De Profundis & The Soul of Man Under Socialism

De Profundis (Latin: from the depths) is a letter written by Oscar Wilde during his imprisonment in Reading Gaol, to Bosie (Lord Alfred Douglas).In its first half Wilde recounts their previous relationship and extravagant lifestyle which eventually led to Wildes conviction and imprisonment for gross indecency. He indicts both Lord Alfreds vanity and his own weakness in acceding to those wishes. In the second half, Wilde charts his spiritual development in prison and identification with Jesus Christ, whom he characterises as a romantic, individualist artist. The letter began Dear Bosie and ended Your Affectionate Friend.Wilde wrote the letter between January and March 1897, close to the end of his imprisonment. Contact had lapsed between Douglas and Wilde and the latter had suffered from his close supervision, physical labour, and emotional isolation. Nelson, the new prison governor, thought that writing might be more cathartic than prison labour. 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 gave the long letter to him on his release on 18 May 1897.The Soul of Man under Socialism is an 1891 essay by Oscar Wilde in which he expounds a libertarian socialist worldview and a critique of charity. The writing of The Soul of Man followed Wildes conversion to anarchist philosophy, following his reading of the works of Peter Kropotkin.In The Soul of Man Wilde argues that, under capitalism, the majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism-are forced, indeed, so to spoil them: instead of realising their true talents, they waste their time solving the social problems caused by capitalism, without taking their common cause away. Thus, caring people seriously and very sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see in poverty but their re