The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays

by Oscar Wilde

Book Overview

Oscar Wilde was already one of the best-known literary figures in Britain when he was persuaded to turn his extraordinary talents to the theatre. Between 1891 and 1895 he produced a sequence of distinctive plays which spearheaded the dramatic renaissance of the 1890s and retain their power today. This collection offers newly edited texts of Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, Salome, An Ideal Husband, and, arguably the greatest farcical...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0199535973
• ISBN13: 9780199535972
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

The wittiest play ever written in the English language

"The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People" is one of the first plays written in English since the works of Shakespeare that celebrates the language itself. Oscar Wilde's comedy has one advantage over the classic comedies of the Bard in that "The Importance of Being Earnest" is as funny today as it was when it was first performed at the St. Jame's Theater in London on February 14, 1895. After all, enjoying Shakespeare requires checking the bottom for footnotes explaining the meaning of those dozens of words that Shakespeare makes up in any one of his plays. But Wilde's brilliant wit, his humor and social satire, remain intact even though he was a writer of the Victorian era. Wilde believed in art for art's own sake, which explains why he emphasized beauty while his contemporaries were dealing with the problems of industrial England. "The Importance of Being Earnest" is set among the upper class, making fun of their excesses and absurdities while imbuing them with witty banter providing a constant stream of epigrams. The play's situation is simple in its unraveling complexity. Algernon Moncrieff is an upper-class English bachelor who is visited by his friend Jack Worthing, who is known as "Ernest." Jack has come to town to propose to Gwendolen Fairfax, the daugher of the imposing Lady Bracknell and Algy's first cousin. Jack has a ward named Cecily who lives in the country while Algernon has an imaginary friend named "Bunbury" whom he uses as an excuse to get out of social engagements. Jack proposes to Gwendolen but has two problems. First, Gwendolen is wiling to agree because his name is Ernest, a name that "seems to inspire absolute confidence," but which, of course, is not his true Christian name. Second, Lady Bracknell objects to Jack as a suitor when she learns he was abandoned by his parents and found in a handbag in Victoria Station by Mr. Thomas Cardew. Meanwhile, Algernon heads off to the country to check out Cecily, to whom he introduces himself as being her guardian Jack's brother Ernest. This meets with Ceclily's approval because in her diary she has been writing about her engagement to a man named Ernest. Then things get really interesting.Wilde proves once and for all time that the pun can indeed be elevated to a high art form. Throughout the entire play we have the double meaning of the word "earnest," almost to the level of a conceit, since many of the play's twists and turns deal with the efforts of Jack and Algernon to be "Ernest," by lying, only to discover that circumstances makes honest men of them in the end (and of the women for that matter as well). There is every reason to believe that Wilde was making a point about earnestness being a key ideal of Victorian culture and one worthy of being thoroughly and completely mocked. Granted, some of the puns are really bad, and the discussion of "Bunburying" is so bad it is stands alone in that regard, but there is a sense in which the bad

The importance of reading these plays!

While Oscar Wilde is not Shakespeare unarguably the best playwright, he is incredibly good and all three plays show it. Salome is a short 'biblical' play, Lady Windermere's Fan is a bit longer and with the exception of the naivete suffered by the Lady of the title incredibly well written as well. However, The Importance of Being Earnest is by far the best play in this collection. Two men whom are trying to get away with pulling a fast one on their girlfriends and two women who think they know whats going on. Throw in a misplaced bag with a baby inside, an overbearing British matriarch, and a Governess with a past and you have a laugh out loud comedy. Who knew the British could be so funny...when written about anyway.

Hip-hip-hooray

Perhaps it is my unique sense of humor, but I found this book incredibly funny. I wasn't rolling on the floor or anything, but it is funny in an Oscar Wilde way. My personal favorite is The Importance of Being Earnest, although all the others are very good also. Get this book. There are great quotes and good characters.

The Importance of Being Ernest, the Funniest Book Around

Oscar Wilde's terrific comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest, jokes on serious human themes, such as love, religion, and truthfulness. This play uses comedy to joke about real life situations; that realistically would be wrong. In the end, a comedy's main purpose is to take a real life concept that ordinarily can not be made fun of, and make it fiction. The reader will be delighted by the comedy's similarity to today's T.V. sitcoms, which, like The Importance of Being Ernest, make fun of serious, real life problems. Nick at Night's new motto is "100% sitcoms, 100% unreality T.V." So is The Importance of Being Ernest.The Importance of Being Ernest shows how reality can be made fun of in context of a comedy. Watch as Algernon and Jack create fictional brothers, so they can enjoy the best out of both worlds, and how the woman they fall in love with view their lies. The two woman's ideas on love will astonish the reader. Jack and Algernon mock religion when they use it as a way to impress women. The best part of this book occurs in the end, when Jack finds out who he really is, and how marriage is used as bribery. Even with all the lies and deceptions, the characters never take a thing seriously, and as a result the end of the book has a happy tone. In the end, I strongly recommend this book to anyone with a sense of humor, which is basically everybody. It is well written, and there are small parts within the language itself that will make you laugh. It is only 54 pages, so if you're having a rough day, and need a good laugh, pick up a copy of The Importance of Being Ernest, and laugh your head off.

The Importance of This Play

One of Oscar Wilde's most famous works, this play is a must read for anyone that is even remotely interested in English theater at any level."Comedy of Manners," Wilde's play is on the very shallow surface, a funny play that is full of some of his greatest epigrams.At a deeper level, this play is full of political commentary, social satire and a look at the upper class British of a hundred years ago.Using his world renound style and wit, Wilde, wrote a play that brought to light the majors flaws of the idle rich and the hypocracy that lived right on the surface of their every day lives.Often immitated but never surpassed, Wilde had a way with words and an ability to get to the heart of matters while protecting himself; by making the people he was pointing his finger at, laugh at themselves.This play should be bought, even if one has seen one of the many film versions, or a live revival of the show. The jokes are piled so thickly on top of each other, that in real time, it is imposible to catch everything, or to digest all of the deeper meanings that this play attempts to expose.