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The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde (Author) , Russell Jackson (Anthology Editor)
The Importance of Being Earnest cover

The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde (Author) , Russell Jackson (Anthology Editor)
Paperback ₹250.00 Ebook (PDF) ₹225.00 Ebook (Epub & Mobi) ₹225.00
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Description

'A Trivial Comedy for Serious People': its subtitle is the best summary of a play that is the theatrical equivalent of a butterfly. The verbal brilliance of its highly self-conscious characters hides deep anxieties about social and personal identity: Jack Worthing, found as a baby in a handbag at Victoria Station and named after a railway ticket, is prepared to be re-christened to obtain the Christian name - Earnest - his beloved Gwendolen requires in a husband; he then has to confront the stigma of being the illegitimate child of a servant, before fortune, and a benevolent dramatist, reveal his true and entirely respectable identity. This is the only one-volume edition of the play to include an appendix with earlier versions and additional scenes that allow an appreciation of Wilde's creative process.

Product details

Explore Methuen Drama
Published 17 Nov 2014
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 176
ISBN 9789384052577
Imprint Methuen Drama
Illustrations c 5 photographs/line drawings
Dimensions 198 x 129 mm
Series New Mermaids
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors
Author

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (b. Dublin, 1…

RJ
Anthology Editor

Russell Jackson

Russell Jackson is Emeritus Professor of Drama at…

Reviews

  • 'Oscar Wilde's Victorian comedy of manners can still seem thrillingly contemporary - the sharp repartee and delicious skeweing of hypocrisy and pomposity can still make you laugh out loud.'

    Siobhan Murphy, Metro (London), 10.7.09

  • 'The Importance of Being Earnest' is the most perfect high comedy in the English language.'

    Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 10.7.09

  • 'a revelation of inter-personal social engineering that keeps things firmly in the family in a gloriously superficial piece of serious fun.'

    Neil Cooper, Herald, 25.10.10

  • 'A treasure trove of delicious aphorisms and quotable epigrams'

    Robert Dawson Scott, The Times, 27.10.10

  • 'Wilde's 1895 masterpiece is a magnificent piece of theatre'

    Joyce McMillan, Scotsman, 29.10.10

  • 'a biting satire wrapped in a romantic comedy'

    Mark Brown, Sunday Herald, 31.10.10

Environment: Staging