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De Profundis

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De Profundis

By: Oscar Wilde
Narrated by: David McCallion
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About this listen

At its heart, De Profundis is a love letter and is better known as the De Profundis papers. Written in 1897, while Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading Gaol, De Profundis would become one of his best-known works. The papers include Wilde's account of living a lavish lifestyle and his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, both of which he credited for his eventual downfall and imprisonment. The second half of the papers is Wilde's account of prison life and his spiritual awakening.

In 1891, Oscar Wilde began an intimate relationship with the dashing but reckless Lord Alfred Douglas. Although both families disapproved of the relationship, Alfred's family was especially against it. When threats failed to yield the results he was looking for, Alfred's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, began to publicly attack Wilde, even as the author was reaching the peak of his career.

Ultimately, Oscar Wilde would make the mistake of bringing a lawsuit against the nobleman that would backfire with a charge of indecent acts, resulting in a prison sentence. De Profundis is an interesting firsthand account of the most tremulous years of Wilde's life.

Public Domain (P)2017 A.R.N. Publications Linguistics Social Sciences World Heartfelt
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David McCallion should have had a producer, or someone, to stop him every time he mispronounces a word, and tell him the correct pronunciation. To keep hearing words uttered strangely is very off-putting. For example, 'Reading Gaol' was spoken as if in the verb 'to read'! How can you be an Englishman and not know how to pronounce the name of Reading? And there were several other instances of mispronunciation. Also, the narrator has a really boring voice, which I can only assume is because he doesn't properly understand what he's reading. Still, the vulnerability and passion of the original shine through and I'm glad to have listened.

Terrible narrator for such a classic

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Not the first thing I have read of Mr Wilde but it should have been.

A Mr Fry rethinking

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