The aim of the exhibit

The aim of the exhibit is to re-discover one of the greatest English literary writers: neglected by many as a thorny or shallow author, Oscar Wilde is also unknown to and misunderstood by those who use him as a mere champion of hedonism. Starting from his dramatic confession in De Profundis, the exhibit will explore Oscar Wilde’s dramatic relationship with the mystery of sorrow: from his initial attempt to escape from it by the creative power of art, through the dramatic experience of the incarceration at Reading, to the intuition that sorrow may have a beauty and a meaning.