De Profundis' is a 50,000-word letter composed by Oscar Wilde during his detainment in Reading Gaol, to Lord Alfred Douglas, his sweetheart. Wilde composed the letter between January and March in the year 1897; he was not permitted to send it yet took it with him upon discharge. In it he renounces Lord Alfred for what Wilde, at last, sees as his haughtiness and vanity; he had not forgotten Douglas' comment, when he was sick, "When you are not on your pedestal you are not interesting." He felt reclamation and satisfaction in his difficult times, understanding that his difficulty had filled the spirit with the product of involvement, but unpleasant it tasted at that point.