De Profundis by Wilde, Oscar - 1905

London: Methuen and Co., 1905. Wilde's last prose work, written while imprisoned in Reading Gaol and published five years after his death. This is a Very Good copy of the First Edition. Dark blue cloth binding; ruled and titled in gilt, with a decorative bird escaping a cage on the front cover. Clean text; ix, starting with page eleven continues to 151. With a forty-page publisher's catalogue in the rear; dated February 1905, indicating the first issue. The Preface is by Robert Ross (1869-1918), his fast friend, former lover, and literary executor. Ross quotes Wilde saying "...on the day of my release I shall be merely passing from one prison to another, and there are times when the whole world seems to me no larger than my cell...." Rubbed at the margins, showing a bit more wear at the head and foot of the spine; endpapers and ends of the pages are tanned. No dustwrapper; in an archival plastic protector.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.