search for “De Profundis” in the built-in catalog and add it to your library.
3. Press play. A natural offline voice reads the book while each word highlights on screen, and your place is saved between sessions.

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