“The Importance of Being Earnest” is subtitled: “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.” Wilde, despite a certain loucheness among his epigrams, was never trivial...
I'm half tempted to pick up his letters to friends, but the stamina is not there; and while I've enjoyed Cicero, presently I have reached the saturation point. Let me keep them on the shelf for another day.
The letters to Atticus break off about a year before his death, so in a way I felt cheated or at least let down. Mention of his delivery of... no no no his writing of his second speech against Anthony occurs in one letter (it was not spoken); but the whole movement of that final year is missed. Presumably he had Atticus's company during that time, so had no need to write. In that I am happy for him. Presumably letters to friends would fill in the gaps; but without the intimacy he showed Atticus. The two volume set (in the Penguin edition I linked to in the preceding paragraph) contains a healthy section of letters to his brother (I believe), but relations had cooled somewhat between them and they may as well have had proximity during that time. At any rate, Cicero was not without "wile" in dealing with family members—certainly less so with Atticus.
Oscar Wilde and Cicero, eh? A random coupling. These are just stray thoughts—though Wilde is known for his letter writing also. The absolutely unique feature about Cicero's letters to Atticus is they were written entirely without an eye toward posterity (though Cicero was much concerned with the opinion it would have for him). Wilde, even in De Profundis, was aware. But then, he was a popular writer from the get go. Taken into account his journalism, he had his shallow moments too, or trivial, but then again, who does not?