De Profundis by Oscar Wilde

Backlisted

Backlisted Podcast

Arts, Books, Leisure, Hobbies

4.7 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2026

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Back in 2022, our guest was Stephen Fry, writer, actor and polymath, who joined John and Andy to discuss Oscar Wilde's De Profundis, the essay addressed to Lord Alfred Douglas in 1897 'from the depths' of Wilde's incarceration in Reading Gaol. It has been described by Colm Tóibín as 'one of the greatest love letters ever written'; it is also Wilde's most powerful testament of the sacred duty of the artist as he conceived it. We discuss the work's convoluted publication history, Wilde's posthumous reputation and his ongoing relevance in the 21st century.This feels like a good time to promote the brilliant series John has written on all the living species on this incredible planet. It is narrated by Stephen Fry and is available for free to Audible subscribers - just search 'Wonderful Life with Stephen Fry'. * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and get extra bonus fortnightly episodes + original writing, become a patron at www.patreon.com/backlisted *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:43.4	Hello, it's Andy.
0:44.3	Hi, it's Nicky.
0:45.5	Welcome to Batlisted, one of our rerun episodes from our archive.
0:50.4	This time, it's Day Profundice by Oscar Wild with our guest, Stephen Fry.
0:57.3	Is he Sir Stephen Fry? Yeah, he is Sir Stephen Fry. I'm not sure whether he was
1:01.9	to Stephen Fry when we recorded this. No. It was just Steve. Yeah, that's right. I remember.
1:09.8	This is one of my favourite episodes from our Batlist, because it's about one of my favorite books, not just from our Batlist, but from my reading of the last however many years.
1:22.6	And it was one of those occasions, Nikki, where it felt like a privilege to have the opportunity
1:29.4	to discuss one of my favourite pieces of writing with somebody so expert and invested in the
	...

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