Skip to content
statementVerified

De Profundis is written in Reading Gaol in 1897 as a long prison letter; the 1905 abridgement is later and is not this instrument

Oscar Wilde’s documented role is: He wrote the letter to Douglas in prison. In the causal graph this event weakens Judicial independence erosion (court capture), a driver that strengthens Rule of Law Gap from the Highest Governance Score — an improving welfare path.

Read the full account

Oscar Wilde’s documented role is: He wrote the letter to Douglas in prison. Warders and later Ross share transmission. He did not typeset 1905. Letter versus poem. Later editors, printers, and excavators remain named where they appear. Oscar Wilde's documented role is: He wrote the letter to Douglas in prison. He did not typeset 1905.

Context

Reading Gaol, last months before May release. Bosie is the addressee. Ross later prints an abridgement. Named others on the file: Lord Alfred Douglas as addressee; Robert Ross as later carrier; unnamed warders. The public setting is the file around 1897-03-01. Driver justice-judicial-independence-erosion is attached because the significance names a mechanism from this act, not because a standing list needed coverage.

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. Letter versus poem.

Why it matters

Welfare reading improving. The attached mechanism is A prison-written public letter against the gaol’s soul-harm is a justice path. Lag to any modern indicator is not treated as zero. This path is attached because the mechanism is named from this act, not because a driver list needed coverage. The welfare reading on this path is improving.

That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Oscar Wilde

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.44 · verified

    He wrote the letter to Douglas in prison. Warders and later Ross share transmission. He did not typeset 1905.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.Project Gutenberg — De Profundis (public-domain English)Project Gutenberg · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.Britannica — Oscar WildeEncyclopaedia Britannica · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

Gutenberg’s public text and Britannica independently treat De Profundis as a Reading Gaol letter later printed. Official: Project Gutenberg — De Profundis (public-domain English) (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/902 (opens in a new tab); Project Gutenberg). Independent: Britannica — Oscar Wilde (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oscar-Wilde (opens in a new tab); Encyclopaedia Britannica). The two URLs are different pages. Where the carrier is a later edition or a received narrative, that limit is stated rather than upgraded to an autograph. Official carrier: Project Gutenberg — De Profundis (public-domain English) (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/902 (opens in a new tab); Project Gutenberg). Independent carrier: Britannica — Oscar Wilde (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oscar-Wilde (opens in a new tab); Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Writing date 1897, not 1905 title page.

Naming Oscar Wilde does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 1897-03-01 to any measured indicator is not treated as zero. Alternative explanations — weather, other armies, later statutes, or independent cultural change — remain live where the sources do not close them.

If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, museums, and adaptations are not converted into extra lifetime acts.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorOscar Wilde
  2. contributed toFactDe Profundis is written in Reading Gaol in 1897 as a long prison letter; the 1905 abridgement is later and is not this instrument
  3. weakensDriverJudicial independence erosion (court capture)
  4. strengthensIndicatorRule of Law Gap from the Highest Governance Score

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). De Profundis is written in Reading Gaol in 1897 as a long prison letter; the 1905 abridgement is later and is not this instrument. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/wil-de-profundis-1897

https://factrail.ai/facts/wil-de-profundis-1897

Accessed 16 October 2026.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

Dispute this factNamed here, or represent someone who is? Request a right of reply.