Oscar Wilde was ill, "When you are not on your pedestal you are not interesting." Wilde blamed himself, though, for the ethical degradation of character that he allowed Douglas to bring about in him and took responsibility for his own fall, "I am here for having tried to put your father in prison." The first half concludes with Wilde forgiving Douglas, for his own sake as much as Douglas's. The second half of the letter traces Wilde's spiritual journey of redemption and fulfilment through his prison reading. He realised that his ordeal had filled his soul with the fruit of experience, however
Oscar Wilde a stringed lute on which all winds can play "Punch" was less enthusiastic, "The poet is Wilde, but his poetry's tame" was their verdict. Aestheticism was sufficiently in vogue to be caricatured by Gilbert and Sullivan in "Patience" (1881). Richard D'Oyly Carte, an English impresario, invited Wilde to make a lecture tour of North America, simultaneously priming the pump for the US tour of "Patience" and selling this most charming aesthete to the American public. Wilde journeyed on the SS "Arizona", arriving 2 January 1882, and disembarking the following day. Originally planned to last four months, it continued for almost