48. De Profundis and other writings

TITULO: De Profundis and other writings
AUTOR: Oscar Wilde

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Written for the most part while he was in prison, this book is a telling testimonial to the resurgence of the human spirit from intolerable torment. While the physical discipline of prison was harsh, the emotional and mental anguish and suffering were infinitely harder for him to bear. He wrote it to his friend, Alfred Douglas, with whom he had been accused of having a homosexual affair, and hence imprisoned for two years. The theme of this work is suffering: its beauty, its use (particularly in the life of the soul), its necessity, its purpose and its results, potentially and actually, in human life (his and later in this work, that of Jesus, who to him was the nearly perfect man -- not for religious reasons at all, but for very, very human ones). He speaks in this work of his life before he went to trial: he had taken the fruits of the trees of pleasure in the Garden of Life, but had assiduously avoid pain, suffering and sorrow. He said that these are the necessary teachers and purifiers of the soul, and only by this experience of imprisonment was he able to overcome his shallowness (which he calls the ultimate sin), and begin the true purification of himself as a spiritual being (though remaining an agnostic to the end). This is a profound work. The title, oddly enough, is a religious one.

DE PROFUNDIS is one of the great Christian hymns: Out of the depths I have cried unto Thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my prayer. It is a work of comfort, and while one could probably not bear to read in the depths of sorrow, yet one would remember, and be comforted. Perhaps its deepest insight, though never exactly annuciated in so many words, it that life has nothing lost in it. Even the most terrible experiences have their purpose in out lives, and if we live life with love, we will come out the better for it.